Think about it!

A study conducted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported the following:

          Learners retain:
               10 percent of what they read;
               20 percent of what they hear;
               30 percent of what they see;
               50 percent of what they see and hear;
               70 percent of what they say;
               90 percent of what they say and do.

The Lesson of the String

Leading is both simple and difficult. 

Younger or less experienced team members often think that leaders have it easier than the men they lead.  Younger or less experienced team members do not believe that details matter.  Younger or less experienced team members believe that it is easier to lead others by pushing them from behind. 

Once you have spent time leading ... you realize that none of these statements is true.  Leaders work harder, focus on details, and model from the front when they lead.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower, used to say leadership is like a piece of string.  Push it and the string will bunch up in failure.  Instead, he said, you have to pull. 

According to General Eisenhower this represents your chain of influence.  If I want my teammates to run faster I must run faster.  If I want my teammates to work harder I must work harder.  If I want my teammates to make themselves "uncomfortable" I must make myself "uncomfortable", and under no circumstance can I afford to whine while I am working to improve myself.

Winners are always leading! 

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Prove It!

A great story has made the rounds about a scrawny, seeming undernourished old man who entered a restaurant and asked who he needed to see to get a job at a nearby lumberjack camp.  "You don't need to go far," the restaurant owner replied as he pointed to a nearby booth.  "The supervisor is having lunch right over there."

The jobseeker approached the supervisor and exclaimed, "I'm looking for a lumberjack job."  The boss politely tried to talk him out of the idea.  Surely this weak old man wouldn't be able to fell a tree let alone keep up with the daily quotas.  "Give me a few minutes of your time and I'll show you what I can do," suggested the old man.

When the two arrived at a grove needing to be cleared, the slender, persistent old man picked up an axe and proceeded to chop down a huge tree in record time.  "That's incredible," the boss said.  "Where did you learn to fell trees like that?"  "Well," said the old man, "you've heard of the Sahara Forest?"  Hesitantly the boss replied, "Don't you mean the Sahara Desert?"  The old man produced a smile and said, "Sure, that's what it's called now."

Achievers are producers.  They understand the world will not recognize them for what they could have done, should have done, or would have done.  Recognition is experienced by proving what you can do by doing it.