“This is my world and in my world you gotta get dirty. So that’s what I’m doing.
I’m getting dirty.” – Django (the d is silent)

It was 10:30 am on New Year’s Day when I watched Django Unchained with my wife. The signature Tarantino western movie had been sold out almost everywhere the day before. After three hours of graphic shooting scenes, mixed with themes of slavery, I paused and reflected. Whether or not I liked the movie Django is irrelevant. But I did uncover four powerful lessons for entrepreneurs, small business owners and anyone who wants to achieve remarkable success in business and life. Django is what I call a “Grinder,” a person who uses the four qualities below to achieve ridiculous success.

1. Passion is a prerequisite to greatness! Django traveled and visited every single plantation looking for his wife. Passion is that internal energy. It’s fire inside of person that fuels your efforts and activities to achieve your goals. You don’t find your passion, its already inside you. Passion becomes activated and its fueled by specific activities. Passion makes you forget to eat and you hate to sleep because you want to keep progressing after your goal.

2. Vision. Django had “cyclops vision” and was only focused on one thing- his wife! He was not a jack of all trades, he was not trying to do ten different things well, only one. So many people focus on trying to start multiple businesses and they have plan b, plan c, plan d, plan e etc… All this means is that they are mediocre in many things and magnificent in nothing. Django would also visualize his goal. He would dream about his wife. He would imagine her there right in front of him. To be successful in business and life, you must go back to playing make-believe. See yourself progressing, see yourself already successful, what does it look like, what does it feel like? You must act like you are it, even though you are not it, until you become it.

3. Strategy is critical. Strategy is a unique plan of action to achieve your goals. Django was a slave and lacked knowledge. He knew that. So his strategy was to partner with a mentor who know more than he did and could help him accomplish his goals. But their relationship was not one sided. Django helped his mentor get what he wanted, so Django could also achieve his goal. There is a saying you should be so good at what you do that people can’t ignore you. Well, it does not matter how good you are, people will ignore if you don’t have an effective way of communicating who you are and get their attention. In business, you must have an effective marketing strategy and in the workplace you must have an effective networking strategy.

4. Perseverance is paramount. Django was always outnumbered and outgunned, but he refused to give up on his dream even when facing death. He was totally irrational and many would have considered his dream of being a slave and taking on one of the largest slave plantations in the country unrealistic. No matter how many times he failed or was captured, he stubbornly refused to quit until he and his wife were reunited. Perseverance is the number one quality you must have to be successful in business and life.  The opposite of success is not failure. Failure is a part of success. The opposite of success is “quit.”

Django’s ultimate vision was to be reunited with his wife. It does not matter what your vision is, the formula for attaining greatness and achieving remarkable success are developing and applying these four qualities.

Join us Grinders and Grind for Greatness!

Inspiring you to grind for your greatest potential. Don’t wait. Live life out of breath! Grind for Greatness!

Act like a  leader and think like a manager. Really? Shouldn’t it be the other way around? No, because leadership is action, period! And if you don’t remember anything else from this article, remember that people judge you by your “actions,” not your thoughts or “intentions.”

When it comes to leadership and management, many people mistakenly believe they are one and the same. Not knowing the difference and taking specific actions can cause teams to become disengaged, create a hostile work environment, and obtain minimum commitment and performance from people. As a result, people do just enough to meet expectations, not get fired, and become “paycheck employees.”

Here are some of the fundamental differences between managing and leading:
Managers maintain, leaders develop

Managers focus on tasks and compliance, leaders focus on people and empowerment

Managers rely on control, leaders rely on trust

Managers accept the status quo, leaders challenge it

Managers have sight (see things as they are), leaders have vision (see things as what they could be)

How to Act Like a Leader
Ultimately, leadership is people and action trumps everything. Just like you can think your way into a new way of acting, you can also act your way into a new way of thinking.

There are three specific actions that you must continually perform as a leader to bring the best performance out of people.

1. Communicate the vision (speak like leader and always remind your team of the ultimate purpose) in team meetings or one-on-one sessions, and inform the team of what they will ultimately become as a team and an organization.

