“Relationships are more important than material things.”
Category Archives: Leadership
Give Your Best To Your Best
We occupy most of our days at work. We spend a lot of time with the people we work with. How do you treat the people you work with? Do you treat them better than your husband, wife, significant other or kids?
Who are you giving your best to? Are you leaving your best at work or are you giving it to those that are closest to you at home?
Many of you tend to work late. Set a time to leave work by and stick to it. An example would be to be out the door by 5:30 p.m. If necessary have a plan that you have discussed with your spouse or significant other that you intend to work late one night a week and let them know when that night is planned.
Before you get home stop and clear email on your phone, return any calls that need to be made and check any websites you need to check. Stop at a parking lot or a store near your home. Better yet, do this before you leave work.
I have known and coached people that have a card on the dash of their car or visor that says “Give Your Best To Your Best.”
Here is what to do tonight when you get home. When you walk in the door to your house or apartment forget about work and give your best to your best. Be present. Hug your spouse, play with your kids and have dinner together.
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Be Great!
“It is all about the little things.”
Your Kids Are Watching You
Have you ever heard the song by Rodney Atkins entitled Watching You? In the song the dad is driving with his son in the truck and his son spills his fries and orange drink and says sh**. The dad wonders where he learned this and figures out it is what he says.
Leadership starts at home. Your children learn from you by watching you. They learn a lot more by doing as you do than doing as you say.
Some Do’s and Don’ts
Show signs of affection to your wife or husband in front of your children
Your children want to know that you love your spouse. They want to see that you care for each other. This gives them assurances that you love each other.
Men – Open doors for wife and let them go before you
Real Men do this. You can tell by the picture above that this has been going on for a long time. You don’t see it as frequently today. This is being respectful of your wife.
Hold Hands
There is nothing more beautiful than seeing a couple in their 70’s or 80’s walking hand in hand. When you hold hands it shows your children you are together. You are bonded.
Do special things for your spouse that your kids are aware that you did
Buy something small for your spouse and give it to your spouse in front of your kids. Give your spouse a card that your kids see. Do an act of kindness for your spouse in the presence of your children.
Pray with your spouse and your kids
Like the song your kids will copy you. They will pray on their own and they will pray when they leave home.
Hug your kids and tell them you love them
Let your kids know you love them. Dads hug your boys too. Even the big boys like it.
Pay attention to who your children are spending their time with
It is said you are the average of the 5 people you are around the most. It is extremely important that you pay attention to who your kids friends are. One of the ways to do that is create an environment that kids want to hang out at your house. Have them invite their friends over to spend time at your house so you can see who they are spending time with.
Don’t yell or belittle your spouse in front of your children
This should be avoided. Belittling makes it ok for the kids to belittle mom or dad. If one of the kids is belittling their mom it should be stopped by dad right away. This only gets worse as kids turn in to teens if you let this go.
Don’t have a fight or argue in front of your kids
Take the argument behind closed doors. Kids feel insecure when their parents fight in front of them and feel that their parents don’t love each other. In todays world with the number of parents getting divorced the kids will think you are headed down that path.
Don’t use profanity in front of your children
If you have a favorite swear word or phrase your kids will copy it. There is nothing like a 4 year old letting a 4 letter word go at the wrong time. There are over 200,000 words in the dictionary. Choose a different word or phrase to say.
I have had the privilege with my wife of raising 4 children over the last 24 years. The do’s and don’ts above are things I have learned over the years. I have been fortunate enough to see some of the benefits of these.
We see our boys treating women with respect, holding doors, letting women go first and keeping their faith. We see our girls keeping their faith and knowing how a woman should be treated by a man. They also know how a wife should treat her husband and how they respect one another.
Remember your kids are watching what you do and what you say.
Be Great!
7 Step Morning Routine
How do you start your morning? Do you have a morning routine?
You will find that your days will be better if you start better. To start better, set up a morning routine before you head off to work. It may mean having to get up earlier. You will find if you take time for yourself and set up your day before you get in the busyness of the world your days will go much better.
I know some of you have young kids and this can be challenging. My challenge to you would be to get up 30 – 60 minutes before everyone else and have your quiet time.
Here is a sample 7 Step Morning Routine:
- Have a cup of coffee and pray
- Reflect on what you are grateful for
- What charitable acts or acts of kindness can you do for someone today
- Plan out your day
- Workout
- Shower
- Have Breakfast
Develop a morning routine. Write it down and stick with it for 30 days. Live intentionally!
Be Great!
Living Life Out of Balance
One of the things I have strived to do over the years is to help myself and to help others become their best selves. I have found to be able to help others it all starts with me. I work to continuously improve in each area of my life. This includes my faith and spiritual life, my fitness and health, my relationship with my wife and my family, my finances, friendships and creating memories with fun.
There is a slogan that I picked up from a friend that says “Speed of the Leader, Speed of the Team”. In order for you to lead and help others you have to help yourself first. This is similar to something that you hear on an airplane during the safety announcements. You are told in case of emergency place the air mask on yourself first. This is so you will have enough oxygen in order to help others to put their mask on. It all starts with you.
In our society most people determine “success” from a financial standpoint. Many times you will find that the financially successful people are not necessarily successful in some of the other 5 areas. To obtain a balance you have to strive to become proficient in all 6 areas of your life.
You will never live your life totally in balance. In fact, you need to learn how to live your life out of balance. What you have to be careful of is getting too far out of balance in any area of your life.
A great way to measure this is to take each of the 6 areas and rate them on how you are doing today on a scale of 1 – 10 with 10 being best. Picture a bicycle wheel and 10 is the tire and everything inside of 1 through 10 are along the spokes going towards the hub? How does your wheel look? Does it roll or is it lopsided?
This is a good exercise check to do on a monthly basis to see where you are getting too far out of balance. The key is to be aware of where you are too far out of balance and make corrections before you crash.
I finish many of my notes, birthday wishes or emails with the saying Be Great!. When I say Be Great! I am saying be the greatest person you can become. Be your best self.
Be Great!