Another great story by Chris!! Enjoy!!
Chris Widener is a popular speaker and author who has shared the podium with US Presidents, helping individuals and organizations turn their potential into performance, succeed in every area of their lives and achieve their dreams. Join subscribers in over 100 countries for a weekly leadership & success eZine by clicking here. Enjoy motivational audio programs from Chris Widener & other top speakers including Zig Ziglar & Brian Tracy by visiting www.MadeForSuccess.net.
I have a standing interview every Monday morning on a radio station in the southeast that I enjoy very much. You can imagine though that it can become routine. So to make it a little more fun, the host nowadays doesn’t even tell me the topic before we go live on the air – that puts some excitement into it!
This past week he asked me the following question cold at the beginning of the show: How can a person guarantee that they will have a great day, every day? Now some may find that a hard question but for me it was actually a very easy question to answer (a little harder to actually live, but not that hard). You see, I believe in principles that govern our lives so that we can control our destinies and create for ourselves the kind of lives that we desire. People who live based on principles achieve what they desire while people who live reacting to circumstances do not.
So, what were the principles that I gave to guarantee that a person could have a GREAT day every day? Here they are:
Focus on today only.
Yes, we need to have long-range goals. But our focus must be on today. My old equation is that your short-term tasks multiplied by time equal your long-term accomplishments. With that in mind, it is imperative that we focus in on our short-term, to control it and make it what will eventually, when multiplied by time, equal our long-term goals. Don’t think about tomorrow. Today is enough trouble in and of itself. You can work on tomorrow when it gets here. Instead, make today the best day you have ever had. Realize that when you lay down to sleep tonight you will have just given up the only shot you will ever have at today. Today is now gone and it is only a memory. You only get one shot at your today so focus intently on making it all that it possibly can be. Focus, focus, focus! When you focus on making today great, you are on the road to guaranteeing that you will make your day GREAT, every day!
Embrace your power to choose.
Dwight D. Eisenhower said that “The history of free men is never written by chance but by choice, their choice.” When your today becomes your yesterday, you will look back and realize that that day was a result of your choices and your choices only. “But wait Chris, what if my boss controlled my day? That isn’t my choice!” But it is your choice to work for someone else! You choice to let someone else tell you what to do. You chose the feelings of helplessness that overwhelm you when you feel bad that you do not control your own destiny.
The moment we realize that we have a gift from God that the animals do not have, mainly the gift of free will and choice, and when we realize the inherent power within that gift, and ultimately when we finally begin to exercise that gift, then and only then, will we begin to create for ourselves a GREAT day each and every day! Take ownership of the direction in your life. Make your choices then carry them out!
Your attitude is up to you.
Yes, bad things may happen in your day. The pitcher for Team Circumstances may have a tremendous curveball waiting for you and you cannot control that. You cannot control what others may do or say. But you do control your attitude. Your attitude about whatever happens to you is up to you.
When something happens to you, you have the choice: Will you let it get you down and depressed, keeping you from forging ahead and making the day the best one ever? Or will you say to yourself that no matter what happens you are on the path to success and no obstacle will keep you from it? Will you say, “Sometime you win and sometimes you lose – I guess this time I lost”? Will you say, “Sometime you win and sometimes you learn – I can really learn something from this!”?
It is all in what attitude we choose. Your attitude is up to you and when you choose to have a great attitude, you are choosing to guarantee to have a GREAT day, every day!
Live out and act on your priorities.
So far we have dealt with internal perspectives, and that is indeed the place to start. But the practical place is in our priorities. If we want to make our days great, then we have to live out those things that will by definition make our days great. And those things are what are important to us. They are our priorities.
So each morning you start out by saying, “What things are important to me today? What are the things I need to accomplish in order for me to lay down tonight and know that I lived a GREAT day?” Then you put those in order of most important to least important.
Don’t so what is fun. Don’t do what is easy. Do what is IMPORTANT! Live out your priorities! When you do, you will guarantee that you will make your day GREAT, every day!
Tomorrow, when you wake up, go through the four following points and see if you don’t make tomorrow a GREAT day:
- Focus on today only.
- Understand that I get to choose how today will go.
- Remain in a positive attitude no matter what happens.
- Live out and act on my priorities.
Do this and you will guarantee a GREAT day, every day!
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
Neil Armstrong
Great story!!
On July 20, 1969, as commander of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module, Neil Armstrong was the first person to set foot on the moon. His first words after stepping on the moon, 'that's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,' were televised to earth and heard by millions. But, just before he re-entered the Lander, he made the enigmatic remark 'Good luck, Mr. Gorsky.'