2. Inspire! As a leader you must be a source of energy and inspiration for your people. They will get burned out, lose sight of the goals and expectations and take their eyes off the vision. You must sense when this happens (lack of participation, absenteeism etc…) and be like jumper cables for your team.

3. Care (empathy is the number one quality leaders must have) about your people. Leaders must know at least the two most important things to their people. Whether its family, going back to school, or obtaining a promotion, you must make time to connect with each person on your team on a personal level. This is the most important action of leaders. It facilitates trust and when people trust you as a leader, they take on more work without more pay and give you their all.

How to Think Like a Manager
If leadership is people, then management is tasks. Although leaders can inspire people to pursue a vision, a management mentality attempts to make certain the vision becomes a reality.

There are three specific thoughts manager must focus on to accomplish the vision.

1. What are we trying to achieve? Once the leader establishes the vision, managers must think about the overall strategy and goals to achieve it. Although the vision does not change, the strategy and goals can change. Goals should be clear, measurable and have deadlines.

2. How are we going to achieve it? While developing the goals, managers must also determine if the team has the resources (people, money, tools etc…) to succeed, or if the team has been set up for failure.

3. How can each team member contribute? Great managers know that it does not matter how bold and wonderful the strategy and goals are, if the team cannot execute and ultimately achieve them. For successful execution, managers must set expectations for each role and assign tasks and duties to hit the daily, weekly or monthly targets. They must also continually ask is everyone on the team in the right role where they are maximizing their strengths (great managers do not focus on weaknesses).

Be a Leader or Manager?
Some people have great leadership qualities. They are inspirational, charismatic, and have majestic ideas, but they are unable to get results and win through other people. Some people have only management tunnel vision, although they get things done, people feel forced to do it, bitter and resentful, and they refuse to give their all.

Be both, be balanced, and start acting and thinking now!

In roughly four short years, Lady Gaga, the eccentric pop star phenom has become a household name by building an iconic brand that has resulted in earnings of nearly one hundred million dollars last year. Although she came from a fairly well off family residing in New York, as a teen she throw it all away despite her parents’ wishes and decided to pursue her passion of music and singing.

A young Gaga, (born Stefani Germanotta) moved out of her parents’ house, promised herself she would not ask for any financial support from her parents, and spent her teenage years singing, waitressing, hustling and grinding in cabaret clubs trying to find her niche. She eventually signed a record deal with Def Jam Records, but was later dropped. She finally obtained a deal with Interscope Records, who released her best-selling album, The Fame in 2008, and the rest is music history.

What can small business owners learn from Lady Gaga’s business journey? We can learn that your brand is not just about your logo, products and services, it’s the personality of your business. Think of your business as a person and how it would think, feel and interact with customers.

Here are the Lady Gaga lessons that small business owners can use to build a powerful brand and spark gigantic growth:

Be Touchable Your business must not only be online, but you must now have a mobile presence as well. Bill Gates said “by the end of 2002, there will be only two kinds of businesses: those with an Internet presence, and those with no business at all.” Even if you’re already online, you must not make the mistake of only communicating about your products and services, you must also be connecting with existing and potential customers. Lady Gaga posts to facebook and tweets to her fans about five times daily. She interacts with fans by not just announcing her products, but sharing her personality, photos, inspiring them to support causes, and most of all thanking her fans who she calls her “little monsters” for their continued support. It is no surprise that she has more twitter followers (over 20 million) than anyone on twitter.

Stand for Something Small businesses should focus not only on selling their products or services, but story-selling. Story-selling is when a business shares in a compelling way its purpose, vision, and reasons for being in business. You must touch your customer’s hearts before you touch their pockets. Think of companies who built their businesses around powerful causes like TOM’s Shoes (shoes for needy children), Ben & Jerry’s (promoting philanthropy with profits) Kenneth Cole (AIDS Awareness). When your business stands for something, customers will feel good about supporting your business because it touches their hearts.

Gaga has been a vocal supporter of bullying, gay rights, particularly she was a huge advocate for the end of the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy regarding gay recruits. Gaga has successfully created a cult-like following from her fans because they feel like she is one of them. Fans (her customers) can identify with her story of having been bullied as a youth, kids called her ugly and made fun of her big nose. Gaga constantly sings to her fans believe in yourself, be who you are, and they embrace it with every song purchase.

