Posts tagged leadership
Champion or Hero
May 15th
Do you know the difference between a Champion and a Hero, is there any?
Webster’s defines a Champion as a person who has defeated all opponents in a competition or series of competitions, so as to hold first place. You can also Champion a cause or support someone else’s efforts.
They define a Hero as a person of distinguished courage or ability, admired for their brave deeds and noble qualities. A person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal. Can someone be both? Absolutely!
Now I realize we all have heroes in our life; parents, spouses, friends, etc. but how many times have you had the chance to be a Champion and passed it up. Too many times in our professional or personal lives for that matter, either we are given the opportunity to take a chance and reach beyond the reachable or we are called upon to support or lift up a colleague and in both cases we just plain look the other way. Why? Too much trouble? Jealousy? Fear?
Being given the opportunity to be a Champion whether it’s for yourself or for others should be embraced. The world as we know it is constantly changing and we as active members of the human race need to change with it or we will most assuredly die. What are you afraid of? Whether it’s your inner competitive heart that drives you every day to reach new goals or whether it’s your compassionate heart that every day takes time out to support and encourage someone else. Marriage, friendships, you career; Do something that takes you outside of your comfort zone and look for opportunities to champion someone else’s efforts.
Who knows you might even become that someone’s hero too.
Giving Helps you “Get It”
Jun 11th
As the commercial real estate market has ebbed and flowed over the last 25 years I have been blessed on more than one occasion to personally meet with or be introduced to the teachings of people who “get it”. To “get it” as I’ve defined it is that they practice what they preach. Two individuals stand out and both came into my life because I was receptive and open to the way they conducted themselves and their business.
The first is a gentleman from California that when I heard him speak at a convention in 1998 a light bulb went on and I immediately thought I must hear more. That’s my friend Vance Caesar or the Vance Caesar Group, a premiere leadership coaching organization. He was kind enough to take some time to visit with me. It was evident that his many accomplishments like mountain climbing and being the editor of a major metropolitan newspaper chain, taught him well that it was better to give than to receive and that by sharing his time with someone like me made us both a little richer for having the experience. He taught me about balance in life and that we must maintain more “get to’s” than “got to’s”. Vance came into my life when, let’s just say, I needed him to as my priorities were askew. I could never repay him for what he gave me, but it has taught me to give before I get and to bring value to others where ever I can realizing that I come into every situation as a servant.
The other influential person came to me by way of a book that was recommended I read called “The Go-Giver” by Bob Burg and John David Mann. I read the book and couldn’t put it down. It was all about how I’ve tried to live my life since meeting Vance Caesar. It’s a story of an ambitious young salesman who yearns for success. He is desperate to make a sale at the end of a particularly bad quarter. He seeks advice from someone whom he respects and is taken on a week long journey to find what he is made of and in the end, he “gets it”, just like I did after so many conversations with Vance Caesar.
Well I was so moved by this little book that I was going to write to the authors to tell them my story but realized it’s not about me but rather what I was going to do with what they had taught me. As luck would have it, through an unexpected connection (a friend of mine happens to also be a friend of his!), John David Mann and I recently had a telephone conversation about what he had taught me through his writings. It is my hope that you strive to bring value before reward and to understand that in life as in business it is always better to give than to receive.