However, upon checking, there was no Gorsky in either the Russian or American space programs. Over the years many people questioned Armstrong as to what the 'Good luck, Mr. Gorsky... statement meant, but Armstrong always just smiled.
On July 5, 1995, in Tampa Bay, Florida, while answering questions following a speech, a reporter brought up the 26- year-old question to Armstrong. This time he finally responded.
Mr. Gorsky had died, so Neil Armstrong felt he could now answer the question. In 1938, when he was a kid in a small mid-west town, he was playing baseball with a friend in the backyard. His friend hit the ball, which landed in his neighbor's yard by their bedroom window. His neighbors were Mr. and Mrs. Gorsky. As he leaned down to pick up the ball, young Armstrong heard Mrs. Gorsky shouting at Mr. Gorsky.
'Sex! You want sex?! You’ll get sex when the kid next door walks on the moon!'
True story! !
On July 20, 1969, as commander of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module, Neil Armstrong was the first person to set foot on the moon. His first words after stepping on the moon, 'that's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,' were televised to earth and heard by millions. But, just before he re-entered the Lander, he made the enigmatic remark 'Good luck, Mr. Gorsky.'
However, upon checking, there was no Gorsky in either the Russian or American space programs. Over the years many people questioned Armstrong as to what the 'Good luck, Mr. Gorsky... statement meant, but Armstrong always just smiled.
On July 5, 1995, in Tampa Bay, Florida, while answering questions following a speech, a reporter brought up the 26- year-old question to Armstrong. This time he finally responded.
Mr. Gorsky had died, so Neil Armstrong felt he could now answer the question. In 1938, when he was a kid in a small mid-west town, he was playing baseball with a friend in the backyard. His friend hit the ball, which landed in his neighbor's yard by their bedroom window. His neighbors were Mr. and Mrs. Gorsky. As he leaned down to pick up the ball, young Armstrong heard Mrs. Gorsky shouting at Mr. Gorsky.
'Sex! You want sex?! You’ll get sex when the kid next door walks on the moon!'
True story! !
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Unleashing Your Force for Good
Another great article by Chris. Enjoy!!
by Chris Widener
I do not believe that there are bad people and good people. I believe that what we have are “people,” period. People then choose what they will be. People choose to do bad or do good. And we can’t fool ourselves: each person has the capacity for both.
On one hand, every person has within them the capacity for evil. G.K. Chesterton’s quote is certainly true: “Original Sin is the only philosophy empirically validated by 3500 years of human history.” Fortunately, most societies groom people with a sense of right and wrong and encourage people to respond to their own conscience so that most people live their lives self-restricting the bad things they are capable of. For those who don’t self-restrict, we have police and prisons.
On the other hand, everyone has the capacity to do great good as well. Every mind can dream of the possibilities that they can come up with to make life better for themselves and for others around them. Every person has the imprint of God and therefore the ability to do what is good, if they so choose.
So where do most people live their lives? I think most people live their lives in the middle. Most people do not live out the terrible things they are capable of. Instead, they cut ethical corners here and there. Nothing society would punish them greatly for but not as pure as the newly fallen snow either! The opposite is true as well. Most people do not live out the incredible goodness they are capable of. They will, of course, open doors for people and jump-start an old lady’s car when the battery goes dead in the Wal-Mart parking lot, but most people do not live their lives with the passionate and purposeful pursuit of goodness each and every day to live their lives. Thus, most people live not so bad, not so good lives.
But you are different! I know by the very fact that you subscribed to this Ezine that you want to be your best – and I want to help you be your best! I want to give you some thoughts that will stir your mind and heart to action. I want to give you some principles and strategies that will enable you to take your life to the next level. We live in uncertain times. The whole world is on edge and there are many wars being fought at any given time on this old earth of ours. People who choose goodness are so desperately needed!
Are you ready to take your life to the next level? Are you ready to unleash the force of good that you have within you? Then here we go!
Know your specific gifts and talent, you strengths and abilities.
Everyone has at least one and usually a few, specific talents and abilities that, if they were utilized on a regular basis, would produce for them the kind of life they would love to live as well as produce a tremendous amount of goodness in the immediate world around them. This is especially true if they surrender their gifts to be specifically used for good. Find your strengths and regularly use them.
Develop a vision of the good you can accomplish.