Create a Community Small business owners must replace the word “marketing” with “engaging.” Engaging is what a business does before, during and after the sale. Effective engaging means staying on your customer’s mind in a way that’s not annoying. Use social media tools (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin) to offer customers tips, videos and articles that are helpful. Online shoe retailer, Zappos.com, who was recently bought by Amazon for $1.2 billion, increased shoe sales by 10% simply using online videos to showcase and describe their shoes. Lady Gaga interacts with her “little monsters” daily by announcing new songs, videos, products and social causes she supports. Her fans view her actions not as marketing or selling, but engaging or helping them believe in themselves and stand up for social issues.

Be Authentic Small businesses need not rely on product gimmicks, or short term sales tactics, but instead should focus on long term brand authenticity. Customers at times may fall for gimmicks and purchase products, but eventually gimmicks become stale and the business who relies on them will not have a loyal following once the hype burns out. One of the reasons Gaga has a consistent loyal following is because fans know she is real and authentic. Fans believe she does not go home and take off her costume and become a totally different person. Gaga in her own words stated, “Gaga’s always been who I am. Me and my hair bow, we go to bed together. She sleeps where I sleep.”

Small businesses must be touchable, stand for something, create a community, be authentic, but most of all Grind for Greatness!

University and college Faculty members across the nation are well aware of the historic fact that the average student cannot stay focused during a lecture for more than 20 minutes without being distracted. For today’s Generation Y students (born between 1980-2000), that widely accepted statistic may have fallen to about 10 minutes.

Campus life administrators are also experiencing challenges of student engagement, specifically participation for school related and community events. The traditional method used to engage students is to create flyers, tell a few student leaders, send out an email, cross their fingers and hope that students will show up for an event.

Today’s students grew up on interactive technology and expect entertainment-style communication. What can faculty and campus life administrators do to attract and engage today’s hyper-busy, easily distracted, and always connected students?

Here are the 5 rules that will help faculty and staff effectively engage and connect with today’s students:

1. Be Energized: Students will feed off a Faculty member’s passion and enthusiasm for the subject. They can also tell when an instructor is just going through the motions. The result will be bored students who can’t help but tune out. Faculty members must remind themselves they are professionals and being a professional means that they must consistently perform regardless of how they feel. If students are disengaged in the lecture, its time for the instructor to be like jumper cables and spark the class with energy, and remember, a dead battery can’t charge a dead battery.

2. Be Relevant: Use current events, music, television, work or real-life experiences that are relevant to the lecture and help students understand the lesson. For example, a marketing professor titled his lesson “The Lil Wayne Marketing Effect.” Given Lil Wayne’s music popularity, this will definitely capture students’ attention and prepare them to absorb the lesson.

3. Be Fun: Fun makes it interesting. If it isn’t interesting, it’s not going to be given much attention. When its fun the student will discuss it in conversation with friends. However, Faculty members must not attempt to be comedians, instead show a funny video that still relates to the lesson. If you attempt to be a comedian and fail, students will judge you and use your “not cool” label to justify tuning you out. Campus life administrators must make things funny and think like Super Bowl commercial advertisers when marketing events to students; Make school and community event advertisements funny, short and original.

4. Be Practical: Faculty members must connect what students are learning to “real-life” as much as possible. Include demonstrations with workplace scenarios, or have students work in groups on related case studies. For example, a business class could include a case study analysis of a current event business situation that could spark class interest and discussion.

5. Be Connected: According to a recent university study, students spend about three hours per day texting, and roughly one and half hours per day on Facebook. It is imperative that Faculty members and campus life administrators use Facebook, Twitter and text messaging to connect with students by posting assignments and making event announcements. Faculty members should set up Facebook groups and use the groups to spark class discussions, encourage students to ask questions, and allow students to post and make comments. Campus life administrators could increase their student participation rates by sending out text message reminders instead of emails before events and sponsor contests via text message (95% of text messages are read vs.5% for emails).

