S.U.M.M.I.T. Leadership

"It is the follow through that makes the great difference between ultimate success and failure, because it is so easy to stop." - Charles Kettering It's easy to talk a good game. We all have that list of tasks we want to get done, things we want to accomplish, places we want to go, or life changes we want to make to become the person we want to be. We may want to start doing something, stop doing something, or improve how we do something. What have you committed to yourself that you haven't followed through on? Maybe you said you need to exercise more regularly or lose some weight. Perhaps you vowed to drink more water or eat healthier. You may have wanted to go back to school or pursue a different career. Maybe you wanted to start your own business or write a book. What have you committed to someone else that you haven't followed through on? Maybe you said you would do something for them, help them with something. Perhaps you said you would volunteer and donate s...

"A cynical young person is almost the saddest sight to see, because it means that he or she has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing." - Maya Angelou Do you ever catch yourself being cynical in your way of thinking? I know I have. Sometimes without even realizing it at the time, and that's not a good thing. There is always something or someone in our lives that can cause us to have negative thinking. Maybe there's that one person who always seems to let you down. Perhaps it's the person who always bails out on their commitments at the very last minute. Or the people who seem to not hold up their end or do their share of the work. Maybe you end up thinking you always get the bum end of the deal. That things always fall apart. It's easy to slip into and can be very difficult to get out of if we are not careful. My tendency is to add humor into my conversations with others, sometimes just to lighten the mood, so we aren't always taking things so ser...

"You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win." - Zig Ziglar Expectations create reality. You have to believe you will win and succeed at whatever you are trying to achieve well in advance of heading down that path toward achievement. Every time you put yourself out there, you should expect to win. How do you gain this level of conviction? It is in your mental preparation and the work you put into it. You have to know what you want to achieve and understand what it could take to obtain it. You have to visualize the outcome, and you have to understand why you want to achieve it. Repeat these thoughts and feelings over and over again in your mind to create muscle memory. You have to believe in yourself and have confidence in your abilities to achieve great things. If you don't expect to win, then you've already admitted the chance of defeat. The people I consider successful all have at least one thing in common; they ...

"Remember the difference between a boss and a leader; a boss says 'Go', a leader says 'Let's Go!" - E. M. Kelly I have worked with some great people over the many years and many jobs I've had. I was reflecting on some of the past leaders and managers I've worked for. Both the good and the bad. Ones that I loved working for and others that I hated working for. The poor leaders: Had bad attitudes Super hard on the people they didn't believe in Often played favorites Inconsistent leadership style Focused more on the task than who was doing it Quick to place blame Do as I say, not as I do mentality My way or the highway way of thinking Always thought they were right Did most of the talking What have you done for me attitude Would strike fear to get people to get things done  The great leaders: Had great attitudes Worked hard on building up and developing people Always fair and consistent Put people first, and the work always took care of itself Always ...

"Losing your head in a crisis is a good way to become the crisis." - C.J. Redwine We live in turbulent times. I don't like to talk about politics or political views. But I was reminded of one of the chaotic 2020 Presidential Debates that had me shaking my head in disbelief at how the two candidates handled each other. Uncontrolled chaos was all I could think of. Most people want a leader to be rational and calming. Confident and strong. Calm under pressure. Focused on the initiatives or objectives. Basically, everything was lacking in the debate. Needless to say, I couldn't watch it very long and moved on to do something else. However, this got me thinking about leadership types in general and about what makes a leader great. I started thinking about great leaders during chaotic or stressful times. It's a fact that good and bad things happen to all people. Stress can be caused by a variety of things. It's crazy to think that everything will go smoothly every d...

"We would do well to slow down a little, focus on the significant, lift up our eyes, and truly see the things that matter most." - Dieter F. Uchtdorf We live in a nanosecond world, and everything happens fast. And, even as fast as things happen, we want things to be faster. We want instant gratification, immediate results, and we want everything now. Technology has a lot to do with this. Both the good and the bad. We have instant access to everything at our fingertips. Why should we wait when we can have it now? The sooner, the better. We can learn something new, find something, buy something. We can work on our tasks, do our banking, stream a movie, listen to any song, or whatever. We can instant message someone, send a text, send an email, or heaven forbid even make an archaic phone call from wherever we are. Technology has made access to things quicker and more efficient by providing instant service. But this has made the world impatient, intolerant, and irritable. Need pr...

"Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." - Serenity Prayer We tend to get disappointed when others don't meet our expectations. We thought someone would be someone, do something, or respond a certain way. But have you ever set unfair expectations on another person? Think about some of these questions:   Do you ever compare other people to other people? Have you ever caught yourself thinking or speaking these words to another person, "Why can't you be more like..." Do you ever get irritated with what other people think, what they say, how they choose to act, or what they decide to do? If you keep expecting someone else to change to meet our expectations of them, it may be time to take a long hard look in the mirror to understand why. Sometimes we get overly vested in how others are behaving. In our opinion, we think they should be acting differently. Although it ma...