Why Strive to Survive when you can Thrive

                             I’ve coached good leaders, and ‘not-so-good’  leaders;

                               we’re talking about teachable vs. unteachable persons here.

The ‘not -so-good’ leader was basically thrown to the wolf (coach) versus personal  all sound  reason. They thought they were doing a well enough job without a coach. Basically I was their inheritance, the gift they didn’t want from hierarchy.

They would through the motions dealt by the coaching staff; and after it was all said and done, they received a lot of information and decided not to use what was given them. Some of those employees were replaced by these companies, and my staff resumed coaching. Some of these companies are still surviving… just SURVIVING! The question contemplated now…

Why survive when you can thrive?

Those who chose to be coached, not only grew in the company, but grew in themselves, to the point that some have moved upward in other positions and/or companies.

Pro ball players hire coaches and personal trainers to help improve their game; politicians hire coaches to prepare speeches and help them learn to speak in front of large audiences and stand out from the crowd.

It’s been almost 5 months while coaching a major league retail store Mgr. He’s made life so easy, eager to learn, not afraid to tweak his ego in any area we may enter into. I’m not his drill sergeant, but keep him pushing in the right direction.  He’ has also made plans to bring on some staff.

This isn’t the case for everyone. Meaning, they may all want what this client has (the motivation), but it takes others a little longer to achieve.

How bad do you want it!  

There’s a bond, a mutual awareness and respect for our positions in this client/friend relationship. The reason? Everybody has a closet that needs to be opened, but we don’t want to clear it out right away. Some of us hang on to things in our life along the way and don’t want to let go. These things are called…  

                                                        HABITS!

  Some are good and some are not. Non the less certain habits can cause our careers to sour. It takes some coaxing and coaching to get our habits aligned. Your coach (personal trainer) should help you rid of the bad habits and work on strengthening and growing good habits. Keeping your strengths strong and your strengthen your weaker areas.

If you’re not growing, moving forward in your client/coach relationship, you may need another coach; if you are a coach, you may need to drop the client if the relationship isn’t moving. An important piece of information is feedback, without it you’re building a chasm between you and the client. It’s like a report card.

 

Bridging the gap with good communication

 

                                                 between client and coach.

  Coaches aren’t for everyone, they are for anyone who wants to grow in their field. Your coach and you should be a better than good fit. Respect, Honesty, and Equality should be keep words to grow a great bond.

Listening and understanding your (plural) plans as you move forward toward your goal is essential. This is how good habits will be formed, molded, and personified.

Companies today, along with company presidents, CEO’s are stepping up their game. They are bringing career coaches (C.C.) onto their team to dream into existence a more vibrant cohesive team for tomorrow and leave the survival mentality behind. Isn’t it time you grow your future?

Our motto: “BUILDING DREAMS, TEAMS, AND FRIENDS FOR LIFE, NOT JUST CLIENTS!” It’s our vision and missions statement.

Over-coming the Fears of Chaos

Some say, “Plan for the unexpected, and hope for the best”…

CHAOS!

Yes, there are several types of chaos. Usually we only see chaos as a totally negative word, and that’s usually because that’s the way we see it. The meaning alone tells us what to expect: disorder, disarray, void of content…need I say more?

There are three main types of chaos, expected chaos, orchestrated chaos, and that which is totally out of your hands.

Expected chaos isn’t so bad (for the most part). You know its coming, you don’t know how, but you plan several ways to deal with it when it hits. Call it your escape plan, Plan-B, etc.

Orchestrated chaos when its deliberate in its doing. When you have to undo something in order to correct the situation.

An easy look at this is when you ask your teen to clean their room, and they tell you its clean enough.
So you take initiative to mess it up more than it already is. You laugh, they get angry (of coarse). They start clearing out the room by reordering the mess and making it better than the original. This is also known as intentional chaos.

Last, and the most dangerous is totally out of your hands. It’s not expected, orchestrated in any way. Like the lay-off instead of that promotion, the Griswold’s’ cousin Eddie coming for the holidays unexpected (Christmas Vacation). Leaving devastation out of the equation. You can see where I’m going.

