In Friday Filosophy #2015-31 we are taking a look at leadership.
The world has changed rapidly over the past three decades and continues to change rapidly. If anything it is changing even more rapidly than it appears to be. However, there are some constants. From the Chairman at VW to the leader of the House of Representatives, we are seeing in front of us the challenges and difficulties in the position of leadership. Without making too much of these two examples you can see the challenges of CEOs in a number of different areas and Industries. Here are some quotes to consider from business and political leaders over the past half century.
I hope you enjoy them.
The key to successful leadership is influence, not authority.
Ken Blanchard
Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.
Jack Welsh
Are YOU growing yourself? Do you continue to learn? Do you read business books?
Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing.
Tom Peters
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
Winston Churchill
Leadership is not about titles, positions or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another.
John C. Maxwell
Don’t follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you.
Margaret Thatcher
A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.
Lao Tzu
Isn’t that rather different than “You didn’t build that?”
I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.
Estee Lauder
We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat; they do not exist.
Queen Victoria
My job is not to be easy on people. My job is to takes these great people we have and to push them and make them even better.
Steve Jobs
There are two kinds of stones, as everyone knows. One of which rolls.
Amelia Earhart
I was never the smartest guy in the room. From the first person I hired, I was never the smartest guy in the room. And that’s a big deal. And if you’re going to be a leader – if you’re the leader and the smartest guy in the world – in the room, you’ve got real problems.
Jack Welsh
It is delusional to consider yourself the answer to all things.
Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.
John F Kennedy
Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.
Peter Drucker
A leader is a dealer in hope.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Too many companies believe people are interchangeable. Truly gifted people never are. They have unique talents. Such people cannot be forced into roles they are not suited for, nor should they be. Effective leaders allow great people to do the work they were born to do.
Warren Bennis
Contrary to popular opinion, leadership is not a reserved position for a reserved group of people who were elected or appointed, ordained or enthroned. Leadership is self-made, self-retained, self-inculcated and then exposed through a faithful, sincere, and exemplary life.
Israelmore Avivor
Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work.
Seth Godin
Let me close with some quotes from Charles Handy. Influential to the business world like Peter Drucker was in the US, but from his perch in Great Britain.
- The moment will arrive when you are comfortable with who you are, and what you are – bald or old or fat or poor, successful or struggling – when you don’t feel the need to apologize for anything or to deny anything. To be comfortable in your own skin is the beginning of strength.
- We cannot wait for great visions from great people, for they are in short supply. It is up to us to light our own small fires in the darkness.
- Change is only another word for growth, another synonym for learning.
- Instead of a national curriculum for education, what is really needed is an individual curriculum for every child.
- Creativity needs a bit of untidiness. Make everything too neat and there is no room for experiment.
The time is now.
Friday Filosophy #2015-33
We continue with a theme of leadership this week in our Friday Filosophy #2015-33.
A good leader can’t get too far ahead of his followers.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Constant dripping hollows out a stone.
Lucretius
He who conquers others is strong. He who conquers himself is mighty.
Lao Tzu
The time is now.
Management Musings 2.7 (Reprised) #MondayBlogs
We are in the process of updating the business page for our consulting, and I wanted to give you a reminder. What follows is our statement of where we are as a group and where we are going. I am as excited now, and as motivated today, as I have been at any previous time in my forty five years working in the Industry. I am truly blessed.
Our consulting business is winding down. I am not aggressively soliciting business like I once did, but will be dealing with requests on a one to one basis. As long as there is interest in my skills and experience I will be more than happy to assist. Our website, rjslee.com, is still live and active, with ongoing updates to our articles and our recommended reading. With our reading lists, you can find selections from Business Teachers, or Business Management Tools, and many more. I like to direct avid learners to that resource, as it can provide foundational texts to motivate you in pursuing your goals.
The Learning business is becoming a much more prominent focus for my time. We are excited about our new venture, Learning Without Scars, and using all the current technology to bring our learning products to the market worldwide. We will be offering ten classroom seminars, forty webinars and ten internet based self-study programs in fifteen different languages. We will be moving to having a YouTube channel and developing a series of streamed products for use by everyone in fifteen languages as well. All of this is being done with a new web page as well. We are working with a terrific partner on this project. Brian Shanahan of “shanahandesign” is the gentleman we have selected to do this work. I am extremely pleased to have found Brian as he does wonderful work. Thank you, Brian.
