Happy Father's Day

On Father’s Day, I always remember what I’ve learned from my father.  He influenced my thinking on so many things.  He asked me on his death bed the one lesson I learned from him that changed my life the most.  I shared with him what he once told me when I was an early teen.  At the time, I was was just starting to deal with puberty and my mother’s life long mental illness. It was a very confusing time for me.  I asked my father what would help me understand life better.  I was hoping to get a simple lesson that would make my decisions easier.  

It took over 30 years to have my father open up and share his own beliefs and understanding of God . He wanted to make sure I was ready for the debate. He wanted me to have enough life to understand his perspectives on God.   

 He invested in me by helping to provide the best education life could buy. At 40, I repaid that investment, leaving my professional career to take care of him and my mother.  I was at the top of the corporate world, I advised many global leaders on big issues facing our world after 9/11, including our country’s leaders.  My four year sabbatical with my father and mother provided me an incredible experience. It was more valuable than all my formal education. My father gave me this poem near the end of his life.  He told me he read it in grade school and formed his life philosophy in a nutshell. It always brings tears to my eyes.  

I called my father out of desperation to see if he could help me brainstorm a solution for the faculty.  My father said he would like to help me but really didn’t know where I might start. He kidded me about the fact that I was invited and I should go as I am. Not as a military officer or representing the executive branch, but as a person who knew about organizational psychology and a student of leadership and history.  He then told me about John Wooden.  He had seen an article about Wooden’s leadership framework that might provide me with ideas that I could use to shape my discussions.

I went out and researched Coach Wooden and his famous Pyramid of Success. I tried to get on Coach Wooden’s schedule.  Unfortunately, we just couldn’t coordinate our schedules to talk, but I received several articles and presentations that helped me understand his value-based leadership model.

The more I read, the more clear I became.  His values mapped well to the values the military trains into our military and officers. Knowing the foundation, I could build an advanced framework on what leadership should look like moving forward. Coach Wooden had provided a great way of organizing my thinking.

This weekend, we lost Coach Wooden. He was inspiration to me, as well as many other more well-known athletes and professors. The more you know about John Wooden, the more you realize the gift he was to students, teachers, and fellow coaches.

I decided to share some of his thinking, because it is very relevant to people who lead organizations.  I find his thinking applies to leading technology companies even more.

I thought I’d share some of his thinking on leading teams and then follow up with a short comment. Enjoy and apply it to your own growing technology business.

Here are several rules for team leaders by John Wooden for software and technology leaders. 

Rules to Lead by:

1. Condition your team to love the struggle. In changing times, technology leaders must remember there will be struggles before success. Allow your team the opportunity to enjoy the challenge and growth that comes from struggling to acheive.

2. Remember that success can takes months or years to achieve but can be undone in minutes. Think before you speak, and understand that in a connected world, your thoughts may be around for many years to haunt you. Engage your heart before your mouth when dealing with challenging situations.

3. Never allow anyone else to define your success. If you allow others to define you, you may never succeed. Let your teams know your definition of success and work with them to make it happen. Become good at coaching your team.

4. Organizations succeed when they become more than the sum of their players. Share with others how much of a difference they make in a team’s performance. Find a way of supporting all team members. Look for chances to catch people doing things right and when they exceed expectations. Learn to help the team work well together.

If you have questions or comments about John Wooden, please add them here so we can all remember the man and how he changed our lives. If you found this blog helpful please let us know. We’d love to hear your stories and about how your teams have become successful. If you like this blog and would like more like it let us know. We can share other material to help you lead better.

Tripp Braden is an IT marketing and sales consultant who specializes in developing seven figure partnerships and businesses.  He is also the editor of Market Leadership Journal.  Discover how to grow your company through extraordinary partnerships by visiting http://www.HighGrowthBusiness.com where you can find resources and products to increase your success.

Great Mentors Make A Difference

Until we see each other again

My cousin Bill Jones passed away this morning. I will miss him dearly. For many years he helped me take care of my parents. When he wasn’t doing this he was taking care of others who were ill. He was Chief of Anesthesiology for St. Elizabeth Hospital in Youngstown, Ohio.  When your an only child you have friends and cousins to replace your brothers and sisters. I was lucky I got both in one.