I wasn’t sure what to call this article at first, just Chaos, Coping with Chaos, or even Conquering Chaos. Chaos, well that was just not enough to say the least. Coping with Chaos is like saying coping with an elephant on your chest. And Conquering Chaos, well, that won’t happen in this life. So I decided on…

Over-coming the Fears of Chaos

Let’s face it, you can never in this life get rid of chaos, but you can deal with the fear it brings. How do we deal with it? Wow, glad you asked!

First of all, realize it’s not just you! It happens to everyone that lives and breaths on this planet. Some just happen to handle it better than others.

Second, never try and do it alone. Always get opinions from every source available, I’m not saying go to one person and end there. Get a variety of options, trusted friends, family, Google a search, trusted colleagues on Linked-In and such.

Third is to never rush an antidote. Unless it’s life and death, there’s no reason what-so-ever to give an un-thought out answer.

Fourthly, without chaos there would be no creativity, innovation, inspiration, no will to succeed. Chaos will at times give that nudge, that push, sometimes a shove to drive us forward to our victory.
If there is chaos (of some sort) in your life take the stand to change it. If you have no chaos at all check your pulse.

Tide Change

Hi Everyone,

To all my wonderful followers, though not many, still you are truly great and inspirational to me.
Over the last few months there have been changes in my career.The thought of “Do the right thing” has taken precedence that made the this phenomenal change in my perspective. My thanks to Mr. Brad Ferguson from the land down under.

Coming from a printing background in various management positions and running Arnold Group for the past almost 15 yrs, I have set my mind on a different calling if you will.

I apologize for not writing as often as I would like, but will do so in a different kind of matter. Not all a manufacturing perspective, but a more down to human-life matters in the future.

So bare with me in this transition, and I thank you all in advance for your faithfulness and support.

Blessing s to all!
Cheers, Jack

A Matter of Perception

          Co-written by Jack Arnold, CC & Pres. of Arnold Group, LLC & Bill Gibbs, Printing Specialist Consultant

   

   Perceive: V : to observe/ understand. Perception : N : judgement, understanding, discernment, and/or insight. These are Webster’s definition, notice the first (observe); this word is to keep an eye on, to watch intently with keen understanding. To gain insight is to view things from differing points, whether they be from self evaluations, or from a group dialog. This is the reason for staff meetings; to bring out the best antidote for the situation(s) that arise. This moon

looks like it is touching the earth, but the reality is it’s 252,088 miles away.

   Say   we were to meet at the beach for lunch, and I would bring lunch and you would bring the drinks. We agree that 1:00 is a good time. So here we are at the beach, you pull out a couple cold soft drinks and I pull out a can of sardines and a jar of Vienna sausages.

    Nothing  was said of the meal we just had until we finished I asked, “What did you think of lunch?” Thoughts are now going through your mind ‘jarred sausage and canned sardines, yummy, good thing I brought the drinks!’,  but you don’t out of politeness (assuming), you might say something like this. “Well that was different, not quite expected.” So I ask prying a little bit deeper into what had happened with our meal. You probably would answer something like this. “Well we had

sardines and sausages with a good soda on the beach in the sand.” You would be absolutely right.

On  the other hand I return with a different point of view on the same thing, I say, ” We just had surf and turf at the beach front with an ocean view.” This would also be correct. Your perception of how you view life is important. “The glass is half full vs. half empty, it’s very dark in the room vs. there’s a little light.”

Just a note here, don’t bring that to your next luncheon.

  It’s  not always what we see, but how we see it. The point of view taken can change how everything in your life, thru your eyes, is dictated in your mind, and ultimately thru your action/reaction. Someone may say something to you, and you take offense, hours later, you’re still stewing over the comment, but the reality is they may have not meant it at all the way you perceived it. That’s not always the case, there are times they actually did mean it…unfortunately.

   Let’s  stay with the positive side. Let’s say your boss asks you to do a particular job that isn’t in ‘your sphere‘. You think he’s trying to pull one over on you, maybe he trusts you, or he just might be honing you for better things to come. Either way, you will be a better person for it. When taken to the crossroads, always look both ways. Try to find every angle you can to perceive thru others lenses, not just one.

It’s amazing what can happen when everyone’s perceived ideas at a business meeting can change with thought out questions, bringing preconceived ideas to an end and increasing clear unified perception for all.

