Career Development

Are you enriching lives?

I don’t care what industry you’re in, you should have one goal: Enrich the lives of others. Enrich the lives of your associates, customers and your community. It’s amazing what happens when this truly becomes your goal. Everyone has a higher purpose or wishes to find their higher purpose in life. How about this:
Your higher purpose is to enrich the lives of your co-workers, customers and the community, within the context of your core business. Whatever that business is just doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter because every business consists of people. So if people are the common denominator, let’s serve them!

So what is the purpose of growth and profits? That’s simple. The more resources a company has, the more people can be enriched by them. Let’s face it, money makes great things happen and is the foundation of our employment needs. Here’s the deal: If you enrich the lives of your employees, the bottom line will go up. This is especially true if your motives to enrich their lives are sincere and not done because of the desire for more profits. Profits are the outcome of treating people well and guiding them to a higher purpose.
Dan Sanders in his book, Equipped to Lead, says “A person’s true legacy is the time and effort he or she contributed to enriching others.”

Joe Kiedinger

ACTION PLAN: Whose life will you make better today?

Breaking the mold!

Being an innovator and inventor, I find it exhilarating to go from the extreme of a person not understanding your new idea to the opposite which is completely embracing and even endorsing it. This has become my journey with The About Me Card program. This process for me has taken more than three years. Most people get frustrated and give up. They have a product or process that they know will be successful but when they are met with resistance they say, “Forget it!” I am not a patient person by nature. I am often antsy and uncomfortable when things are not moving fast enough. Then I realized, “Hey, I’m a human being! I can choose to be patient if I want to be.”

I know it seems impossible for some to be patient. I had to learn to be when it comes to others embracing a new concept or change. I’ve learned that the first meeting when presenting a new idea has the same weight as the last meeting, as this is when people decide to accept your idea because they fully understand it. If there were 100 meetings between them, they would all carry equal weight. People need to be reminded. You must not steal that process from them. Or more accurately, you can’t take it from them. It is what it is.

We all must learn on our own terms and for the “new idea person” that means patience and perseverance … That’s all! Hang in there long enough and you’ll be a star!

Joe Kiedinger

Action Plan:  Practice patience this week. Perhaps with just one person or one project. It’s necessary for success!

Initiative equals success!

Today’s wisdom comes from Dr. Zimmerman. You can find out more about this at www.DrZimmerman.com   He says that to reach big-time success a person needs to read a lot of books and work very hard. But if he had to summarize the root of success it would be those who initiate succeed. To initiate anything, you need two ingredients: Drive and Commitment!

He also shares two rules:

1. Do more than you are told, do more than is expected.
2. Discipline yourself to keep keeping on.

It’s important, he states, to discipline yourself to excellence so others don’t need to. Think about it for a moment. Look at the people you’ve promoted—haven’t they delivered to you more than you expected? They are self-driven and confident in finding their own solutions to challenges. This week begin your journey of being excellent.

REMINDER: For our La Crosse area fans, you’re invited to attend the About Me Card World Premiere in La Crosse tomorrow! It’s free! Come and see the debut of this new Servant Leadership software that creates understanding between people in minutes! Click on aboutmecard.com to find out more.

Joe Kiedinger

ACTION PLAN: Find two things you are working on this week that you can do more with than what’s expected.

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.

You’re invited this Tuesday!

Thank you for bearing with me. This past month I’ve been tying in my Wisdoms to the new About Me Card system we’ve invented. Well, the world premiere is this Tuesday, April 27th, at 3:00 p.m. at the Meyer Theater. It’s free and I hope you can make it. I received a real compliment from my wife today and I need to tell you about it! My parents just arrived home from Florida. When they left, we had just purchased a building to house About Me International and Prophit Marketing. They were anxious to see the remodeling and everything that went on while they were gone.

The old Joe would have met them at the building and showed off all the hard work. However, I remembered Danica’s About Me Card. On it she states, “Let’s enjoy this together.” I told my folks it would need to wait a day so Danica could join us. They called her to set the time, and when I got home from work she thanked me for that! Hey, I don’t know about you guys but these “points” are what I live for with my wife. Her About Me Card taught me how to respect her the way she wants to be respected. I love these little cards.

Please join us this Tuesday to witness the world premiere of this beautiful program.