Our Company Insight (M&R) Institute which has been the platform for the traditional Twenty Group business is being replaced with a new and improved technology driven product. I suspect this new model will become the new standard for twenty group operations in the coming years. This new product is being developed in conjunction with Foresight Intelligence. Dale Hanna, the CEO of Foresight Intelligence, and I are putting the finishing touches on what we believe will produce strong value to dealers in assisting them to be all that they can be. The new product offering will be complimentary and confidential. The dealer will be able to sign on to a model and either identify who they are on not, their choice, enter their information into a “FITNESS” model and receive a “FIRST” results response on key management measures for each of the five major departments within a dealer. The FIRST will show each management measure and a traffic light type graphic with a color code to recognize their performance as out Insight standards. These standards have been developed in our consulting business over the past forty five years in working with well over 1,000 different dealers around the world. The dealer then can go and make the necessary changes in their business without anything further. If however, they want assistance with the click of a button they will be directed to the “FAIR” page will is a series of “TIPS.” Each TIP leads to an implementation process. Each one of the TIPS is a tried and true example of the consulting work I have been doing for the past thirty five years. If the dealer wants further assistance we have developed a network of “ACES.” Each ACE is a retired senior executive from a dealership who still has the interest and energy to continue working in the Industry just not on a full time basis. Dale and I are very excited about this new offering, which we are presenting as the Capital Goods Sages.
I hope that you will find this news as exciting as I do in providing you with it and look forward to continuing to be a part of your team in Product Support.
The time is now
Friday Filosophy #2015-32
Last week I ended with some quotes from Charles Handy. This week, for Friday Filosophy #2015-32 we will be reading quotes from Peter Drucker.
If any of you would like to send me your favorite quotes we will make a compilation of them for a future post. Thanks for your help.
Doing the right thing is more important than doing the thing right.
If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old.
There is nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency something that should not be done at all.
What gets measured gets improved.
Results are gained by exploiting opportunities, not by solving problems.
So much of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to work.
People who don’t take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.
Meetings are by definition a concession to a deficient organization. For one either meets or one works. One cannot do both at the same time.
Long range planning does not deal with the future decisions, but with the future of present decisions.
Management is doing things right. Leadership is doing the right things.
The time is now.
Friday Filosophy #2015-31
In Friday Filosophy #2015-31 we are taking a look at leadership.
The world has changed rapidly over the past three decades and continues to change rapidly. If anything it is changing even more rapidly than it appears to be. However, there are some constants. From the Chairman at VW to the leader of the House of Representatives, we are seeing in front of us the challenges and difficulties in the position of leadership. Without making too much of these two examples you can see the challenges of CEOs in a number of different areas and Industries. Here are some quotes to consider from business and political leaders over the past half century.
I hope you enjoy them.
The key to successful leadership is influence, not authority.
Ken Blanchard
Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.
Jack Welsh
Are YOU growing yourself? Do you continue to learn? Do you read business books?
Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing.
Tom Peters
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
Winston Churchill
Leadership is not about titles, positions or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another.
John C. Maxwell
Don’t follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you.
Margaret Thatcher
A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.
Lao Tzu
Isn’t that rather different than “You didn’t build that?”
I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.
Estee Lauder
We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat; they do not exist.
Queen Victoria
My job is not to be easy on people. My job is to takes these great people we have and to push them and make them even better.
Steve Jobs
There are two kinds of stones, as everyone knows. One of which rolls.
Amelia Earhart
I was never the smartest guy in the room. From the first person I hired, I was never the smartest guy in the room. And that’s a big deal. And if you’re going to be a leader – if you’re the leader and the smartest guy in the world – in the room, you’ve got real problems.
Jack Welsh
It is delusional to consider yourself the answer to all things.
Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.
John F Kennedy
Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.
Peter Drucker
A leader is a dealer in hope.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Too many companies believe people are interchangeable. Truly gifted people never are. They have unique talents. Such people cannot be forced into roles they are not suited for, nor should they be. Effective leaders allow great people to do the work they were born to do.
Warren Bennis
Contrary to popular opinion, leadership is not a reserved position for a reserved group of people who were elected or appointed, ordained or enthroned. Leadership is self-made, self-retained, self-inculcated and then exposed through a faithful, sincere, and exemplary life.
Israelmore Avivor
Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work.
Seth Godin
Let me close with some quotes from Charles Handy. Influential to the business world like Peter Drucker was in the US, but from his perch in Great Britain.
The time is now.
Service Management – How webinars can increase profits!
Magic words: increase profits. Service Management is a very simple term to cover the many variables it contains: planning, organization, customer retention, job descriptions, praise, criticism, time management, personnel management. I could go on with this list, as the Service Management includes so much within the Dealership.
With so many moving parts, how can you train your staff to provide service and satisfaction to your most important asset – the customer?
Our Service Management webinars offer 1 hour programs on the varied topics and skills necessary to run a successful business, without the demands on time or travel that are required in traditional, face-to-face training.
We are back in full swing with our webinar learning series, and we would love to see you this week.
For more information on Service Management webinars from Learning Without Scars, please visit our website on the Service Management – Webinars tab to read short write-ups, and sign up for training.
The time is now.
Friday Filosophy #2015-30
With Friday Filosophy #2015-30 we are working here to get back into the routine of our technology updates.
With the fast pace of change in technological development I wanted to focus on some diverse views on technology. One day we will realize that we need to have the same amount of change and development in the sociological world as well.
Enjoy!
The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.
Bill Gates
One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.
Elbert Hubbard
The Internet is so big, so powerful and pointless that for some people it is a complete substitute for life.
