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What makes a great Leader? We often think of the traits of strong personality, public speaking prominence, and convicted commitment. Vocal, Prominent, Confident, and Ever Present.

Can it be said, however, that those who are truly admirable do not need to be in the public eye?

The question we pose today: What if You Didn't Need to be Validated?

Is our need to step out in front of a group and gather applause a characteristic of confidence or insecurity?

It is evident that Leadership is sorely lacking in today's professional world. I equate this to the fact that the task of Management has overwhelmed the Vision of Leadership. In many organizations the true visionaries choose to stay in individual contributor roles, start their own companies, or leave for different opportunities. In reality, those who are passionate in their conviction are just not willing to 'play the game'. Office politics, meetings about meetings, and the need to restrain genuine thought are management traits that tend to appal true leaders. So, the defacto Managers accept leadership roles as the 'safe bet' and the truly inspired become uninspired.

How Can We Take the Power Back?
* Create your own job description
* Recreate yourself every day
* Ignore the unimportant

The Goals of Self
Reports are homework to document effort. They are also meaningless. The need for metrics to prove professional existence makes people...numbers.

Developing the ability to find personal significance in each task is mastery of your professional existence. You don't need to quit your job. You need to understand what every task means to you, how you can adjust each chore to your vision, and to prioritize accordingly.

Ask Yourself:
1. Who Am I
2. Who Do I Want To Be?
3. What Does This Mean to the Rest of the World?

Stagnation is Damnation
When you stop moving forward, you start falling back. This doesn't mean you have to leap into every mundane task. It means you should recommit and adjust your vision every day. The best way to embrace change is to create it for yourself.

Ask yourself:
Is it better to master one thing or experience many things?

The Best Advice...
From time to time, I get caught up in the unimportant. I let personality differences get in the way of larger goals, I get hung up on passing comments, or mundane detail derails genuine intent.

I once asked my boss...how do you stay level headed in the midst of all these personality clashes?

He said: I ignore them!

Have we come to accept less because we expect less? Are we victims of circumstance? Are we products of our environment? Is our energy wasted on other people's goals?

Kick the peddles out of you way and climb mountains!

Life is far too short to get hung up in the mundane defacto chores of personal validation.

You Are Great Because You Know You Are Great!

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results"
- Albert Einstein

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave

Desire Driven Work

This is the final installment of the Employee Purpose Perspective (EPP). We embarked on this journey together to find relevance between clock punches.


Today we ponder the final step to freedom:
Professional purpose is a willingness to fulfill personal desire



We have talked about engaging your team by making it personal, you have been sequestered to make your work a practice in passion. Yet, fulfilling personal desire through work is a seemingly absurd ideology.

What Does It Mean?

Desire is a drive within you that is of irreplaceable importance: that long term goal, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, your personal 'bucket list' objective. Assume you have made your employer happy, food is on the table, and your career path is secure.

What do you DESIRE?

Maybe it's the opportunity to start your own company, the idea of sailing around the world, or a 1967 cherry red Ford Mustang. You know you don't need any of these things, but when you have given all you can to those who matter, you will need something for yourself. Or will you?

What if every day you received your 'bucket list' rewards. What if right now you could embrace lifetime achievement. What is stopping you from having the life you want? Are you a slave to your lifestyle? Are you drown in expenses? Have you been trained to be afraid to take chances? Have you been following for so long that you forgot how to lead? Are you such a good employee that you have neglected to build your personal irreplaceable talent?

It's never too late to be everything you wish to be in life. It is never too early to start living life in the sunset.

It's not your job that matters, it's how you live your work. It's not your company's duty to inspire you...it is your duty to inspire yourself. Don't wait for instruction, CREATE your future...now.

The Employee Purpose Perspective is an Empowered Mission. I came upon it because I lived a life of misery for far too long. I was always uptight, I had a retort to every instruction, I was entitled, I was selfish, I gave advice without being asked, I offered my assistance only to elevate myself, I bitched and complained and made everyone around me miserable. I was not confident, I was afraid. I blamed my inefficiencies on others because I was too afraid to commit to greatness. I wasted the part of my life I should have most enjoyed...locked up in a self-created prison.