Joe Kiedinger

ACTION PLAN:  Join us!  Learn more at www.aboutmecard.com

I feel SPRING in the air!

It’s always an exciting feeling when that early warm weather first arrives. We all know that feeling… people seem happier to be alive, the business outlook gets better and everyone displays a positive outlook on the world. Isn’t it amazing how our emotions dictate how successful we feel on any given day. If a nice spring day can evoke a positive outlook in a person, can a leader do the same?

Absolutely! But first the leader must decide on his or her outlook. You can control the way you feel. You do not need a sleepless night or a disagreement with your spouse to dictate how you “feel” about it. Managing one’s own feelings is the key to happiness. I was shown this secret over a year ago. I was taught how to change my negative feelings in 60 seconds. I can tell you my life has changed for the better. Oh, I’m not perfect, but I’m better than I was a year ago.

If you know me, you would know that I was already a very positive guy; however, I admit I would sometimes become impatient and frustrated. These emotions would affect how I treated others. I learned, though, that events have no meaning. People give meanings to events. A rainy day doesn’t have the same effect on me as it once had. Mondays, once my least favorite day, are now my favorite—the start of another week to positively impact people’s lives. Happiness is a choice and I choose happy. How about you?

Joe Kiedinger

ACTION PLAN: Choose happy! Please join me April 27th at 3 p.m. for the About Me Card World Premiere at the Meyer Theater in Green Bay. I guarantee you will leave this event feeling great! Reserve your space… bring friends!

My Oscar Moment

What do Coca Cola, SuperValu and Prophit Marketing have in common? They have all been selected at some point to receive the prestigious honor of being named Festival Foods Business Partner of the Year! On Monday night while attending Festival’s annual three-day Festival College, I watched Mark Skogen, President and CEO, walk to the podium to announce the award, just as he does every year. Only this year, for the first time ever, he announced our name. Wow, it was like winning an Oscar. For the first time in my life, I was struggling for what to say. My body was trembling as I approached the stage to accept this wonderful acknowledgement.
I did feel awkward accepting the award because every Prophiteer contributed in bringing me up on stage that night. It was the wonderful and talented group I am privileged to work with who serve the Festival organization with pride and excellence every day. I was on cloud nine Monday night and it reminded me how wonderful it feels to be recognized. We get so busy day to day that we sometimes don’t see the individual efforts by so many that lead to an excellent product or service. I like to think I properly recognize people but I know I too get “caught up” and have work to do in this area.
I’ve heard it said that your paycheck is your right but praise is a gift. For those of you who have been reading Wisdom On Wednesday for the past year, you know that I’ve committed the last three years of my life to research the root of a person’s happiness. I’m proud to say that on April 27th at 3 p.m. at the Meyer Theater in downtown Green Bay will be the About Me Card World Premiere (info@aboutmecard.com). Will you come and join us for this major event?  Let us save a spot for you! Imagine knowing how to communicate effectively with someone with a click of the mouse! It’s here and we’re going to show you how it works.
Mother Theresa said, “People crave appreciation (and respect) more than food.” A pretty good authority wouldn’t you say? Make it your personal journey to enrich another person’s life by appreciating and respecting them. The journey will be your reward.
Joe Kiedinger
ACTION PLAN: Sign up for our free event as we introduce to you the most powerful respect tool every created… The About Me Card!

Success!

I love books and I love learning. I get in these moods when I run to the bookstore and purchase 10 books at a time. I’m not a library guy. I need to possess them! The other day I stopped by the local bookstore and hit the magazine racks. I looked at INC and Entrepreneur magazines and then found one called SUCCESS. This month’s issue has author Jim Collins on the cover. He wrote the number one business book in the world, Good to Great. If you’re looking for inspiration, grab this month’s issue of SUCCESS. I’m definitely going to become a subscriber.

This month’s issue has the following leadership experts: John Maxwell, Mel Robbins, Jim Cathcart and Tony Hseih (Zappos) to name a few. Tony was named SUCCESS 2009 Achiever of the Year. A great choice. Tony started the online shoe sensation Zappos and sold it to Amazon.com for $1.2 billion. Not bad for a few years work! He’s still acting president. His philosophy: Create Fun, Deliver WOW!

