Leadership Quotes & More Pictures

Steph and I had the opportunity to attend a leadership conference this past weekend. John Maxwell was one of the keynote speakers. For those of you who don't know, I'm a huge Maxwell fan. I receive and listen to an audio CD every month and have read several of his books. I credit a lot what what I learned about leadership to him. He's taught me what questions to ask as a leader and how to develop a team. At the conference he talked about and promoted his new book, The 5 Levels of Leadership. He talks about how there are five different levels of leadership and allows you (the leader) to gauge where he is with each member of his team. I'm looking forward to reading it and learning.

I feel very strongly about personal development and continuing to better myself as a person. I think everyone enjoys the betterment of themselves, but they just don't want to take the time to read, study or listen. Secretly we want the information downloaded into our minds. Below are a few of my favorite John Maxwell & other leadership quotes. Hopefully they will give wisdom, knowledge and understand that wasn't there previously. Enjoy!

These are notes from only three of the books I have read (it took me 2 hours to type these notes up). Other books that I have read of his are: Developing the Leader Within You (Amazing book), Everyone Communicates Few Connect (Great for basic relationship building), Failing Forward (creating proper mindset for failure), The 21 Most Powerful Minutes in a Leader’s Day, Today Matters and Road Map for Success.

Thinking for a Change

·         The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them; a man may live long yet live very little. The truth is that you can spend your life any way you want, but you can spend it only once.

·         Calendars and  journals remind you of how you’ve spent your time, show you whether your activities match your priorities, and help you see whether you are making progress

·         Hurting people hurt people

·         There is no more noble occupation in the world than to assist another human being, to help someone succeed

·         If you want to improve your world, then focus your attention on helping others

·         People with humility don’t think less of themselves; they just think of themselves less

·         If you help others get what you want, you’ll automatically get what you want

Being a People Person

·         If you want people to act right toward you, you act right toward them and many times you’ll change them

·         Even a quick affirmation will give people a sense of value

·         Charisma – Be more concerned about making other feel good about themselves than you are in making them feel good about you

·         The secret of motivating others is providing them with hope

·         People must have affirmation and praise in order to maintain a high level of performance

·         One of the surest ways to build confidence is to find one thing you’re good at and specialize until you are special

·         Leadership is the capacity and will to rally men and women to a common purpose and the character which inspires confidence

·         If the only tool you have is a hammer, then every problem will look like a nail

·         No gain is ever made without the possibility of loss

·         Careless confrontation can be devastating

·         Not seeing people as they are, but what they can be

21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership

·         Without leadership ability a person’s impact is only a fraction of what it could be

·         When talented teams don’t win, examine the leadership

·         Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less

·         Knowledge alone won’t make someone a leader

·         Champions don’t become one in the ring, they are just recognized there

·         If you fail to learn from your mistakes, you are going to continue to fail

·         If you can’t give credit and take blame, you will drown in your inability to inspire

·         Trust is the foundation of leadership

·         One measure of leadership is the caliber of people that follow you

·         Who you are is what you attract

·         People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care

·         If you want someone on your side, don’t try to convince them, connect with them

·         Nothing is more effective than sincere accurate praise

·         Nobody does anything great alone

·         Self-conscious people are rarely good leaders

·         Nothing is more confusing for people than to receive good advice, but see a bad example

·         The leader finds the dream then the people

·         You cannot kindle a fire in someone’s heart unless it is burning within your own

·         Activity is not necessarily accomplishment

·         The greater the leader, the more he must give up

·         Today’s success is the greatest threat to tomorrow’s success

·         The right action at the right time will bring success

·         Everything rises and falls on leadership

Tobiah continues to grow as well (but obviously in a much different way). By grow, I mean getting taller, because the kid is still super light (under 12lbs). Steph has been doing tummy time with him more often, and Grandpa Ford has been reading stories to him. Last week, Tobiah began reading to grandpa and adding his own commentary. Maybe he'll be a sportscaster someday!! Today while I was holding and talking to him I notice he was mirroring me, which normal for kids to do at his age. But when I say he was mirroring me, I mean he was mirroring me. The same furrowed brow, the same forehead lines, even the same looks! I told him that it has taken 29 years for me to master these looks and he has done it in just over two months! Below are some of my recent favorites. I saved my favorite for the very last. Enjoy!

Daddy Daycare & Taco John's

There haven't been a lot of times that I have gotten to spend alone time with Tobiah, but this week was an exception. Steph had a baby shower for one of our good friends Megan and then Thursday she wanted to go spend time with her friends at the IOS. This meant that Daddy Daycare was needed two nights in a row. To be honest, I was a little nervous because Steph is really good at knowing what he wants. I can do the things that will settle him, but I can't easily identify them myself. Wednesday night I got home and within 30 minutes he was beginning to fuss. Long story short, after about 20 minutes I was able to get him settled down. Later that evening he was beginning to get hungry, so I warmed up a bottle in his steamer, but I accidentally put too much water in the steamer, so when his bottle was ready it was too hot. Tobiah began ranting on how bad a father I was and asking aloud why would mommy leave him with this unfit man. I quickly cooled the bottle down under cold running water and things immediately got better.

The next night I was even more nervous, because I wanted to account for my mistake and have a little bonding time with ToBuddy. Thursday night was much better. I changed and feed him appropriately!! He was also fuss free! So we spent a little time playing on his mat, singing songs and watching a documentary on the Revolutionary War (hey the kid has to know that freedom wasn't free). I felt much better when Steph came home on Thursday letting her know how good of boy she has (and Tobiah was good too)!

On Saturday Steph and Tobiah made the adventure down to go see Suzy and the kids at their new house in Mason City. I was unable to go with because I needed to work. Steph told me how much fun the kids had talking to Tobiah. They gave him toys and trucks to take home. They asked cute questions like "Auntie Stephy, make sure to let us know when he turns 4 or 5 so that he can play with us" or "We can't wait to see him walk next time we see him" and "When will he get get his teeth"? All sweet innocent question that come out the mouths of naive children.

When Steph got home I asked what they had for lunch. She told me they went to Taco John's. I love Taco John's! Taco Tuesday, Six Pack and a Pound and sweet sweet Churros. Steph told me that it wasn't very good, which is disappointing because when its bad, its bad. I think Tobiah didn't care for it much either because that night Tobiah threw/spit up 8 times (I'm talking major outfit changing and burp rag filling)! He had 4 poopy diapers, one of them was a MAJOR blowout that required a bath, he peed on himself while being changed and finally he had gas ALL night! I know what you are think how gross that all is, and it was, but I couldn't help but to laugh uncontrollably throughout the entire evening! I told Steph that she may want to lay off the Taco John's for a while after the adventure we had last night! I guess this is all a part of raising a family, but it was definitely a memorable and gross night. One that I hope doesn't occur too often.

This morning was of Veggie Tales. We now know that God is bigger then the Boogie Man, we know that we should only pray to God and not man even if it means that we could be thrown in a lions den.We also learned that we shouldn't steal from others and that we need to be kind to others. Finally we learned that not everyone has a water buffalo. So we can't go around singing that everyone has a water buffalo. We were going to learn at some point, might as well been today.