If you want to produce goodness, you must have in your mind what good would look like to you. Do you have a vision of what kind of good you would like to unleash upon the world around you? Do you know what good things you want to do, the good legacy you want to work for and leave behind? Get a vision for your goodness and put it to work!
Pursue your passions.
I believe that most of the time our passions tell us what we should probably be pursuing. This is not always true but generally so. Do you have a passion for helping the underprivileged? Then pour your energies into giving them your goodness in whatever form allows you to make a difference in their lives.
Develop a strategy and action plan to work on making your passions a reality.
If you don’t plan your unleashing, it will spill everywhere and may not be as powerful and effective as if you have a specific plan to focus your goodness into a specific area. The basic example would be light. Sure a bulb will give off light and be beneficial, but when that light is so focused it becomes a laser, then it can really be powerful. Don’t just say you will embody goodness, make a plan on where you will pour your good energies.
Be ruthless about living out of your priorities.
If we want to be effective, we have to know where we are going and then stick to the plan. We cannot let anything sidetrack us! You will want to, for example, volunteer one day a week to help underprivileged children learn to read. Great idea! But you won’t believe how many things will creep into your life that will want to be scheduled for that day. If you let them, they will bump your priority and destroy your unleashing of your goodness. Stick to your priorities!
Listen to your conscience.
The conscience is perhaps the greatest gift we have. It is a built in homing device that always keeps us pointed in the direction. Yet the conscience is also like a muscle in that it gets stringer when used (listened to) and weaker when not used (not listened to). If you are in a relatively good place, you conscience will tell you what is good. Listen to it and act upon it and it will help you unleash the goodness within you!
Develop and memorize a life mission statement that declares you intentions for good.
My personal mission statement is, “To use my speaking and writing gifts to help people and organizations turn their potential into performance, succeed in every area of their lives, and achieve their dreams.” Can you think up a life mission statement that will keep you on track? Sure you can – and you should.
You have a lot of good to give to this world. And this world needs it now more than ever. Decide today that you will unleash you goodness on the world around you. Some of you reading this have a lot of influence in the world around you and others don’t have as much, but we all have some and if we all unleash our goodness into the world around us, we will certainly make a difference!
Go get ‘em! Let them have all the goodness you can give them!
by Chris Widener
I do not believe that there are bad people and good people. I believe that what we have are “people,” period. People then choose what they will be. People choose to do bad or do good. And we can’t fool ourselves: each person has the capacity for both.
On one hand, every person has within them the capacity for evil. G.K. Chesterton’s quote is certainly true: “Original Sin is the only philosophy empirically validated by 3500 years of human history.” Fortunately, most societies groom people with a sense of right and wrong and encourage people to respond to their own conscience so that most people live their lives self-restricting the bad things they are capable of. For those who don’t self-restrict, we have police and prisons.
On the other hand, everyone has the capacity to do great good as well. Every mind can dream of the possibilities that they can come up with to make life better for themselves and for others around them. Every person has the imprint of God and therefore the ability to do what is good, if they so choose.
So where do most people live their lives? I think most people live their lives in the middle. Most people do not live out the terrible things they are capable of. Instead, they cut ethical corners here and there. Nothing society would punish them greatly for but not as pure as the newly fallen snow either! The opposite is true as well. Most people do not live out the incredible goodness they are capable of. They will, of course, open doors for people and jump-start an old lady’s car when the battery goes dead in the Wal-Mart parking lot, but most people do not live their lives with the passionate and purposeful pursuit of goodness each and every day to live their lives. Thus, most people live not so bad, not so good lives.
But you are different! I know by the very fact that you subscribed to this Ezine that you want to be your best – and I want to help you be your best! I want to give you some thoughts that will stir your mind and heart to action. I want to give you some principles and strategies that will enable you to take your life to the next level. We live in uncertain times. The whole world is on edge and there are many wars being fought at any given time on this old earth of ours. People who choose goodness are so desperately needed!
Are you ready to take your life to the next level? Are you ready to unleash the force of good that you have within you? Then here we go!
Know your specific gifts and talent, you strengths and abilities.
Everyone has at least one and usually a few, specific talents and abilities that, if they were utilized on a regular basis, would produce for them the kind of life they would love to live as well as produce a tremendous amount of goodness in the immediate world around them. This is especially true if they surrender their gifts to be specifically used for good. Find your strengths and regularly use them.
Develop a vision of the good you can accomplish.
If you want to produce goodness, you must have in your mind what good would look like to you. Do you have a vision of what kind of good you would like to unleash upon the world around you? Do you know what good things you want to do, the good legacy you want to work for and leave behind? Get a vision for your goodness and put it to work!
