Posts Tagged ‘Dave Anderson’

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A Secret to Greater Success at Work is…

Sunday, February 27th, 2011

A successful marriage. That’s a secret to greater success at work. I’ve found that everyone from front line employees to business owners who are happier and more fulfilled at home, are more focused and productive at work. The joy, love, and respect they enjoy with their families strengthens their resolve to do well at work.  A happy marriage reduces their stress levels and anxiety while on the job. Today’s Wisdom Hunter’s Daily Devotional, which I’ve included below, speaks to the what is involved in building a successful marriage:

Successful Marriages 

“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”   Ephesians 5:31

Even successful marriages are fraught with mistakes. Marriage lessons are learned by trial and error or trial and terror, as some husbands and wives have experienced. Indeed, successful marriages don’t just happen by chance. They are not created like a clock, to be wound up and never given attention.

You become one flesh in marriage, but in reality it takes a lifetime of hard work, forgiveness, love, and respect to enjoy oneness. One flesh implies unity of purpose. It is an alignment around beliefs and behavior, and if this is void in marriage, you become vulnerable to misplaced expectations and perpetual misery. Marriage requires at least as much work as work.

Hard work is a necessity for successful marriages. This seems obvious, but we tend to drift toward being spousal sluggards when we become intoxicated by apathy. However, hard work is the fuel that keeps a marriage moving forward. We see the fruit of hard work in our career and raising children, as it produces satisfaction and significance. But these results come from many hours of planning, communicating, training, and teaching. Indeed, your marriage is a direct result of the amount of effort you have expended.

Don’t expect a harvest of marriage success if the seeds of forgiveness, love, and respect have not been planted in the soil of humility and trust. Furthermore, the weeds of busyness have to be intentionally pulled out, before they choke out your love and friendship with your spouse. Busyness is the enemy of the best marriages, so labor toward a marriage with much margin. Robust marriages take time and trust.

Forgiveness in marriage means you take the time to say, “I was wrong” and “I am sorry,” and it means you take responsibility to confess your anger and selfishness. Moreover, it is the ability to not hold a grudge. God-like forgiveness forgives even before the offense has been committed (Colossians 3:13). It accepts apologies and does not bring up past hurts as a club of resentment. Forgiveness is the cornerstone in the foundation of a successful marriage.

Above all else, successful marriages are made up of unconditional love and radical respect. No wife has ever complained of too much love, or a husband of an over-abundance of respect. Love is emotional, physical, and volitional. Husbands, you are to love sensitively, intimately, and willfully (Ephesians 5:25). Wives, respect your husband out of love and loyalty.

Make sure he knows you are with him and for him, no matter what. Respect is devoid of fear, so you trust your husband because he is accountable to God. Furthermore, marriage is your laboratory for Christianity because you learn to live for the Lord by learning to live for each other. You die to yourselves and come alive to each other. Marriage is your mirror of obedience to Jesus. Successful marriages reflect your oneness with your Savior. Be a marriage success as God defines success.
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Taken from the February 26th reading in Seeking Daily the Heart of God.

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New Book Previews & Article: “No Problem” is a Big Problem!

Thursday, January 27th, 2011

This month has flown by! Im traveling to Dallas tomorrow to speak at Goodyear’s annual convention at the Gaylord Texan–one of my favorite hotels. It will complete a twelve-speaking-day calendar in January, with a like schedule next month. Gotta love those frequent flyer miles!

Here are two quick updates on my upcoming books and a link to an article on customer service that you should read and apply immediately.

1. Amazon.com already has “How to Lead by THE BOOK” posted. It will be released June 21. Get a sneak preview here: http://budurl.com/hynn

2. Amazon.com also has the revised and expanded paperback version of “How to Run Your Business by THE BOOK” posted. It will also be released on June 21. Take a look: http://budurl.com/gzp6

3. My friend and Small Business Advocate Radio Show host Jiim Blasingame wrote an article called, “No Problem is a Big Problem!” It ties in very well with the Simply the Best Customer Service principles Ive been teaching in my new seminar. Read it and share it with your team. http://budurl.com/45dr 

Six of the nine expected cover-quote testimonials for How to Lead by THE BOOK are in. I should have the rest in a few days and I will share them with you next week!

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Day 151-155 How to Lead by THE BOOK: How to Fish for Men!

Saturday, December 11th, 2010

How to Lead by THE BOOK: Proverbs, Parables & Principles to Tackle Your Fourteen Toughest Business Challenges is finished! In fact, my outstanding team has completely proofed and formatted it so that it is ready to Fed-Ex to our publisher on Tuesday for Wednesday delivery. This will hit the deadline on the nose!