I don't want that to happen to you!

Be aware that we condition ourselves to follow the system. To do our work well in an effort to earn more work. Unfortunately, all roads lead only to a wall. We have been conditioned to turn around when we hit the wall and navigate the maze again.

TEAR DOWN THE WALLS!

The key to the EPP is to find a way over, around or through the wall. Very few will be willing to break out of their routine to help you get over the wall. You need to get creative in your thinking. To find new ways to do things. To realize that a wall...is really a door.

I leave you with 3 ideas to put DESIRE into your work:
Take Action
Find Outside Influence
Debrief

Act Now, Apologize Later
People want to hire people that they don't have to coddle. If your boss is always telling you how to do your job, you are more of a burden than an asset.

You will always be commended for taking initiative. YOU MUST, however, make sure you do not repeat the same mistake twice.

Barkeep...
Bartenders, Baristas and Valets make for great advisers. Don't ever underestimate anyone's advisory ability. Determine your audinece, present your challenges, and chew on it together.

Better to fumble through an idea with your Barber than your boss!

Action without strategy...
...is like swinging at shadows. You have to learn from each and every day. Develop the ability to debrief. Learn from your mistakes, bounce ideas off informal 3rd party advisers...and (most importantly) look deep into YOURSELF to find the answers.

Every day must be capped with a few minutes of silent reflection. Retrace what you have done, why you succeeded, and what you could have done better. Take what you have learned, make it part of tomorrow, and grow from it.

I don't write a blog to improve my resume or enhance my job prospects. This, I do, to help YOU. I don't want you to make the mistakes I have. I want you to recognize your worth and to stick up for yourself. The EPP is designed to help you find meaning in this life, not while you are on vacation, but while you are at work.

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave

Will Work for Peace

Career progress is an interesting thing. We all want to advance ourselves professionally: to make a few more bucks, to learn, to lead, to be part of something bigger. Unfortunately, our metrics for progress are often skewed. Very few companies have well defined progress planning. It seems developed mentoring programs are a means to pacify ambition not encourage it. Far too many leaders fail to pass the torch for fear of losing their sphere of influence.


We tend to get ourselves caught up in the task list for advancement without clearly defining our personal vision for professional progress.

Do you want to progress because you believe in what you are doing or are you simply charting the next 'logical' step? Do you seek advice from your 'superiors' because you genuinely respect them or because you are looking for shoulders to stand upon? Is the advice you are afforded in-sync with your personal professional vision?

Based on the success of my father, I took to Corporate America with the intent of climbing the Corporate Ladder. Without personal purpose in my intent, I sought promotions and advancement as validation for my hard work. I was told that in order to make it on the 'fast track' I should do the following:
* Perform to my revenue goal
* Be willing to relocate
* Find a leader on the 'fast track' and attach myself to him/her

...bad advice....

I didn't care about the company I worked for at that time. I didn't know what achieving my quota was doing for the world. Relocation was not a means to make the company better, it was a test of commitment. I certainly didn't respect the 'leaders' who gave this advice. I thought I wanted to be a Manager because it was a perceived vertical move.

I pondered the aforementioned advice, quit the job, and came up with my own metrics for success:
* Have the freedom to interpret my job as applicable to the world around me
* Join an organization that trusted me
* Find a role with flexibility

Moving, making more money, taking on more responsibility, and influencing others to fall in line was replaced by one mission:
Allow me to live my job by my own motivation!

I had been dishonest in my pursuit of what didn't matter to me, and so, I vowed to be honest in the pursuit of what did.

At some point in your career, you will discover the following:
Honest Matters Most
You Must Find Purpose in Every Task
Certain things are unavoidable....give them your least attention

Consider Your Sphere of Influence
In sales, you are generally asked to create recommendations to your customers and prospective customers. Sometimes this is your chance to showcase your expertise. Other times this is the measure by which your BS barometer is put to the test.