This thought on perception is from our Sphere-Logic Business Thinking. To find out more about  Arnold Group  and how we can help you grow your business, click on the link or email us at:  info@agrpllc.com 

Cat’s In The Cradle

 

And the cat’s in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin’ home dad?
I don’t know when, but we’ll get together then son
You know we’ll have a good time then  chorus

                                      The Artist: Harry Chapin

Anyone remember the song? For those who don’t, it’s about a dad who doesn’t make the time to be in his child’s life. Always making promises, whether to play catch, go to a game, or just watch TV together, dad just doesn’t take that time. Meanwhile the child grows up and the dad grows old. Now he wants time with his son, but the son has the same reaction dad did all those years, and the cycle repeats. He makes promises

unkempt.

 

And he was talkin’ ‘fore I knew it, and as he grew
He’d say “I’m gonna be like you dad
You know I’m gonna be like you”

  Last three lines of first stanza 

 

We do the same in and with our families, our business, our careers. We forget the small things. Like the saying , “We eat to live, not live to eat.” Our careers or business feed our families, but they should not run your life. Family comes first, then the rest should and will fall into place.

I’ve seen all too many times a career change, or a business start-up fail, and come home to a house with no one there. I get a call only to hear, “Where did I go wrong?”

  Our priorities MUST be in place. For instance mine are as such: God, family, friends, career, in that order.

On the other hand, I deal with clients whose businesses are blossoming. They call with the regret our meeting is postponed to a later date, they forgot a sons little league game, a daughters dance recital, and change the date and all is well. I understand that family comes first, the meeting we had reset was not life threatening and can wait.

“And as I hung up the phone it occurred to me
He’d grown up just like me
My boy was just like me “

True success is when your priorities are in place, you have confidence in yourself, family, employees, etc. Yes, we should take our careers seriously, BUT we must take family and life more so.

I never heard anyone say late in life or near its end, “I wish I’d spent more time at work, or I hope that self portrait fits in my coffin, I want it with me!” No, I hear, “I wish I spent more time with my spouse, my kids, my family, and friends.”

Sphere-Logic Business Thinking takes the whole of life and starts with what matters most in life. Living life to the full with what we’re giving.

Nothing But Hope

If love is true it will wait.

I Win, You Lose!

I Win, You Lose!.

I Win, You Lose!

Written by Jack Arnold and Bill Gibbs. Both work at Arnold Group (Sphere-Logic Business Thinking). Making the manufacturing business grow and maintain stamina.

Negotiating doesn’t have to be a winner for every loser. Everyone can be a winner “IF’ we all play a good clean game. So why is it that some feel they have to cheat in some form or fashion to get ahead? Several words come to mind. Incompetence, selfishness, greed, hostility toward others (usually) in a higher rank than themselves.

  Several years back, as a supervisor in a plastics print shop, we had a problem between corporate and employees. I was never one to take sides of any issue that was just plain wrong, foolish or… enough there.Employees were calling union halls to see which would best suit their needs; the company was threatening to close shop, we needed a quick solution, but not a short term bandage.

We were in dire straights of a long term remedy. I came up with the idea to start a committee to rationalize our short comings. Talking to employees and the management team, we had an agreement to start one. After which I suggested a mediator from outside to conduct the meetings.

During our first meeting, one brought my name to the table to deliberate the meetings. After a short time of reluctance, I succumbed with an, “OK, I’ll do it!”  Negotiating on every point for what was the overall good. Meaning, good for company and employees. For every question of negativity there is always a “WHY” factor involved, and for every positive there is a when. There were some issues that had to come to the table a time or two extra, but they were resolved efficiently without any later squabbling.

The “WHY” factor is, why do we want such and such? What will it cost me, how does it effect or affect others and not just myself? Negotiating is the art of giving and taking without regret.

Do I gain or lose ground if this takes place? These are things asked BEFORE hand, not later. There is a way of being a winner and at the same time the other side is a winner as well.

For our website click or email click

Sphere-Thinking People

Steve Harvey said it this way, “Act like a success, think like a success!” which is the title of his book. Successful people know where they’re going, what they’re doing, and won’t let mediocrity stand in their way. Success is more than money, though money will come as an added benefit, it’s a satisfied life-style.