Pursue your passions.
I believe that most of the time our passions tell us what we should probably be pursuing. This is not always true but generally so. Do you have a passion for helping the underprivileged? Then pour your energies into giving them your goodness in whatever form allows you to make a difference in their lives.
Develop a strategy and action plan to work on making your passions a reality.
If you don’t plan your unleashing, it will spill everywhere and may not be as powerful and effective as if you have a specific plan to focus your goodness into a specific area. The basic example would be light. Sure a bulb will give off light and be beneficial, but when that light is so focused it becomes a laser, then it can really be powerful. Don’t just say you will embody goodness, make a plan on where you will pour your good energies.
Be ruthless about living out of your priorities.
If we want to be effective, we have to know where we are going and then stick to the plan. We cannot let anything sidetrack us! You will want to, for example, volunteer one day a week to help underprivileged children learn to read. Great idea! But you won’t believe how many things will creep into your life that will want to be scheduled for that day. If you let them, they will bump your priority and destroy your unleashing of your goodness. Stick to your priorities!
Listen to your conscience.
The conscience is perhaps the greatest gift we have. It is a built in homing device that always keeps us pointed in the direction. Yet the conscience is also like a muscle in that it gets stringer when used (listened to) and weaker when not used (not listened to). If you are in a relatively good place, you conscience will tell you what is good. Listen to it and act upon it and it will help you unleash the goodness within you!
Develop and memorize a life mission statement that declares you intentions for good.
My personal mission statement is, “To use my speaking and writing gifts to help people and organizations turn their potential into performance, succeed in every area of their lives, and achieve their dreams.” Can you think up a life mission statement that will keep you on track? Sure you can – and you should.
You have a lot of good to give to this world. And this world needs it now more than ever. Decide today that you will unleash you goodness on the world around you. Some of you reading this have a lot of influence in the world around you and others don’t have as much, but we all have some and if we all unleash our goodness into the world around us, we will certainly make a difference!
Go get ‘em! Let them have all the goodness you can give them!
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Great Quote by Walter Anderson
"I am responsible. Although I may not be able to prevent the worst from happening, I am responsible for my attitude toward the inevitable misfortunes that darken life. Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have - life itself."
The Three Legs of Persuasion
by Chris Widener
If you have heard me talk about leadership at all, you will know that I have a very simple definition of Leadership. Leadership is simply: Influence. That’s it. Simple. When you lead, you influence. To lead others is to influence them through various means to follow you to your vision of a preferred thought, belief or action.
One of the key ways to do so is to increase your ability to persuade people. Now, at first glance you may do as many do and think of persuasion as simply a verbal plea or argument (in the positive sense of the word) that seeks to change someone’s mind. I want to focus in on what I believe to be a much more well rounded view of persuasion, one that has been around for many hundreds of years, and which, when applied, will increase your ability to persuade others, or influence them.
My basic points for this article are found from Aristotle’s “The Rhetoric.” They are what I call the “Three Legs of Persuasion.” Together they enable us to fully persuade people. Miss any of the three legs and it is like trying to sit on a three-legged stool that is missing one leg!
What are the three legs? They are:
Logos, or Logic
Pathos, or Passion
Ethos, or Ethics
Let’s start with the two that are most prevalent, Logic and Passion, and end with what I consider to be the most important, Ethics.
In order to master the art of persuasion, you must have:
1. Logic. Your vision must make sense to the person who is following you (or the one you are trying to get to follow you!). How is this done?
* Vision. Do you have a vision of where it is that you want to go? Do you have the destination in mind? If you want people to follow you, you need to have a vision, an end result that you are targeting.
* Clarity. Is the vision clear? Can it be articulated clearly? Is it simple enough to grasp? Does it make sense?
* Communication. Can you communicate your vision so that it is understandable and compelling? Do you communicate it regularly so that the logic of it sinks in?
* Strategy. The strategy for getting to your destination must be logical for your followers. Does it make sense for them to follow you on the journey of your vision for your organization? A well-thought out strategy for getting to your vision is a must.
2. Passion. People underestimate the principle of passion. Today more than ever, this element of being passionate about your vision is paramount to the idea of persuasion.
As we leave the modern era and move into what sociologists are calling the “post-modern” era, people are going to be persuaded less by logic and reason than they are passion. We live in a video age that uses images and music to move people more than sense and reason. For example, think about how basketball shoes are sold today. They ads don’t say, “These shoes are made from the finest rubber and leather and will sustain the shock of x amount of pounds of pressure, etc, etc.” No, today shoes are sold by showing basketball players dribbling the ball to a methodical beat. Image. Passion.