We face loaded questions from Managers and Customers alike. We often are not prepared for this pre-framed nonsense and this is where we get caught up.

A customer cannot trust you to be an expert if you haven't considered all the angles

Your boss will not be willing to leave you alone if you haven't proven your ability to self-regulate

Make it Matter
If you are waiting for the perfect job you will forever spend your life in the waiting room.

Fact: There are great people and terrible people in every organization
Fact: A good or bad Boss can make any job good or bad
Fact: Only YOU can determine how the aforementioned factors effect your genuine motivation

Learn to be Ignorant!
I am a hard working man who is fiercely competitive. As such, I tend to freak out when I do my part and others do not. These actions, to my own detriment, reveal my insecurity and work against my effort.

The best advice I have received is to ignore that which is out of my control. It was impossible to accept this passive resistance at first. My mind frame of mutual accountability forcing me to believe that my effort needed to be met and replicated.

Then, something annoying happened and I chose not to give it the power of my influence. Strangely enough, life went on....over time I learned to give little (or no) attention to mundane distractions. And Life goes on.....

If you develop the ability to know where to put your energy (almost) every thing you do has a motivation driven by positive results! Hard to believe, but undoubtedly true. You should give it a try.

I am carried away by Martin Luther King and his words of Freedom. The times in which he spoke were loaded with turmoil. If America emerged from the standoff of civil rights a bolder and better nation, why can't you choose to work the way you like?

YOU choose what fuels your day!
YOU have the ability give attention to what matters!
YOU have the choice to empower or deter the naysayers!
YOU make a masterpiece or trash heap of every given day!
YOU can be FREE!

...and so our task is simple....

Ignore what distracts and empower what motivates!

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave

The YOU

Raise your hand if you had a tough year? Are you better for it?

I have discovered this year, more than any other, that if you bust your butt and keep your head down eventually the hard times will pass. Seth Godin calls it getting through The Dip. His contention that we put forth the majority of our effort before we give up. This practice repeated becomes a whole lot of effort with little result. One of my least favorite sayings is, "Let's not confuse effort with results"...unfortunately it is a point well taken.

In these times of economic decline, foreclosure, marital turmoil and career uncertainty; you must be stronger than ever! You cannot hide in a bar, blow off your next task or pretend to hope your troubles away. You have to put your head down and try harder than ever!

I have seen men cry. They feel sorry for themselves because they have tried harder than ever and are not measuring up. It is difficult to see people in this spot. Unfortunately, we are the product of our effort. If we have tried harder than ever and are still not measuring up, we need to adjust our approach....and try even harder!

Before others Love you...You have to Love Yourself!

Here's How:
Hide Your Despair
Get a Whiteboard
Talk to Strangers

Say Great!
When people ask how you are doing they seldom care what your answer might be. It's a salutation not an invitation to dictate your life story. Tell them "Great"!

Most people are polite enough to hear you out. But, when you leave the table they probably roll their eyes. Stay upbeat, keep up appearances, and save your tears for God!

Document and Revise
My sales results improved drastically when I implemented a sales strategy. Sounds like a no-brainer but many people go into a client, talk about how great they are, and wait for a decision. Wrong!

The way you find a genuine solution is by researching your client, listening to their challenges and re-formatting your game plan each time you step on the field. Get good at researching, develop a strategic approach and save your prayers for God!

Unlikely Friends
Some of the best advise I have gotten about my career are from hair dressers and bar tenders. You never know who might present an angle you haven't considered.

Sometimes we get so trapped in our world that we forget to listen. We try to address problems that are not there. We become slaves to our process and we come off as know-it-alls (not experts). Your clients appreciate your listening skills more than your presentation skills.

The year 2010 is concluding...2008 and 2009 are gone as well. All we have is the future. Things are going to get better, but you have to keep working hard! The simple message I can leave you with is:

Beating up on yourself only makes your critics job easier!