In my next post, I’ll include the Dedication and Acknowledgments that will appear in the book to recognize the special team of influencers and friends that helped me complete this work. For now, I want to share an excerpt from “Closing Thoughts.” These are the last pages of the book that include my final words to the readers:

Closing Thoughts

Billions of dollars are spent each year to research why people behave in the dark manner they do, and why the world is in so much trouble. It is not an oversimplification to answer that we have lost our will to submit to God and His ways. A Christian who does not submit to God is not much different than an atheist. While it can be argued that many atheists refuse to acknowledge the existence of God so they have an excuse to submit only to themselves and become their own god, what is a Christian’s explanation for disobedience? If you believe in God but do not obey Him, are you more useful to Him than one who does not believe at all? Evangelist Charles Spurgeon wisely observed: “Worldly people may be of some use even if they fail in certain respects, but a counterfeit Christian is no longer good for anything, utterly useless to anybody and everybody” (Carter 1998, 106).

As this book concludes, here are two fair questions to consider. In your daily walk at work, in your community, church and home, do you live your life in a way that makes you a fisher of men, or is your life as a Christian failing to turn heads? Do you understand exactly what that means to be a fisher of men? It is exciting indeed!

In Jesus’ day, fishing was much different than now. Fishermen, like Peter, Andrew, John and James, would fish at night by shining lights into the water to attract fish. Once the fish were drawn to the light, they would drop their nets on them and sweep them into their boats. Thus, Jesus’ command from Matthew 4:19, “Follow Me and I’ll make you fishers of men,” takes on new meaning.  Jesus wants us to act as a light in the world that draws others to Him, through our actions, attitude, character, and love.

When you first meet Jesus, you begin to reflect His light. But after you place Him at the center of your life, build an intimate relationship, and follow His commands, you emit direct light that draws others to you and to Christ. This is exactly what Jesus meant when He declared, “You are the salt of the earth” in Matthew 5:13. Salt creates a thirst. When you lead and live by THE BOOK at work in all areas of your life, you provoke a thirst in others that can only be quenched as they come to Christ’s living water (Gothard 2005).

Thus, it is important to aspire to this lifestyle as described by FB Meyer: “We ought to be Christians in large type, so that it would not be necessary for others to be long in our society, or to regard us through spectacles, in order to detect our true discipleship. The message of our lives should resemble the big advertisements which can be read on the street by all who pass by” (Richards 1990).

Aspire to be a “Christian in large type!” Remember what Jesus told us in Matthew 5:14: “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lamp stand and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Thank you for taking this journey through How to Lead by THE BOOK with me. I have no doubt that there were sections that challenged you, even perhaps that you disagreed with. The fact that you persisted despite potential differences demonstrates a Christ-like attitude that celebrates unity, and a willingness to focus on what we have in common rather than on what makes us different.

May God guide you as you continue your Christian journey to live and love like Jesus in all sectors of your life; to be light; to be salt; to subordinate your own wisdom, desires, and agenda; and submit to our all-powerful and flawless Lord.

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Day 144-146 How to Lead by THE BOOK: Your Three Biggest Threats!

Thursday, December 2nd, 2010

As the December 15th deadline looms for How to Lead by THE BOOK, I’m on track to finish right on time. I’ve got less than two full chapters to write, and my proofers and formatters are nearly caught up with what’ I’ve written thus far. The book will present a total of fifteen key organizational challenges, along with in-depth biblical remedies. Here is a preview of chapter 14:  What are the three biggest threats to my success?

Man’s Wisdom and Way

The business landscape is filled with mine fields: aggressive competition, government regulation, economic meltdowns and the like. These persistent threats are always circling like vultures, looking for an opportunity to devour your organization. To make matters worse, you remain vulnerable to the defection of big clients or top performers. And, in case that’s not enough, you’ll really discover what stress is all about the day the bank or your vendors  decides to withdraw your credit line! The combination of these forces and others like them is what should keep you on your toes and prevent you from ever becoming too comfortable. They loom as the biggest, most persistent threats to your success.

The BOOK’s Wisdom and Way

The threats triggered by adverse outside conditions mentioned above in “Man’s Wisdom and Way” are genuine. But the biggest threats to your organization do not come from the outside; they come from within. Often, they manifest from within the character of the leaders in charge of the organization. While the impact of adverse outside conditions is important and cannot be ignored, a leader can marginalize the effects of such factors by making the right “inside decisions” and character choices. On the other hand, poor character decisions by a leader can “train wreck” their organizations despite how robust and favorable outside conditions happen to be.