A recent survey by JBG International Success Academy, a performance training and research company, asked two hundred managers, leaders and working professionals in six states and ten countries to share statements they made, or heard others communicate that were considered untactful and made others defensive.

Here are the top 50 statements as a result of the survey:

1. “That’s not my job”

2. “Why can’t you do it”

3. “I’m here to work, I’m not here to make friends”

4. “I’m busy can you get all of this”

5. “I’m right, you’re not”

6. “You don’t know what you’re talking about”

7. “I’ve told you how this is done before”

8. “I don’t work for you”

9. “He’s not pulling his weight”

10. “I’m always the one doing the work”

11. “Just do your job”

12. “What have you been doing all day”

13. “He did it, not me”

14. “This is your fault”

15. “Do it or go home”

16. “I’m busy”

17. “You don’t pay me enough”

18. “No place could be lousier than this”

19. “Well, I just assumed… [insert anything here]”

20. “They should be happy to have a job”

21.  ”I don’t have time to babysit you”

22. “Its your baby now”

23. “That’s not how we did it at my old job”

24. “Thats not how we do it around here”

25. “Don’t expect me to bail you out”

26. “There are several unemployed people waiting for your job”

27. “I’m not here to be nice to people”

28. “I’m not paid to think”

29. “Why do I get the all the dirty work”

30. “You do know I can get a college intern to do your job for free”

31. “Sorry…I can’t. That wasn’t in my job description”

32. “We don’t look for creativity in our employees”

33. “I am busy”

34. “I can only do this job”

35. “No one appreciates me”

36. “No one listens to me”

37. “I didn’t sign up for this $#% !”

38. “You’re all alone on this one”

39. “What the customer doesn’t know won’t hurt them”

40. “She/he just got the job because they are (fill in the blank) with the boss”

41. “I don’t know” (with no follow up)

42. Hold that thought, I will get back to you” (NOT)

43. “Yes” to everything …. and then not delivering

44. “Why me?”

45. “I don’t work for you I work for the organization”

46. “We already tried that, and it doesn’t work”

47. “You’re wasting your time”

48. “Don’t worry. I will take care of it” (fail to follow through)

49. “I don’t have time to talk to you”

50. “Told you so”

Every year, at the start of the New Year is the time most people get excited about their New Year resolutions or goals, from saving money to losing weight or starting a business.

According to researcher John Norcross, roughly 50% of the population makes resolutions, however by February, people are backsliding and by the following December, most people are back where they started, often even further behind.

Why do so many people not keep their resolutions? Are people just weak-willed or lazy? Research shows that of all the people who make New Year resolutions less than 25% actually succeed and of the small few that do succeed the reason they succeed is because they focused on one or two clear goals and developed plans of action that keep them focused almost every day. So the key is to determine clear goals like how much weight will you lose, or how much debt will you destroy. The goals must also be supported with a strategy or plan of action that you can work on every day or at least every week. No more excuses and no more games, get an accountability partner to remind you of what you said you were going to do. Now Grind for it like crazy. Remember, its not the year that must change, its YOU. Grind for Greatness!

According to a recent Gallup Poll survey, roughly 70% of employees across the country either dislike their jobs or don’t really care about the work they perform on a daily basis. However, most must still come to work everyday to pay bills and take care of their families. But just because they come to work does not mean they are giving their best performance. Their bodies may be present at their desk, but their hearts and minds are far from their work.

What does this mean for managers, leaders and business owners? Lost productivity, lackluster customer service (if employees don’t care about their work, they won’t care about customers) low morale, and ultimately lower profits.

Managers and leaders must understand that employees need a reason to come to work and bring their best performance. That reason has to be more than a paycheck. If not, managers and leaders run the risk of creating “paycheck employees,” who only come to work for a paycheck, or “transactional employees,” who only perform work they are paid, nothing more or less and won’t do more unless they are paid more.     

Listed below are three actions managers and leaders can take immediately to create a workplace environment where employees are engaged and want to give their best performance: 

1. Connect with employees on a personal level
This does not mean you become best friends with employees or learn their deepest secrets. It does mean knowing what’s important to them, including family, advancement, job security, or going back to school. It also means knowing their personal goals, hobbies, interests, and what they ultimately are working for and trying to become as a working professional.