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave

10 in 10

There are 11 weeks left in 2010. But the last week seldom counts and 10 in 10 just sounds cooler. One cannot help but think that as this year comes to a close we are closer to getting through the hard times.

Call it a recession or what you might but it has been a couple of challenging years. We have just shy of 3 months to make something of 2010 and to set the table for 2011. A new year, despite our consequence going into it, always brings a feeling of hope. No matter how far off the path we have drifted there is sunshine on the horizon (or at least we have 365 days to turn our fortune around).

In 2010 those who have succeeded despite the economic decline have worked five times harder, found different angles, learned from their mistakes and consistently been willing to take chances.

What have you learned?

What can you do in the next 11 weeks to make 2010 complete?

We can start by reviewing the aforementioned keys to succeeding against all odds:
Work Harder
Find a New Angle
Learn from Your Mistakes
Put Yourself Out There

"What Got You Here....
...won't keep you here", a tremendous asshole once said to me. His tact was off but the sentiment was right. In trying times you cannot expect to duplicate half efforts of the past and replicate results. In fact, evolution is always the goal. The minute you stand still you start moving backward.

Yup, it's unfair. But you have to bite your lip and work harder to produce equal results. Or you can work five times harder and produce twice the results. That, my friends, is what separates the men from the boys.

Think about your family and buckle down!

More than one way
We are at a point when the unconventional is becoming conventional. I will reiterate, if you are over looking the social media thing, you are soon to be bulldozed into obscurity.

Our pride often tells us we've been doing this for 44 years and NO ONE is going to tell us our methods are wrong. Sure, but make 114 calls and get 3 live people....or reach 50,000 in one tweet. #justsayin

Once
Is the number of times a great man once told me I could screw up. His point being, if I made a mistake as a result of taking action he could accept that. Better to act now and apologize later. But, if you make the same mistake twice, you're just a dum dum: action without discourse is the revealing of the incurable disease of stupidity.

Whatever Happens
Keep trying! It is the coward that tries, fails, and hides behind commentary. There are a hundred stoners sitting on couches revealing their philosophy....need I say more.

So here it is: 11 weeks, 1 goal - achieve that which was once deemed impossible!

No One has the right to tell you which goals are realistic.
No One can put a finger in your face.

When YOU set the agenda the day is much easier to navigate!

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave

Extraordinary Conquest

We go in fits and starts throughout the year: success lifting our motivation, failures causing questions and doubt. Readers of this blog have seen the inspiration of personal empowerment and the frustration with those who deter it.

We are wonderfully imperfect and that is the whole point of living.

We must live and learn. To try harder in the eye of failure and to be humble in our success.

So today the message is simple: Achieve the Impossible!

There has never been a time when the naysayers haven't lined up to cross arms and shake heads in the midst of your effort. Allow not those whose time has come and gone to pull back your intent for greatness. They are the reason the word impossible exists.

In every phase of living records are broken, new goals are set and achieved, revenue production is exceeded and new standards are set. We have never gone backward. This mostly because someone comes around who fails to hear the whispers of distraction. If you do not acknowledge the negative, they are powerless.

So Today...you walk from your front door into a world of possibility because you have not acknowledged limits....they do not exist....they are an excuse for the failed effort of others and their inability to transcend short comings.

It's Go Time!

There are 3 Distinct Ways in which you can avoid the negative:
* Ignore
* Smile
* Question

Only If You Notice
We are all driven by our egos. So when a guy elbows you on the way out a 2 way door his hatred literally rubs off on you. When someone cuts you off and pulls up next to you on the street, naturally you want flip them off. These people are miserable and they want to drag you into their misery. When you snap back at them you add fuel to their fire.

Ignore them. They will get back to their car, shake their heads, realize the ass they have become and wallow in their misery alone.

No One Can Resist
Does your smile cause others to look over their shoulder. As if they can't imagine that anyone could be happy...as if they think you must be noticing bird droppings on their head.