While there is a seemingly endless menu of possible poor character choices a leader can make that cause personal and organizational self-destruction, this chapter will focus on three of the “majors:” greed, sexual immorality, and following false teachers and their ungodly counsel.

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Day 138-140: How to Lead by THE BOOK: The Key to Making the Right Decisions!

Friday, November 26th, 2010

Yesterday, Thanksgiving, was a great time to combine spending time with my family, and making progress on the final three chapters of How to Lead by THE BOOK. We smoked a turkey for ten hours–and it turned out great! I also prepared my somewhat famous eggs benedict, served exclusively to special family members on holiday occasions. Many readers don’t realize that I have a bit of a cooking and baking background that began long before I got into sales. I worked in several restaurants right out of school, and can still whip up a mean batch of from-scratch cinnamon rolls! However, nothing compares to the homemade yeast rolls Rhonda makes! She uses her grandma’s recipe, lets the dough rise three times by the fireplace, and cranks out mouthwatering dinner rolls the size of hamburger buns! Thus, it was a great challenge to write last night as my bloated belly made it difficult to focus on work.

The title of chapter 13, which I made some progress on yesterday despite the culinary distractions is: How do I know God’s will as I make decisions in my business and life?

Of all the chapters, I believe this one has the potential to add the most value to readers, as there is so much confusion on this important topic. While I touched on this topic here a couple of months ago, I want to include an exact excerpt from the beginning of chapter 13 here:

Man’s Wisdom and Way

“If your intentions are good and you don’t violate God’s principles, He will bless your decisions because He wants you to prosper. Besides, what sort of testimony does a “failure” of a Christian have in the business world? Use the gifts and talents that God gives you for moral purposes and God will stay on your side. Make a decision, and if you don’t feel any inner conflict, God is with you. That’s a sign to move forward in faith. At that point, ask God to bless your decision and then move in that direction.”

The BOOK’s Wisdom and Way

Christians commonly take missteps as they mistake faith for presumption. You cannot make godly decisions, and nor will you know God’s will for anything until you give up control of your life to God. Most Christians make decisions about what they want to do and then ask God to bless those decisions. Instead, you must commit to what God wants for you, and then ask Him to reveal it. The commitment comes before the understanding because God doesn’t share His will for contemplation but for participation.

You’ll have a far easier time making godly decisions if you know what’s in God’s word. This is because His will for you won’t contradict His word.  God’s word acts as a filter for decision-making. The more you understand it the easier it is for you to know what to do, and what not to do in a given situation.

It’s about relationship

While speaking at a conference, a businessman asked me, “How do I hear God’s voice in my daily business walk?” I answered as follows:

The key to hearing God’s voice in anything is your relationship with Him. The closer your relationship to God, the easier it is to know what He wants and expects. Frankly, you cannot develop an intimate relationship with anyone unless you send time with them. God is no different. Sending up a flare prayer every once in a while when you need something is not going to build a relationship with God. You’ll remain little more than a casual acquaintance.

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Day 136-137: How to Lead by THE BOOK: When Drastic Action is Required!

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010

As I completed my chapter on how culture changes behaviors within organizations for How to Lead by THE BOOK, I included examples of when drastic action is required to change a culture. I also outlined the importance of leaders becoming students of behaviors rather than students of “the numbers”. Here are the excerpts to explain:

Drastic action is sometimes required

Occasionally, a culture has devolved to the point where the organization cannot, or shouldn’t, be saved. In other words, it has reached the point of no return where no leader; set of values, mission, standards, competencies or group of people can turn things around. In these cases, it’s better to fold up the tents, clean house, and start over with a new leader. Or, if you’re God, you send a flood.

One of the saddest passages in THE BOOK is found in Genesis 6:5-7. No new vision here, a new culture was needed:

Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man, and beast, creeping thing, and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”

Twelve chapters later, God decided that the grave sin of Sodom and Gomorrah warranted obliteration. As Jude described centuries later:

But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode. He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, for the judgment of the great day; as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Jude 5-7.

Be a student of behaviors

You cannot change a culture by changing the “numbers.” Yet many leaders pride themselves as great students of the numbers. Instead, they should become a student of behaviors, because the behaviors portend where the numbers are headed.