Andrew Brown
Technology is a gift of God. After the gift of life it is perhaps the greatest of God’s gifts. It is the mother of civilizations, of arts and of sciences.
Freeman Dyson
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Arthur C. Clarke
Men have become the tools of their tools.
Henry David Thoreau
The time is now.
Friday Filosophy #2015-29
With our webinar series beginning next week for the fall session, Friday Filosophy #2015-29 is about something we strive for, always: excellence.
Satisfaction in life is knowing that you got the best out of your attributes. Don’t settle for less than you are capable of in your life. There is much more satisfaction in overcoming challenges and problems than sailing through life without being challenged. Many famous people have said something like this in different ways with the same meaning. Never lie to your reflection in the mirror even though it is the easiest person in the world to lie to. You will never achieve what you were meant to achieve.
Today I would like to explore some differing views of excellence.
Every job is a self-portrait of the person who does it. Autograph your work with excellence.
Author Unknown
The secret of joy in work is contained in one word – excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it.
Pearl S. Buck
Excellence is never an accident: it is the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction, skillful execution and the vision to see obstacles as opportunities.
Anonymous
Mediocre men work at their best; men seeking excellence strive to do better.
Edwin Louis Cole
Excellence is not a skill. It is an attitude.
Ralph Marston
Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.
John W Gardner
If you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work.
Thomas J. Watson
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.
Aristotle
ABILITY is what you are capable of doing.
MOTIVATION determines what you do.
ATTTITUDE determines how well you do it.
Lou Holtz
Perfection is not attainable. But if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence.
Vince Lombardi
No work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.
Martin Luther King
Once you have experienced excellence you will never again be content with mediocrity.
Thomas S. Watson
The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.
Vince Lombardi
If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.
Colin Powell
Excellence in any department can be attained only by the labor of a lifetime; it is not to be purchased at a lesser price.
Samuel Johnson
Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.
Steve Jobs
Life’s like a play: it’s not the length but the excellence of the acting that matters.
Seneca
How you view your work or your life is your own. How others view you is not.
The time is now.
Parts Management: The Return of the Webinars
It’s that time of year again. Our Parts Management Webinars return next week, beginning on Tuesday, September 15.
What is Parts Management? What are the key management areas in which we can increase our profitability? How can we implement systems and training to make more money?
Be sure to join us for a refresher, or few new training, to get this unique, interactive, conference style training geared at profitability, productivity, and systems within the Parts Department at your Dealership.
For a complete description of each webinar, and to register, please visit our Parts Management Webinars page on our website.
Fall brings with it the return of our training offerings, and the opportunity to continue to develop in your pursuit of excellence.
The time is now.
Friday Filosophy #2015-28
Friday Filosophy is back with #2015-28. I hope you have all had a wonderful summer break.
The children are all back at school and the beginning of the second working half of the calendar begins.
Leadership is unlocking people’s potential to become better.
Bill Bradley
People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.
Dale Carnegie
Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.
Henry David Thoreau
Obstacles cannot crush me, every obstacle yields to stern resolve.
Leonardo da Vinci
Let’s all get back to work.
The time is now.
Friday Filosophy #2015-27 A Midsummer’s Blog
I’m not trying to be Shakespeare with that title, but Friday Filosophy #2015-27 is A Midsummer’s Blog on all of the joys of the season we’re in.
The middle of summer is upon us and I am pleased to bring back a mid-summer’s blog for your consideration. One of the things I truly enjoyed growing up were my summers in the Laurentians north of Montreal. My mother was able to find and purchase an old house, built in 1908, for the family to spend school holidays at every year. My father commuted on Wednesday and the weekends from his “city” job.
As a result of that I grew up on a lake. The country club was a very basic offering. We had swimming, tennis and diving lessons for $5.00/month. The golf course was $16.00 a season for youth under 16 years of age. It was a fantastic opportunity.
So I had two lives: the summer place which was for fun, the city place which was for work.
Here are some thoughts for you on summertime.
Summer means happy times and good sunshine. It means going to the beach, going to Disneyland, having fun.
Brian Wilson
Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching clouds float across the sky is by no means a waste of time.
John Lubbock
Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it.
Russell Baker
Summer is the annual permission slip to be lazy. To do nothing and have it count for something. To lie in the grass and count the stars. To sit on a branch and study the clouds.
Regina Brett
In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.
Albert Camus
Tears are the summer showers to the soul.
Albert Austin
Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air and you.
Langston Hughes
Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability.
Sam Keen
Summer afternoon, summer afternoon; to me those have always been the most beautiful words in the English language.
Henry James
People take pictures of the summer, just in case something thought they had missed it, and to prove that it really existed.
Ray Davies
Oh, summer night,
Has a smile of light,
And she sits on a sapphire throne.
Bryan Procter
I hope you each have taken time this summer to slow down and enjoy. I remember having blood shot eyes most of the time from playing underwater tag with my friend Cliff and seeing rainbows around the sun all the time.
See you in September.
The time is now.