I used to bock at those who smiled...wondering how they could do so in the midst of this tortured world. Make no mistake about it, those who smile are courageous! Any coward can frown, grumble and oppose everything.

Is Everything OK?
Those with stored up discontent want to share, be heard and to be validated. If you are strong enough to invite discussion with the malcontent you may find a simple question will empower them...to get their anger off their chest, to get it out in the open and to move on.

All you have to do is invite a question. You may not have to say another word to them there after. They may thank you...and remember your positive intent.

Sometimes the best way to help someone is by helping them understand that their sissy behavior will not be encouraged.

Times are tough, every day has it's set of new challenges, one thing goes right and five new things come up.

We are imperfect! There will never be a time when everything is where it needs to be....this is our opportunity!

Grow Every Day! Stay Positive!

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave

The Crest

On July 1st, we talked about putting a strategy together for the second half of the year. Now we are staring down the barrel the final quarter of the 2010.

It's Go Time!
* Are you @ your quota?
* Have you gotten closer to securing your dream job?
* Are you prepared for the season ahead?

It is in these moments that a person's character is defined:
Do you thrive under pressure or cower in indecision?

You are at the crest of a wave...you can either drop in and surf it or let it swallow you up. It is in the critical moments that decisions are made, hard work is rewarded and coulda/shouldas start to rear their head. The next four months can catapult you into success or drop you into the unemployment line...what are you gonna do?

Here are a few tips that will help you 'drop in':
1. Confidence matters most
2. The key to time management is knowing what not to do
3. Get rid of categories

Dry and Secure
How do you carry yourself? With chest out and quick steps or with eyes down?
People can smell indecision from a mile away. If you don't have answers to questions, opinions to differentiate a strategy and evidence to back it up; you are not ready to advise anyone.
* Study Every Day
* Know what your product means to a prospect's strategy
* Articulate it

Don't Do It
When I hear someone say, "I'm too busy". It means they are doing a lot of unnecessary work. We get entrenched by a task list and perform said tasks out of habit. We fail to ask what these mundane nuances of the work day mean to our organizational strategy. As such, we are cast in a supporting role forever.
* Have a Personal Strategy
* Let Business Critical Initiatives Drive Your Behavior
* Don't Be Afraid to Question the Business Relevance of your Task List

The Past is Past
Often our motivation is driven by our precept ion of what is possible. Our metrics for possibility being the actions of those who came before us. Don't let that which has been deemed impossible be a deterrent to your goals for extraordinary achievement. Do Better!

You are at the crest of a wave...when you feel doubt creeping in, punch it in the face...allow not your insecurity to surface. Remember your achievements and let them empower you. Understand where you have fallen short and learn from your mistakes. The past is past, no one can determine your results today. You can achieve ANYTHING! Listen to no one who tries to curtail your effort because they were afraid to 'drop in'. Listen to everyone who tells you, you are capable of anything!

We Can Do This!

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave

The Eight Rule of Awesomeness

Brothers & Sisters -
We have had our asses kicked, but we got up this morning, suited up and are back in the breach.

The Eight Rule of Awesomeness is: Never Give Up!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEkz1XK75XE&feature=related


There will come a point in your life when failure is not an option and at that point you will excel beyond the abilities you have prescribed yourself in the casual past. When there are no more options, you will do everything in your power to perform, get over and get back to the mountain top!

Why wait until there is limited time left to be everything you can possibly be?

We cannot allow others to put limits upon us...Let No One Stick a Finger in Your Face....

No one can prevent you from achieving that which today seems impossible; Especially You! It is only you who puts limits on your ability to achieve...and most often, we let these things overwhelm us. That by not believing that the sun has set on our discontent a final time we continue to wallow in that discontent.

The time is now to stop feeling sorry for yourself and limiting your potential accordingly. You cannot win unless you are willing to go head in and get punched in the mouth.

The only reason you cannot achieve everything you ever wanted is because you are afraid of being happy!