The “numbers” in your organization are a result of the culture. This is because culture dictates behaviors and behaviors determine results. By carefully watching the daily behaviors of your people, you can intervene and strengthen the culture and subsequent behaviors before the numbers show up. On the other hand, if you’re watching only for the numbers, all you’re seeing are the lagging indicators. Numbers show up too late to change anything! It’s like confusing the scoreboard for the game. If all you’re doing is gazing at the scoreboard, you’re missing the game—and the opportunity to influence the behaviors within the game that determine what goes up on the scoreboard.

When you study behaviors within your organization, you can effectively predict the future. The daily behaviors of your people will tell you exactly where the numbers are headed. In fact, your organization’s past culture-induced behaviors have brought you to where you are today.

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Day 132-135 How to Lead by THE BOOK: Avoid These Two Dangerous Leadership Mistakes!

Sunday, November 21st, 2010

I’ve now completed 35,000 of the 50,000 words needed to finish How to Lead by THE BOOK. I’ve covered eleven major business challenges thus far making for short, to-the-point chapters.

Last night I put the finishing touches on the chapter, “What are two of the most dangerous mistakes I must avoid to become a more effective leader?” Obviously, there were lots to choose from! However, I decided to include the following two major blunders in the book:

1. The tendency to prioritize “stuff” over people.

2. The tendency to become too dependent on yourself.

Here’s an excerpt of how I opened the chapter:

Man’s Wisdom and Way

“Leadership brings pressures that will cause you to make mistakes. No one expects you to be perfect. If you fall short, ask forgiveness. When you commit leadership errors, learn from them.  The bottom line is that, since everyone makes their own share of blunders, yours are none of their business.”

If you believe the veracity of Man’s Wisdom and Way, please re-read chapter two, and pay more attention this time! As a leader, your mistakes are everyone’s business because your actions have a greater impact on the culture, morale, momentum and organizational results than any one else’s. You also have the responsibility of setting a righteous example for followers. To appreciate your influence on their behavior, you must grasp that the positive actions you take in excess followers will emulate in moderation. However, the negative actions you initiate in moderation, your followers will imitate in excess. You also accrue a bad reputation and encourage further cultural corruption when your own words and deeds are inconsistent. Sir Francis Bacon explained it well: “He that gives good admonition and bad example builds with one hand and pulls down with the other.”

THE BOOK’s wisdom and way

You are not expected to become perfect. But you should strive towards imitating a perfect Lord and Savior as you are instructed in Ephesians 5:1: “Therefore be imitators of God.”  Many leaders use the fact that they cannot become perfect human beings as license to stop striving.

As a leader, you are expected to do more than grow old; you are presumed to grow up and minimize your errors, correct your mistakes, and respond to missteps backwards with a steady gait forward.

Leaders face many temptations and often fall into common traps that affect their character and performance. Loose morals, lousy judgment, outright ignorance, and blatant stupidity are the culprits beyond most failures. However, there is one primary perpetrator that underlines each of these causes: pride.  In How to Rum Your Business by THE BOOK (Wiley, 2009), I devoted an entire chapter explaining how pride is the number one cause of leadership failure. Suffice to say, that if you struggle with either of these common leadership mistakes I mention in this chapter, pride is at the root of your problem. And if you suddenly became defensive or defiant in the face of my accusation that you may have a problem with pride, it is certain evidence that you are guilty as charged!

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Day 129-131 How to Lead by THE BOOK: How do You Hold People Accountable?

Wednesday, November 17th, 2010

Yesterday I spoke at a Leader’s Forum in Cincinnati with my friend and best-selling author, John Maxwell. There were 150 leaders in attendance and the topic of how to hold others accountable was one of the issues we addressed.

The first chapter of How to Lead by THE BOOK will tackle this challenge. Below is an excerpt that opens the chapter. It helps create perspective on the basis for accountability. In a future post, I’ll list some of the seven steps for accountability that I present in the book.

Man’s wisdom & way

“Get in their face with tough talk. Intimidate, threaten, and bully. If they don’t like it, they should either step up or opt out!”

In the one thousand leadership presentations I give each decade, I’ve discovered that this old school palaver is still the strategy of choice for many misguided leaders. While trying to find the right word to describe this tendency herein I couldn’t decide whether to use hopeless, futile, or stupid. Thus, I’ve decided to define this method for accountability as: hopelessly futile stupidity.