There is a successful hotel manager in Las Vegas who accomplishes this by taking new team members out to lunch. During lunch, she asks one of the most important questions a manager or leader can ask, “what are the two most important things to you?” She then takes a mental note of their response or writes it down and places it in their employee file for future reference.

2. Deliver praise and recognition weekly
Workplace morale is just like a muscle, it must be exercised at least weekly to stay strong and healthy. I recently conducted a leadership seminar in New York City and when I informed the audience about how much they should praise and recognize employees, one manager responded, “What! That means I have to start making stuff up.” This manager thought the paycheck and just having a job was enough praise and recognition for his employees. Now of course we should not make things up, we must be genuine with our feedback. It may be helpful to think about praising and recognizing the ”small stuff.” For example, a few ways to recognize mediocre performers is noticing their positive attitude, perfect attendance, willingness to work late and improve, or praising small incremental progress toward achieving their goals.

3. Positive reinforcement
Managers and leaders often do not recognize their employees until they underperform or do something wrong. However, when their employees do things well, they say things such as, “they are paid to do those things anyway.” The most effective leaders understand why we should praise and recognize employees for doing what they are paid to do anyway; we want them to keep doing it.

Can you imagine going to a professional football game and watching a team score a touchdown and nobody clapped? Suppose the audience’s response for not clapping was “they are paid millions to do that anyway.” You would be hard-pressed to attend such a game because the audience will clap to encourage the players to keep doing what they are paid to do. Managers and leaders must have the same mentality of football fans and clap for their team players so they will keep performing desired behaviors and stay inspired to bring their best performance to work everyday.

With an ongoing crisis of leadership plaguing the current corporate workplace, authentic leadership from America’s next generation of managers and senior level leaders is critical. The source for a new generation of leaders with a refreshing sense of values, ethics and innovation will not surprisingly be chosen from America’s colleges and universities. But will this new collection of emerging leaders be cut from the same cloth of power, money and politics, or will they be groomed by integrity, service and accountability in order to effectively lead tomorrow’s workforce. It all depends on how they are learning, developing and practicing leadership in colleges and universities today.

Today’s higher education institutions must emphasize to students that leadership is a process, not a title or simply possessing authority. They must also understand the four stages of the student leadership development process and how they can cultivate an environment where students can become interested in campus leadership opportunities.

The Four Stages of Student Leadership Development:

Stage 1: The Limited Leader
Students in this stage are typically first year students and become briefly exposed to leadership during their first year experience. Campus life administrators must recognize that these students typically believe one of the two myths regarding leadership. Unfortunately, many first year students believe the myth that they do not have the qualities and skills to become leaders and are uncertain leadership can be learned. Therefore, their interest in leadership decreases and they mistakenly limit their leadership potential. It is not surprising that roughly 46% of student graduates never serve in a positional leadership role while in college, according to the MSL Study on Leadership.

Another myth for many students is that they can lead effectively based on their personality, popularity or charisma without learning various styles and principles of leadership. These type of students are eager to occupy leadership positions on campus to decorate their resume, but find their techniques and ideas for organizing other students, events and organizations ineffective and the results of low participation frustrating.

What can campus life administrators do to help?
Help students recognize that leadership can be learned and developed by making available numerous and diverse opportunities, including single event or long-term leadership awareness programs, seminars and workshops that will inspire students and attract them to the concept of leadership. We must make students aware that the most widely accepted leadership theory today on how people become leaders is that people choose to be leaders and that leadership can be learned.

Stage 2: The Learned Leader
In this stage, students are interested in leadership and attend short or long-term leadership programs, seminars and workshops that further cultivate their interest in leadership and equip them with ideas and techniques to help them become effective leaders.

What can campus life administrators do to help?
Help students by providing them access to more than one idea or concept of leadership (e.g. servant leadership). Students in this stage should become immersed in leadership principles, theories, ideas and global truths. Leadership programs and seminars should be careful to not overwhelm students in the beginning, but should be engaging, interactive, practical and entertaining so that students will become even more interested in learning leadership.