So do we throw out logic? Certainly not, but we understand that the passion we demonstrate is extremely important. Probably more important than logic and increasingly so in the years to come.
Are you passionate about your vision? Does that come through when you speak about it? Does it come through in the materials that you distribute to support your vision?
People want to know that you are passionate about your vision. If you aren’t passionate about it, then why should they be? Your vision must be passionately compelling. After all, you are asking them to put themselves on the line, to give it all to get the group to the vision. It takes a passionate person to move a group toward a vision. And the bigger the vision, the more passion you need to get there!
3. Ethics. This is what I believe to be the most important aspect of these three legs of persuasion. Ethics. Integrity. Character. However you want to say it, people look at you and are constantly judging your character.
You may have tremendous skills. You may have all the logic in the world and passion to fill a sporting arena, but if your followers see a crack in your character, they will run for the hills. Now don’t get me wrong. I am not talking about mistakes. Followers will allow for mistakes. But they will not allow for poor character.
I know what you must be thinking: Wait a minute. We have all sorts of leaders with poor character - just look at the politicians! A few thoughts on that very good question:
Many of the people we think have poor character have many others (and in a politician’s case, they just need 51%) who think their character is fine, or at least sufficient. So for some the question of ethics has been answered, just differently than we would answer it. For example, polls show that most people think that politicians are unethical and corrupt in general. But when polled on their own representative, they answer that that person is just fine, thank you very much.
Secondly, we have seen that very talented leaders are eventually undone by their lack of character, or at least thwarted in their goals of leadership. Let’s take Bill Clinton for example. What do we know about him? What would most people agree upon?
For one, he is smart, a Rhode’s scholar. For another, he is talented. Still more, he is passionate and driven. He is winsome and gregarious. We also know that he had a few “character problems.”
“But he was re-elected,” you may point out. True, but he didn’t accomplish what he wanted to because he was answering the question of his character all of the time. And beyond that, many people who were big supporters of his ended up realizing that they could have someone else who would provide leadership without the sideshow, and they abandoned him in droves by the end.
To his major detractors, Bill Clinton was an example of a person who lacked the character to lead. To his supporters he has become a caricature of lost opportunity because of the issues of character. Now, I do not intend to turn this article into a discussion of politics, but I use Clinton as an example of how people who are both opposed as well as sympathetic to him and his vision can agree that character questions were his undoing.
Where does this leave us? Hopefully you aren’t dealing with the kind of issues we have seen in our political process lately, but you should be asking yourself what your character is like.
Am I honest? Am I who I say I am? Do I do what is right? Am I responsible? Am I the same behind closed doors as I am in public? Am I a person of integrity? These are the most important questions. The way your followers answer them about you will determine to what degree they follow you. Will people follow you if your character is less than stellar? Maybe. But all other things being the same, a strong character will put you over the top.
Logic, passion and ethics are the three legs of persuasion. Become a person with a vision that is logical and well thought out, combine that with a passionate pursuit, and you are well on your way to persuading people and achieving the goal for your organization. The key will be what kind of character you have. If you develop a fine, strong character, with high personal ethics, you will have all three legs of persuasion - and you will become an Extraordinary Leader!
If you have heard me talk about leadership at all, you will know that I have a very simple definition of Leadership. Leadership is simply: Influence. That’s it. Simple. When you lead, you influence. To lead others is to influence them through various means to follow you to your vision of a preferred thought, belief or action.
One of the key ways to do so is to increase your ability to persuade people. Now, at first glance you may do as many do and think of persuasion as simply a verbal plea or argument (in the positive sense of the word) that seeks to change someone’s mind. I want to focus in on what I believe to be a much more well rounded view of persuasion, one that has been around for many hundreds of years, and which, when applied, will increase your ability to persuade others, or influence them.
My basic points for this article are found from Aristotle’s “The Rhetoric.” They are what I call the “Three Legs of Persuasion.” Together they enable us to fully persuade people. Miss any of the three legs and it is like trying to sit on a three-legged stool that is missing one leg!
What are the three legs? They are:
Logos, or Logic
Pathos, or Passion
Ethos, or Ethics
Let’s start with the two that are most prevalent, Logic and Passion, and end with what I consider to be the most important, Ethics.
In order to master the art of persuasion, you must have:
1. Logic. Your vision must make sense to the person who is following you (or the one you are trying to get to follow you!). How is this done?
