Leadership Success Predictors: Do You Amplify Others?

Do you encourage others to become greater or do you speak and act in ways that actually discourage others? The key metric of a servant leader is: Has your influence helped others grow and develop themselves personally and professionally? Are people better off knowing and working with you? Are others accomplishing their goals, objectives and dreams by being associated with you?

Amplify is defined as making something become greater in scope and stronger. Pixar's Randy Nelson reveals the top four predictors that determine if you and your team amplify others. This ten minute video is worth your time.

After watching the video, here's a quick way to self-assess your ability to amplify others:

• Depth of Experience: What is something you have truly mastered? And, how does this mastery demonstrates your ability to achieve mastery in other things?
• Breadth of Knowledge and Experience: Are you more interested in other people and how things work or do you speak and act in ways to make yourself interesting to others?
• Quality of Communication: How well do others understand you? When you do speak, do others tell you they have a better understanding of a situation?
• Create a Collaborative Environment: Do you create an environment that promotes authentic collaboration versus people just doing the basics to cooperate with one another. Is the team creating new possibilities? 
• Bonus - Question to Statement Ratio: What is your question to statement ratio? Do you speak out your ideas more than you ask questions to understand others?

I Will Greet This Day With Love In My Heart (Just Do It)

This is dedicated to +Og Mandino, author and a great man, who has taught me and hundreds of millions to be better men and women.

Kudos to Jason Black, CEO of +Boundless Network, who gave the book "The Greatest Salesman In The World" to the 100+ sales professionals during an annual sales event. My wife, +Cindy Goldsberry, who helped Boundless grow from $1MM to $55MM in six years, was asked to read the second scroll entitled - I will greet this day with love in my heart. Jason knows what's really important for success and he knows how to leverage available resources to deliver a meaningful message. Way to go, Jason!

As Cindy shares this with me, I am inspired to pull my personal copy of the book off the shelf for four reasons: 

Entrepreneurial Leaders Do What Matters

"Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can." ~ John Wesley

These are times of rapid change, uncertainty and opportunity that call forth leaders with a deep desire to make a difference and leave a lasting legacy in business, community, church and government. People want to be part of something that matters. Yet, the challenges of getting others willing to confront the issues at hand and execute workable solutions require leaders who have the adaptive capacity to get others on the same page and moving in the same direction, at the same time. Leaders must have a deep understanding of what it takes to be highly effective and influential leaders. 

Leadership is no longer about declaring the vision or direction and then looking to see who is following and then focus on those who follow. This is a time for leaders to embrace the heart of a servant and spirit of the warrior. Authentic servant leaders observe all that exists around them and apply what they learn to develop a deep understanding of the art and science of leadership. Each must put forth the required time and effort to make themselves authentic servant leaders with a clear focus on others and set the course for things to come. Great leaders throughout history maintain a sense of providence as to who they are, where they are and what they are called to do. The opportunity, like no other time in history, is the possibility to create a world great leaders throughout history have desired to make reality.

Those who choose to pursue this leadership opportunity quickly realize the process to become an authentic servant leader involves reconciling immense personal and professional challenges. Change becomes a way of life. Leadership is a self-development process that requires daily attention as society requires leaders to have a servant-focus, be of solid character and maintain high standards in leadership practices and principles. Leaders are expected to continually learn and with a trusted mentor become a highly capable leader who knows themselves, cares about people and has a deep understanding of the business or organization they steward. 

For those leaders who answer this call into servant leadership, the Servant Leader Framework serves as a highly effective methodology for thinking and processing through all the situations, possibilities, challenges, changes and complexities of leadership.

This xy graph or ZMap becomes a ‘one page book’ for those who desire to know and understand who they are as an entrepreneur and servant leader. This simple xy graph provides clarity and focus on what to do to get to where you want to be. The challenge for entrepreneurs is reconciling their desires for success with doing good to make a difference. For those entrepreneurs who can stay focused on both success and doing good at the same time will know what it means to go from success to significance. It is possible to have it all. Just look at all the entrepreneurial leaders who have proven this is true. This is one of the ZMaps in my upcoming book The Servant Leader Framework.

~ Alan Goldsberry, Author and CEO of ZFactor Group Publishing

Authentic Legacy - Zig Ziglar

A few of my favorite +Zig Ziglar quotes in celebration of his life, legend and legacy.

• "Your attitude, not your aptitude will determine your altitude."
• "Every choice you make has an end result."
• "If you treat your wife like a thoroughbred, you'll never end up with a nag."
• "If God would have wanted us to live in a permissive society He would have given us Ten Suggestions and not Ten Commandments."
• "It's not what you've got, it's what you use that makes a difference."

Prayers and blessings to the Ziglar family and to all Zig Fans. I am a better man, husband, father, businessman, salesman and leader because of Zig Ziglar and a few other book mentors I discovered early in life and at the beginning of my business career. Zig has joined Og Mandino, Dale Carnegie, W. Clement Stone, Napoleon Hill and Earl Nightengale for a major God Special Universe Tour.

Thank you, Mr. Ziglar (Zig) for the legacy you have created that will make a difference for generations to come. Thank you for showing us all the way.

"...it's what you use that makes a difference."

~ Alan Goldsberry, Author and CEO of ZFactor Group Publishing

How Will Your Legacy Make a Difference?

Who or what life experience made a significant difference for you? Maybe it is someone you know, a parent, teacher, minister, friend, mentor or someone you have read about or it could be a crucible life event. 

• What has been your process to deeply examine how this person or event has impacted your life? 
• How does this experience compel you to think about, seek out and act upon what you sense being called to do?
• With whom do you associate and what are your activities?
• Where are you serving others and what joy does this bring to your life?

These are just a few of the questions to answer on this journey toward the discovery and bringing forth your legacy. In a recent discussion with a young friend on this topic, they declared how they know their destiny, but that could be fifty or more years away. I encouraged them to begin living that legacy today. By doing so, I suspect their legacy will become much more than they ever imagined and impact many thousands more than ever hoped.

How will your legacy make a difference? What are the possibilities? Dreaming required.

Blessings to you for your journey and the difference it will make for those you may never know,

~ Alan Goldsberry, Author and CEO of ZFactor Group Publishing