Every day is hard! Accept that and be part of the challenge; every day. It starts with a few hits, then you win a few games and over time (and with effort) your confidence becomes the drive...not your fear. You stop back pedaling and move forward. You come forward out of the corner and begin to hit back.....and you start feeling good and you want more!

Believe Not that Good Fortune is Given Out by Another. As of right now, You Are The Creator of Everything Sacred!

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure" - Marianne Williamson

GO GET IT!

Dave

The Ripple Effect - part 2

John assists Jennifer with an order and she sends him a friendly note along with a link to buy his favorite MP3. John's accomplishment is then broadcast to the company in a newsletter. He receives 22 emails from his colleagues extending further congratulations. He goes home happy for the weekend. So much so, that he asks his girlfriend to pick the movie tonight. She is so surprised and elated that she decides not to dump him.

Bill thinks the Sales guys get all the credit for his hard work; driving a truck picking up boxes of highly sensitive documents. After a long shift his boss asks him to come into the distribution office. He fires up his computer, asks him to read a heartfelt note from the guy with the tie and then tells him to select a piece of jewelry to give to his daughter to wear at the spring dance this weekend. Bill gives his daughter the necklace. She decides that her Dad is still the only guy for her and tells Travis that she will only be his dance partner that evening. Bill and his daughter spend a Sunday in the park like they used to. On Monday, Bill sees a full route on his itinerary and sprints to his truck to complete the orders on time.

Pauline has been passed over for a promotion for the 3rd time. Her job is effecting her marriage, she is always stressed and she really does not feel that all her hard work has had any impact. She walks into the office ready to quit and move to Nebraska with her husband. There, her whole team waits for her. Each tells her a brief story of how she has helped them. Pauline realizes that leadership is not about climbing the corporate ladder or making more money but the legacy you pass on to those who you touch every day.

Dear Reader,

This is the Ripple Effect! It is real. It makes companies better. It carries human interaction into the workplace and makes your office the best place to work in the world.

The Ripple Effect limits turnover, saves the company money, drives revenue, limits entitlement, and creates a community.

The Ripple Effect saves marriages, prevents teenage pregnancy and prohibits people from making wrong life decisions.

Your office is full of HUMAN BEINGS with Human Interest Stories. Celebrate Them!

THE RIPPLE EFFECT

How was work today?

The inevitable questions that is posed to us at day’s end when we are at the dinner table with our family, on the back porch with Grandpa, or in the gym with our friends is…how was work today?

The key to opening a positive dialogue in these ‘end of the day’ conversations is…The Ripple Effect.

The differentiating element in making any company great is our people…If we are celebrated we are inspired and if we are inspired we are engaged.

So if we spend most of our waking hours at work…and we love what we do…the world can be a better place!

BELIEVE!

Don't Forget to Remember,

Dave

references:

http://twitter.com/davidkovacovich

Monday Motivation

It's Monday......

I remember a time in a my life when I dreaded this day. Not Any More!

I have made many changes in my life but my renewed joy for Monday is the result of two things:

PERCEPTION

ATTITUDE

My climb out of Monday Morning Misery has produced one undeniable truth:

If you think today will suck, it will!

I left my headphones off this morning and listened to a group of retirees complain for 1.5 hours: the economy, mislead young people, a directionless country and Toyota's inability.

Their day will suck...and it might stand to reason that 70 years of unlimited potential has been wasted on these human beings. At what point did they give up, at what point did they stop pursuing their dreams and become 'the victim', at what point did they stop living and start dieing?

The effort you put into negative thought does less for the mind than uplifting thought. Uplifting thought requires no more effort but produces results.

Nothing has Ever Been Achieved as the Result of a Complaint!

How will you spend today, this week, this year? What will you do with the results? If you keep frowning not only will you fail but you will fail alone.

TODAY IS THE DAY!

Let go of that which you cannot change and accept it!

Strive toward that which will ensure your happiness!

Use that which people most admire about YOU to differentiate YOU in the workplace!

It is as easy and as hard as that!

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave

references:

www.linkedin.com/in/davidkovacovich

http://twitter.com/davidkovacovich