Leadership Toolbox

Kenyan long-distance runner Abel Kiprop Mutai was a few meters away from the finish line, but got confused by the signals and stopped, thinking he had finished the race. The Spanish runner, Ivan Fernandez, was right behind him and, realizing what was happening in front of him, began shouting for the Kenyan to keep running. Motai did not know Spanish and did not understand. What happened next astounded the world! Fernandez started to push Mutai all the way to the finish line. One reporter asked Ivan, "Why did you do this?" Ivan replied, "My dream is that one day we can have the kind of community life that pushes ourselves and others to win as well." "But why did you let the Kenyan win?" the reporter insisted. Ivan replied, "I didn't let him win, he would win. It was his race." The reporter insisted and asked again: "But you could have won!" Ivan looked at him and replied, "But what is the merit of my victory? Wha

Introduction to PLANNING

Planning for organizational effectiveness or planning for personal success? Well, whatever the case may be there are some effective tools that you can use to help guide you in planning your new year! I am pretty sure that most business organizations are already done planning their 2014, but for those who have not yet started - always remember that It is never too late to plan. Planning is an essential ingredient to success if not the most important and like the old saying goes: "If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail." - Benjamin Franklin But how do we define effective planning? Effective planning according to the Seven Habits book of Stephen Covey is, "To start with a clear understanding of your destination, to know where you are going so that you better understand where you are now and so that the steps you take are always in the right direction." Let us begin. First you must remember that there is a Planning Framework that you mu

7 Habits of Highly Effective People

According to Stephen Covey, the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People will lead all of us through the staged of maturity to interdependence. The 7 habits are an orderly sequence of growth which starts from achieving personal victor ies to attaining public victories. Habit # 1 - BE PROACTIVE Habit # 2 - BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND Habit # 3 - PUT FIRST THINGS FIRST Habit # 4 - THINK WIN-WIN Habit # 5 - SEEK FIRST TO UNDERSTAND, THEN TO BE UNDERSTOOD Habit # 6 - SYNERGIZE Habit # 7 - SHARPEN THE SAW Habits 1, 2 and 3 lead to private victories that allow us to achieve self-mastery and dominion over self. Habits 4, 5 and 6 lead to public victories that allow us to achieve success with others. These habits forms a continuum because private victory precedes public victory. Meaning, that unless we develop self-mastery, it is difficult, if not impossible, to achieve success with others. Together these habits cultivate personal character, which is the foundation of eff

5 More Short Stories That Will Change Your Attitude Towards Life

Sand and Stone A story tells of two friends who were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey, they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one in the face. The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, she wrote in the sand: "TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE" They kept on walking, until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but her friend saved her. After she recovered from the near drowning, she wrote on a stone: "TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE" The friend, who had slapped and saved her best friend, asked her, "After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand, and now, you write on a stone, why?" The other friend replied: "When someone hurts us, we should write it down in sand, where the winds of forgiveness can erase it, but when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone, so no w

5 Short Stories That Will Change Your Attitude Towards Life

The Chihuahua and the Leopard A lady takes her pet chihuahua with her on a safari holiday. Wandering too far one day the chihuahua gets lost in the bush, and soon encounters a very hungry looking leopard. The chihuahua realizes he's in trouble, but, noticing some fresh bones on the ground, he settles down to chew on them, with his back to the big cat. As the leopard is about to leap, the chihuahua smacks his lips and exclaims loudly, "Boy, that was one delicious leopard. I wonder if there are any more around here." The leopard stops mid-stride, and slinks away into the trees. "Phew," says the leopard, "that was close - that evil little dog nearly had me." A monkey nearby sees everything and thinks he'll win a favor by putting the stupid leopard straight. The chihuahua sees the monkey go after the leopard, and guesses he might be up to no good. When the leopard hears the monkey's story he feels angry at being made a fool, and off

The Farmer's Donkey and the Well

One day, a farmer's donkey fell into a well. The animal cried loudly for hours, while the farmer tried to find a way to get him out. Finally, the farmer decided that the donkey was old and the well was already dry and needed to be covered anyway — it really wasn't worth pulling the donkey out of the well. He invited all his neighbors to come help. They each grabbed a shovel and began to pile dirt into the well. The donkey realised what was happening and cried horribly loud. Then, to everyone's surprise, he quieted down after a few shovelfuls of dirt. The farmer finally looked into the well and was amazed at what he saw — with each shovelful of dirt, the donkey was doing something incredible: It was shaking off the dirt and stepping on top. Very soon everyone was surprised as the donkey reached the mouth of the well, stepped over the edge and trotted out. When you fell into a deep hole and life keeps throwing dirt at you, sometimes the key to getting out is to ju

On Learning

We are here to learn lessons, and the world is our teacher. When we fail to learn a lesson, we get to take it again... and again! Once we have learned the lesson, we move on to the next one. And we never run out of lessons! by Andrew Matthews

The 5 Killer Habits of Highly Unproductive People

UNPRODUCTIVITY is defined as the quality, state, or fact of not being able to generate, create, enhance, or produce. It is often used to refer to objects or people that generates inferior, sub-standard or even mediocre output or results. Of course, people will choose to be productive than unproductive but in real life and due to bad habits and wrong orientation, we tend to embrace unproductivity more without us knowing it. The best way to avoid this, is to observe the daily habits of highly unproductive people and make it our personal mission to make certain changes in our lives so that we will not get caught in the same web that they got themselves into. 5 Killer Habits of Highly Unproductive People 1. No Game Plan No plan-No game! It's as simple as that. Like what Benjamin Franklin said, "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail". If productivity is linked to achieving worthwhile planned goals that leads to where you want to go then highly unprod

Simple Time Management for Kids

What do we want? Where are we going? This is a difficult question to ask very young children. The younger they are the less likely they are to have a clear sense of where they are going. So one of the jobs of a parent is help them set some beneficial goals. For example, – Getting better grades – Finishing family chores – Improving health or a skill Self-management needs to start with something that your children can visualize as a worthy goal. Talk to them about their interests and help them focus on an outcome that they would see as desirable. As much as possible, involve your children in selecting and in picturing themselves in that favorable outcome. The first step, therefore, is to set a target, to make an outcome important. Don’t overburden your children with all the things they should be doing. Use one self-selected outcome as the model around which you can develop a pattern for future objectives. Gradually, together, you will build the kind of self-management that we someti

Servant Leadership is to Understand That We Are All Equally Blessed

Like the story of the Vine and the Branches in John’s Gospel we are all connected to one another. What ever happens to one, directly or indirectly affects all. It is a natural law. This connection makes us all equal even though we are unique. Our uniqueness makes as individuals, but our uniqueness also compliments the uniqueness of others and these makes us all inter-connected and inter-dependent. “We can’t all be artists for we will starve to death – some would love to be farmers and paint the land green with abundance.” We are all equally blessed as God’s Children and a servant leader respects this truth. A servant leader is not above or below but is equal to the people he or she serves. A servant leader does not rely on power or authority but with the strength and contributions of the people he leads. He understands that all has the capacity for greatness and his role as a leader is to help them enhance that individual capacity to achieve not only the goal of the group or the mi