2010 May

The 4 E’s

Attending the bi-weekly Festival Foods sale and informational meeting, I was reminded by my good friend, Marlin Greenfield, VP of Operations, of the 4 E’s presented by Jack Welch in his book WINNING! Jack writes about the qualities he looked for when hiring leaders while at his time at GE.

1. Energy: Look for energetic and enthusiastic people. Enthusiasm is contagious and is an important ingredient in influencing others.

2. Energize Others: This goes with number one. When you have energy you have the ability to energize others. He looks for people who have displayed an excitement that affects others in a positive way.

3. Edge: Courage to make tough yes and no decisions. Do you’re people have that ability?

4. Execute: The ability to get the job done.

He then closes with the big “P” which stands for passion. He points out that these are people who care about winning. Not just at their job but in their life. These people are very involved outside of work. They have hobbies and adventures that they challenge themselves with outside of work and can juggle many things at one time. Don’t be intimidated by their schedule, embrace it.

A great tool when looking to hire or promote individuals within your organization. Live with passion and WIN!

Joe Kiedinger

ACTION PLAN: Make a form with these attributes and test it against all of your team members. You may be surprised at what you find.

We’re Moving!

What wisdom can be gained from moving your company? TEAMWORK! Wow, what a chore. I think moving a company is far more difficult than moving a household. The biggest difference is you have more adult help! I think the difficulty is the urgency factor. How do you move everything over without hindering business? The last time we moved our internet was down for two days, and the phones did not work for a week! Yet somehow we survived.

A lot of what we worry about truly is wasted energy. We have a great team here. Everyone had a role to play. We hired a moving company but we still hauled over a good amount of items ourselves. This is our fourth move in eight years. It’s amazing how time flies. The Mantra of our company is “Reach Higher.” There is definitely a feeling of accomplishment when you see the rewards of your efforts.

It makes me think of a famous Dale Carnegie quote that goes something like, “You can get whatever you want in this world as long as you help someone else get what they want first.” We Prophiteers love serving our clients, as we know that this expansion wouldn’t be possible without them. We appreciate each one of you, and we greatly value the privilege of serving you. Your company will grow if you help others get what they want first!

Joe Kiedinger

ACTION PLAN: Don’t forget to celebrate and be grateful!

What is ‘normal’ anyway?

It’s funny… when you ask someone what “normal” is, you get a lot of different answers, especially when it comes to raising a family. I’ve been in conversations with people where normal is when the mom stays at home. I’ve heard normal means both parents are working. I’ve even heard normal as a “fend for yourself” upbringing. These folks defend their upbringing as if to say, “Everyone should be raised with absentee parents. It teaches you survival.”

You can turn on the TV to see any number of normal topics on Oprah or any of the other various talk shows. I remember as a kid watching the Phil Donahue Show when he had a group of “normal” men dressed up as babies living out an infancy fantasy. I’ve come to realize that “normal” is only a setting on my clothes dryer. So it’s no wonder there are miscommunication problems as we interact in everyday life. We all walk around sharing our version of “normal” with everyone, with some agreeing with us but many others ending up confused and in some cases responding with jaw-dropping disbelief to our views, as in “That’s normal to you? You must be wacked!” We are often judged and sometimes even fined before we can explain why something is our normal.

The reason we are so judgmental about others is because we pride ourselves on defending our idea of normal. We do this because if we don’t we may wake up one morning realizing we live in the land of abnormal and that is just too scary to fathom. I say let’s strive to understand each other’s normal so we can learn from one another. Let’s drop our radar of prejudgment and take the time to understand. That’s Servant Leadership in the home and in the workplace!

So one last question: Are you normal?

Joe Kiedinger

ACTION PLAN: Be who you are!

Marry the right person…

I received an e-mail from an amazing Servant Leader last week, and I want to share a part of it with you. The attachment I received was titled, “21 Suggestions for SUCCESS.” The author is H. Jackson Brown, Jr. The first suggestion is something I couldn’t agree with more: “Marry the right person. This one decision will determine 90% of your happiness or misery.” I’ve been married once before and it wasn’t pretty. I know what it’s like to choose the wrong partner. I learned from it, believe me! This time around, though, I hit a home run! I often tell Danica that my success is her success. If she weren’t encouraging and supportive and humorous during tough times, I would be a wreck.

She focuses me in a way she will never know. Danica is very humble and she doesn’t realize the effect she has on me. I tease her (but it’s true) by saying. “Do you want to see your influence on my personal success? Leave me. Then you’ll see how I would fall apart.” When you find the right one, it’s the spice of life. Hopefully, I received a few positive points by writing about Danica today. I appreciate her so much.

Do you show the special person in your life appreciation? Do you realize how much this person is tied to your success? Some of our greatest business leaders—both men and women—have had supportive and nurturing spouses, who contribute so much to their success. I hope you’re as blessed as I am. Life’s a blast!

Joe Kiedinger