When we were younger we had little in common but as we grew older our friendship grew and matured. In tragedy we learned we could lean on each other for support and unconditional love. A gift that provided us both  comfort in even the most challenging times of including a death of a child and parent.  I will miss our times talking in the garage shooting the bull and having a few beers. He always reminded me we can always be more and in many ways I have become more because of Bill’s prodding and our competitive spirits.

In treating my mother’s mental illness he reminded me it was often time physical as well as mental treatment that might make her healthy. He always made sure both my parents got the best treatment he could find.

When he was in hospice we would get together and talk about our lives together and what the future held for both of us. We would laugh until we cried. We said the things we wanted to while we were both able to appreciate them. Its why hospice works so well if you let it.  I asked him to pass on a message to our loved ones who had already passed on before him.  He would always chuckle and smile no matter how much the pain. Humor is something that always kept us together even in the worst of times and the best. 

Last night I said goodbye to my Bill. I learned many rituals from my time in hospice community and they bring me comfort in dealing with the death of loved ones. They provide me the inner peace in knowing there is something beyond me that will provide them peace forever.  I share with you my favorite writing on the nature of god.  I share it with you as I did last night as I prayed for God’s gift of taking my cousin home last night.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Polar Bears at Polar Frontier's Grand Opening

Here are one of the new Polar Bears at the Polar Frontier ’s Grand Opening at the Columbus Zoo today waiting to jump into the pool. These animals are incredibly agile and can swim for hours at a time.

The Polar Frontier at the Columbus Zoo is opening on Thursday, May 6 at 10:00 am. This new area features the twin polar bears, artic foxes, and your favorite Alaskan brown bears, Brutus and Buckeye. Make sure you bring your camera and your children, not necessarily in that order, to share an incredible experience at the Polar Frontier.

Now back to to the point of this blog. There are many ways create excitement and relationship with your best clients and partners. You also want to get regular, consistent traffic.  One of the most underutilized ways of creating excitement and traffic is by providing information that they want in an easy to access and read format. Those of you that regularly follow my blogs know that I provide a lot of information, about what’s happening at the zoo, and relationships I see between animals and the business world. For all of you out there on my list, I will be providing coverage of this event on a regular basis, so stop back here often to see the updates.  For other ways of generating excitement, and building relationships and consistent traffic, I offer business oriented marketing tips on a new Facebook fanpage called Sales Safari.  This Facebook fanpage helps you market your professional services to your best clients. Check it out and let me know what you think. You can track my progress at http://www.facebook.com/salessafari. 

Baby Beco Excited About Polar Frontier Opening

Take Time to Enjoy Your Life

Life is a struggle–
just accept it.
Life is a tragedy–
to be confronted.
Life is an adventure–
dare to live it.
Life is luck–
You can bet your life on it.
Life is your life–
so fight for it.

Anonymous

I spent several hours yesterday with my cousin Bill, who is in hospice. Bill is in good spirits but he is waiting for the end. Maybe for the second time in my life, I was at a loss for words. I thought of all our shared experiences and realized that life is way too short for most of us. We come in with such promise and we leave with many things undone.

My cousin Bill told me a funny story about waking up on Tuesday. He felt good, he had slept without pain and everything was quiet. He lay there, not opening his eyes to just enjoy the peace surrounding him. He was certain he had passed on. He was comfortable with it happening, he had said all the goodbyes and hugged and kissed everyone he wanted and was looking forward to seeing all his friends he had not seen for many years. He slowly opened his eyes and saw the ceiling of his bedroom. He was still here. He had been given another day here to spend time with his wife, children and friends. Another day to complete something that was still undone. Take time to do the things that make a difference to the family, people and friends that matter the most.  Although Bill’s knows some day he might not be here to do them, we all have a time limit on our lives.  So don’t wait to say the things you want to say to those that mean the most to you.  Don’t wait to do the things you want to do.  Because life keeps moving, even it you’re not ready.