* Vision. Do you have a vision of where it is that you want to go? Do you have the destination in mind? If you want people to follow you, you need to have a vision, an end result that you are targeting.
* Clarity. Is the vision clear? Can it be articulated clearly? Is it simple enough to grasp? Does it make sense?
* Communication. Can you communicate your vision so that it is understandable and compelling? Do you communicate it regularly so that the logic of it sinks in?
* Strategy. The strategy for getting to your destination must be logical for your followers. Does it make sense for them to follow you on the journey of your vision for your organization? A well-thought out strategy for getting to your vision is a must.
2. Passion. People underestimate the principle of passion. Today more than ever, this element of being passionate about your vision is paramount to the idea of persuasion.
As we leave the modern era and move into what sociologists are calling the “post-modern” era, people are going to be persuaded less by logic and reason than they are passion. We live in a video age that uses images and music to move people more than sense and reason. For example, think about how basketball shoes are sold today. They ads don’t say, “These shoes are made from the finest rubber and leather and will sustain the shock of x amount of pounds of pressure, etc, etc.” No, today shoes are sold by showing basketball players dribbling the ball to a methodical beat. Image. Passion.
So do we throw out logic? Certainly not, but we understand that the passion we demonstrate is extremely important. Probably more important than logic and increasingly so in the years to come.
Are you passionate about your vision? Does that come through when you speak about it? Does it come through in the materials that you distribute to support your vision?
People want to know that you are passionate about your vision. If you aren’t passionate about it, then why should they be? Your vision must be passionately compelling. After all, you are asking them to put themselves on the line, to give it all to get the group to the vision. It takes a passionate person to move a group toward a vision. And the bigger the vision, the more passion you need to get there!
3. Ethics. This is what I believe to be the most important aspect of these three legs of persuasion. Ethics. Integrity. Character. However you want to say it, people look at you and are constantly judging your character.
You may have tremendous skills. You may have all the logic in the world and passion to fill a sporting arena, but if your followers see a crack in your character, they will run for the hills. Now don’t get me wrong. I am not talking about mistakes. Followers will allow for mistakes. But they will not allow for poor character.
I know what you must be thinking: Wait a minute. We have all sorts of leaders with poor character - just look at the politicians! A few thoughts on that very good question:
Many of the people we think have poor character have many others (and in a politician’s case, they just need 51%) who think their character is fine, or at least sufficient. So for some the question of ethics has been answered, just differently than we would answer it. For example, polls show that most people think that politicians are unethical and corrupt in general. But when polled on their own representative, they answer that that person is just fine, thank you very much.
Secondly, we have seen that very talented leaders are eventually undone by their lack of character, or at least thwarted in their goals of leadership. Let’s take Bill Clinton for example. What do we know about him? What would most people agree upon?
For one, he is smart, a Rhode’s scholar. For another, he is talented. Still more, he is passionate and driven. He is winsome and gregarious. We also know that he had a few “character problems.”
“But he was re-elected,” you may point out. True, but he didn’t accomplish what he wanted to because he was answering the question of his character all of the time. And beyond that, many people who were big supporters of his ended up realizing that they could have someone else who would provide leadership without the sideshow, and they abandoned him in droves by the end.
To his major detractors, Bill Clinton was an example of a person who lacked the character to lead. To his supporters he has become a caricature of lost opportunity because of the issues of character. Now, I do not intend to turn this article into a discussion of politics, but I use Clinton as an example of how people who are both opposed as well as sympathetic to him and his vision can agree that character questions were his undoing.
Where does this leave us? Hopefully you aren’t dealing with the kind of issues we have seen in our political process lately, but you should be asking yourself what your character is like.
Am I honest? Am I who I say I am? Do I do what is right? Am I responsible? Am I the same behind closed doors as I am in public? Am I a person of integrity? These are the most important questions. The way your followers answer them about you will determine to what degree they follow you. Will people follow you if your character is less than stellar? Maybe. But all other things being the same, a strong character will put you over the top.
Logic, passion and ethics are the three legs of persuasion. Become a person with a vision that is logical and well thought out, combine that with a passionate pursuit, and you are well on your way to persuading people and achieving the goal for your organization. The key will be what kind of character you have. If you develop a fine, strong character, with high personal ethics, you will have all three legs of persuasion - and you will become an Extraordinary Leader!
John Maxwell
Leadership determines the direction of the company.
Organization determines the potential of the company.
Personell determine the success of the company.
Organization determines the potential of the company.
Personell determine the success of the company.
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