Stage 3: The Experienced Leader
Students in this stage occupy roles where they can make a deliberate effort to think about the leadership principles and ideas they have learned and then have an opportunity to apply what they have learned.

What can campus life administrators do to help?
Students should be in roles where they can practice a variety of leadership principles and ideas. If students’ only opportunities are organizing student and community events they are only learning how to be effective organizers and serving the community. Other opportunities should include allowing students to create a vision, develop strategy, display integrity, make ethical decisions, show empathy etc… Based on the theory of Transformational Leadership and research of Dr. Bernard Bass, one of the ways people become leaders is through a crisis or important event, which causes a person to rise to the occasion, and brings out extraordinary leadership qualities in an ordinary person.

Campus life administrators must provide forums for students to discuss different views and diverse perspectives on social, economic and cultural issues. Students who occupy leadership positions must also be challenged to go outside of their comfort zone, struggle, and stretch beyond their current reality to understand how people grow and learn to innovate. Campus life administrators must be careful to help students and not handicap them, which means they should act as a resource and support system to encourage student leaders through the struggle. Also, additional workshops and seminars should follow up and support student leadership struggles and problems throughout the academic year, so students can reflect and reevaluate themselves as leaders.

Stage 4: The Leaderfied Leader
The students who reach this stage during college are truly exceptional. However, most students will only reach this stage after graduation while working as professionals in the workplace. A student in this stage has practiced and applied leadership principles and techniques with such repetition that basic leadership principles and ideas have become instinctive habits. A Leaderfied Leader also understands the importance of life-long learning, application and reflection.

What is it that makes certain people in a company or organization come together and accomplish extraordinary things? How can a team of people who may only be average performers individually, produce remarkable results when they work together? How do they consistently exceed expectations every year and have the audacity to set even higher goals, all while having fun as they work?

Throughout my training experiences and discussions with thousands of supervisors, managers, directors and senior executives, I have realized that there are four things these workplace winners have in common: Shared Purpose, Open Communication, Trust and an Innovative Mentality.

Some organizations are completely blind to the fact that they don’t have teams, they have groups. The main difference between a group and a team is that a group is just a collection of individuals who are only looking out for their self interest. They only care about their individual goals, promotion, salary etc.. A team consists of individuals who understand that none of us is greater than all of us and they genuinely care about each other and know they can only grow and win, when they help their team members grow and win.

The Fabulous Four Qualities listed below will help your team grow to the next level and eventually become a top performing team:

1. Shared Purpose:
- Every team member knows the vision, mission, goals of the team and the overall organization.

- Each team member knows why their work, tasks, duties and contribution matters, and how it impacts the entire team and organization.

- Each team member knows their role, responsibilities, what they’re accountable for, and no matter how small their role, it is equally celebrated, valued and respected by the team.

2. Open Communication:
- Each team member feels as though they can freely share ideas, opinions and potential solutions to the team without fear or being ridiculed.

- High performing teams have feedback forums (meetings, social gatherings etc…) where feedback on performance, ideas, needs for assistance are communicated.

3. Trust:
- High performing teams consistently do what they say, and they hold every team member accountable to the same standard.

- Each team member shares personal interest and goals. (They become like extended family)

4. Innovative Mentality:
- Each team member has an innovative mentality, which means they relentlessly see or do things in a new or more effective way.

- Top performing teams have no comfort zone. Members of teams with comfort zones say things such as “if ain’t broke don’t fix it.” Top performing teams understand that a comfort zone in today’s rapidly changing economy means laid-off, outsourced or downsized. Instead, their mentality is “if ain’t broke don’t fix it, unless you can make it better!”

- Top performing teams have innovative sessions, where they meet frequently to discuss how to improve the product, service, programs, reports, equipment, etc… They dedicate entire meetings to just thinking about better methods and improving things.

It’s no secret that top performing teams go from ordinary to extraordinary by doing certain things and having specific qualities. It may take some time, but your team can accomplish it.

In part 2, we will discuss the particular phases of team development and what leaders must do to make sure their team successfully graduates from each phase.

Grind for Greatness!