Currently Tony is on a quest to better understand the art of happiness. I love it! He says in the article, “The thing we realized this year that sort of ties everything together is that customer service is about making customers happy, and the culture is about making employees happy. So, really, we’re about trying to deliver happiness, whether it’s to customers or employees, and we apply that same philosophy to vendors as well.”

Tony has a culture of Servant Leadership (how I label it). If you like this message, go to the website: www.mondaymm.com  There you’ll find my interview with Servant Leader guru, Jim Hunter. Jim has written books that have sold more than 3 million copies worldwide. He is all about creating a Servant Leadership culture based on leadership and accountability.

Are you out to be a manager or an exceptional leader? If you subscribe to Wisdom On Wednesday, I’m guessing you’re the latter. If that’s true, keep learning and keep improving!

Joe Kiedinger

ACTION PLAN: Get that SUCCESS subscription!

Where is your focus?

I would like to tell you a true story of a bit of wisdom I received from one of my Process Managers regarding a client we’ve been working with for about 16 months. It all began with our Uncovery process, which we used to uncover a lot of gold nuggets for this client. Uncovery is the process of interviewing a good cross-section of employees, management and owners as well as some clients and “uncovering” strengths that are taken for granted by the owners and management team. We take these “gold nuggets,” as we call them, and develop these strengths into a winning strategy for the future. In this case, the strategy was very different than what the owner had surmised going into this process.

We began developing all the tools needed and implemented the strategy. A couple of new clients were brought into their fold and then about a year and a couple of months later a very large client came knocking with a very large order that has since developed into a fruitful long-term partnership. I asked my Process Manager, “So, what was it that led to the sale? Was it the new website, the magazine ads, the trade shows… What?” He responded, “Their focus.”

He reminded me. There is no one thing that determines success. It’s the overall focus of the leadership team and associates who are focused on a particular strategy and doing small things everyday that led to the big hit. It’s so true. Have you ever had business come to you out of the blue that happened to be the perfect client? Almost always that is no accident. It’s because you focused on it.

Ah yes, the great power of focus!

Joe Kiedinger

ACTION PLAN: What’s your focus? Write it down and share it with others. Don’t have one? Open it up to your associates and get ready for an interesting discussion.

The Most Powerful Leadership Tool

I am ready to tell you more about my nearly three-year journey of creating a tool to help people lead. Let’s be clear on something first, though: Being a manager is not the same as being a leader. You can manage yourself, you can manage things and you can manage processes, but you can’t manage another person. All you can do is lead other people. This is the biggest misunderstanding in corporate management today. Too many managers are exactly that—managers. They are not leaders.

 I have seen and coached managers to become great leaders, and I can tell you the people in their care were ready for their leadership, starving for it actually. Everyone who reports to you is ready right now for you to become the leader you were designed to be. I say designed because most of you already know the tenants of leadership.

 Bob Chapman, CEO of Barry-Wehmiller, reminded me that being a good leader is no different than being a good parent. We raise our children to think for themselves. We praise them when we catch them doing things right. It doesn’t change in the workplace. In the same way we want the best for our kids, shouldn’t we want the best for our associates too? Of course we do. We just don’t know how to talk to our associates like we do our own kids.

 That’s where my new invention comes into play. People will allow you to lead them if—  and only if—their base motivations are respected and supported. Furthermore, we all have rules that govern our acceptance of any interaction with another person. The problem is there is no tool in America today (or for any other country for that matter) that gives you a peek into another person’s core motivations and rules of engagement. Until now! Please welcome the About Me Card presented by a new company, About Me International.

 We have been experimenting with a process of creating a corporate culture based on acceptance and support. Our early adopters are praising the program. You can download a white paper at aboutmecard.com to learn more. How does it work? Imagine being able to understand a person’s motivations in 15 minutes, along with the individual’s rules of engagement. How would that change how you currently interact and motivate each of your associates? Instead of spending months or years trying to figure each one out, you could understand each individual in 15 minutes.

 We are about to enter our beta testing of the new software and will be holding a major event introducing it to the world in the spring. If you would like to be invited to this World Premiere being held in Green Bay, please contact us and we’ll send you an invitation. It’s been an exciting journey. Are you ready to step up and become the leader you were designed to become? Join me.