The BOOK’s wisdom & way

While visiting the Mount of the Beatitudes in Israel, I was struck by its prominence in height and stature compared to its surroundings. Thus, it is fitting that Jesus chose this spot to teach on the topic of elevated values and expectations. In Matthew chapters 5-7, Jesus outlined the revolutionary values of the Christian faith with His Sermon on the Mount. He presented clear behavioral standards, along with appropriate rewards or penalties contingent upon one’s obedience. Whereas the Old Testament ended in Malachi 4:6 with a curse, Jesus began His ministry teaching on the Mount with a blessing: Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. You are able to bless your people in a like manner when you clearly define what you expect from them. You simultaneously strengthen your organization as doing so provides an essential benchmark for accountability.   

Why did Jesus set forth expectations and values so early in His ministry? For the same reasons you must do so within your organization: You cannot possibly hold anyone accountable until you define what you expect in the first place! But even more importantly, it gave Him a chance to model what He expected with His own life. Even when Jesus’ mouth was closed, He taught by His example. You must do likewise. After all, you cannot credibly hold others accountable for the behaviors you’ve defined as non-negotiable unless you personally live them.

There is no record in Matthew of Jesus offering feedback to anyone, much less holding them accountable, until He had clearly defined what He expected from his followers. Using THE BOOK as a guide, consider the seven subsequent thoughts and rules to help you create a higher accountability culture in your organization. (Coming in a future post).

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Day 122-123 How to Lead by THE BOOK: How to Change Behaviors in Your Organization!

Tuesday, November 9th, 2010

A common misconception is that you can change your team’s behaviors strictly by changing your organization’s vision. This is only true if your culture aligns with your vision. For instance, if you have a culture of entitlement, where there is little accountability, casting a stretch-vision isn’t going to change a thing. In fact, it can make you look foolish because the culture and vision are an obvious mismatch. Thus, the key to changing behaviors is to first change your culture. After the culture is firmly established in the image you desire, you can credibly create a vision that will evoke emotion from within the culture and cause the people there to behave accordingly and rise to the occasion of reaching the vision.

In How to Lead by THE BOOK, I will include a chapter on what comprises culture and how to change it. Here’s a sneak preview:

Culture Components:

1. Core values.

2. Mission.

3. Core competencies.

4. People

The leader is the primary architect and chief-influencer of the culture. The culture components aren’t likely to change much unless the leader changes, or is changed.

The culture builds a foundation to create a vision based on the strengths of your culture-foundation. Once the vision has been cast, you are then able to devise the strategy that builds on the assets of your culture and will take you to your vision.

The lesson here? Don’t try to take shortcuts by launching a bold, fancy vision until you’ve laid the ground work for its success through the deliberate and intentional creation of a supporting culture. Remember: culture dictates behavior and behaviors determine results. If you want greater results, go to work on your culture!

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Day 119-121 How to Lead by THE BOOK: Fight Against the Cultural Current!

Sunday, November 7th, 2010

The preface of How to Lead by THE BOOK will be the most compelling front matter I’ve ever included in a book. It will clearly explain why it is so important to return to Biblical principles in all aspects of one’s life. To make this point, I will open the preface with eight evidences of a trending cultural decline–along with their accompanying consequences–designed to create an urgency to reposition our lives and organizations on a firmer Biblical foundation. Here’s an excerpt. It’s point six of the eight:

6. To exacerbate the moral confusion, high profile God mockers and false teachers run rampant among the ranks of bestselling authors, acclaimed comics, entertainment celebrities, church leaders, and business tycoons. For instance:

*A high profile media mogul claims that Christianity is a “religion for losers,” and labeled his employees as “Jesus freaks” for observing Ash Wednesday.

*A pastor disgraces Christianity by leading purveyors of hate in nationwide protests brandishing signs declaring: “God hates homosexuals” and “Thank God for dead soldiers.”

*A mega bestselling book succeeds at duping millions—including Christians—into thinking that the Law of Attraction can deliver to them what God can’t or won’t.

*A well respected talk show host conducted a  year-long “course in miracles” that promoted the opposite of what the Bible calls truth, leading millions astray and into potential destruction with blasphemies like: “there is no sin”, “my salvation comes from me,” and that “a slain Christ has no meaning.”

This pervasiveness of nefarious New Age nonsense has swayed throngs to embrace hellish notions in order to attain success and personal fulfillment. The Apostle Paul’s 2,000 year old warning seems designed acutely for our age:

Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons…1 Timothy 4:1.

There will be seven additional disconcerting trends listed in the preface designed to urge leaders to get serious about bucking downward spiraling  cultural current and more wholeheartedly embrace leading themselves, their families, and their organizations by THE BOOK.

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