They don’t walk with their heads down, talking negativity (they don’t sulk over  temporary defeat). They admit to the failure realizing that it’s not they themselves, but a minor setback. Spherical people hold their heads up, knowing the future success is just the next step or two ahead. They are well rounded in their thinking. They are the leaders of today and tomorrow.

Everything they is taken to the table for consideration before making the final decision. Not that they are perfect, or even overly precautious, but the more information taken in and absorbed the better the decision. #Google helps decision makers tremendously.

Sphere-Thinking takes you completely out of the “Box” realm, and puts you in the central focal point of the “Sphere” realm, where adaptability is much easier to grow with and handle. We know that saying ,“The only thing that never changes, is that everything is changing!” We who endear #spherical thinking are not afraid of the cultural differences, but rather embrace the thought of learning anew from them (all within reason).

Adaptability is a value that STP’s share. They are visionaries, and most are innovators. Nothing is a major surprise with them, they will work out any venture you throw at them because losing is not an option. Some think it’s ‘ego‘, but in reality it’s that they wont stand down to a project, problem, dilemma, whatever you want to call it.

Where do you stand in your thinking? Anyone can stand up and out of the crowd and get away from the box mentality. It’s your turn to make that move.

For questions or inquiries email me: info@agrpllc.com

Discipling Leaders for Leadership. 2

No  one wants to give away all their secrets; after all, that’s what brought them to the top… or is it? The biggest challenge every leader faces is to teach their leaders-to-be everything they themselves know. The fear of trust and faith in others comes to play with the emotions. Yet, that is what’s demanded of us if we are to have the best of the best working with us.

                   “Teach them everything you know!”

Napoleon Bonapartes

Moses  was one of the greatest leaders of all time, had many followers, but didn’t make many leaders. Sure, he had two, Joshua and Caleb, and seventy down the line, but from several million that’s very minuet. That list goes on with the same effect, Napoleon, Hitler, Lincoln, Reagan, even Pres. Obama; they all lead , but not one made many followers. This keeps Moses still at the top of the list for now. Don’t run just yet… 

  On  the other hand, Jesus made many leaders he called them disciples, and they went and made more and so on. A disciple is one who is called to learn everything the leader teaches, so that one day they too will lead the next generation. The same should be in business. BUT, most of the time everyone is so worried about losing their job to someone else for one reason or another; that good discipleship or training from a leader is hard to find. In fact! It is. 

Jesus and his Disciples

   The  manager (leader) is the go-to person when you’re on the manufacturing floor. When you get to him/her, they are having problems of their own. Maybe you get, “Come back later”, or “Not right now, can’t you see I’m busy?” Years ago, I remember a supervisor that wouldn’t even talk to you unless it was a command from to you. Maybe the leader is in the ‘can’t lose my job to this guy’ syndrome.

  Is  the situation an on going thing or happenstance (temporary dilemma)? If temporary then don’t worry about a thing, just shrug it off while they get themselves back on track. BUT, if it’s on-going, you my friend have yourself a problem in your management team. What can we do about something like this? Do we just write it off or do we deal with it head-on! This must be dealt with, and the sooner the better. And the place to start is with self!

We  have to take on the responsibility of servant-leadership and pass it down thru the ranks. No one can do that better than you, the head. Your actions speak much louder than your words; the ‘do what I say, not as I do’ thing doesn’t work; it didn’t work with you, and it won’t work on others.

“The biggest challenge every leader faces is to teach their leaders-to-be everything they themselves know.”

The  leader you are, are the leaders you’ll make. Over time, what you have programed within you, you will ultimately disciple or nurture in others over time, whether good or bad. So how do you make good leaders or disciples of your followers or employees? Teach them everything you know!

   Be  the leader you want them to be!  You want them to be on-time, you must be on-time. They need to be cordial and friendly to your customers, be cordial and friendly to them. They need to put their best efforts in, so should you. Do you see the pattern? It’s not a “do as I say!”, It’s “Do as I do” attitude that wins every time. It’s a very simply-hard thing to do. Meaning that it takes thought and effort to work it thru, especially at first, As you grow into it, it does become second nature and much easier as time goes on.

For more information on how we can help you and your team be the very best you can be, e-mail us at: info@agrpllc.com