24 results for author: Joseph


Accountability and Service

As I conclude the year with my Leadership Through Service Class, I have been conducting exit interviews with each of my students. I asked them what they have learned, how they would change high school, their reflections on the past four years, but most importantly I asked them how I can improve the class for next year. Students overwhelmingly responded by saying that we should do more service and I should hold them more accountable. I want to dive into both of those suggestions with how service and accountability can change the way teachers and leaders help others grow. 1. Service  The premise of the Leadership Through Service Class is to use ...

Overcoming The Familiar

In all of my years of personal growth experimentation, teaching and studying, I have come to one overwhelming conclusion. True change only happens when you overcome the familiar. It has been said that 90% of the thoughts we have today are the same thoughts we had yesterday. How can any of us expect to change when we keep thinking the same things over and over again? I was a habitual e-mail checker. I would check email upwards of forty times a day. It was comfortable, it was familiar, and it was something I did every single day. Two weeks ago, I decided to cut that habit down to three times a day. On my desk it says e-mail 8:30, 12:30, 2:15. For ...

Values Based Leadership

Leaders need to have a good sense of their most important values. If you are unclear about your most important values you may be left wondering what direction you are headed towards or even why you want to get there. Last month, I took a values assessment put together Dr. John Demartini on his website:https://drdemartini.com/ The goal of the values assessment is to help people identify which values are the most important. By evaluating what you spend the most time thinking about, what your surround yourself with, and eleven other indicators, you quickly realize your most significant priorities. Dr. Demartini uses this evaluation to help people ...

Leading vs. Managing

There is a difference between management and leadership. Managers try to maintain the status quo, while leaders try to break through barriers. Manager’s say, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Leaders say “when is it going to break, or how can we make it better.” Managers try and make themselves feel important, while leaders make others feel important. Leaders need to help others succeed. People will succeed, if we make them feel capable and we allow them to make choices. Here are two ways that leaders can help others grow. 1. Make others feel capable Leaders should be asking the people that work with them two questions: W...

Are You Sleepwalking Through Your Day?

Yesterday in my Leadership Through Service class, I took my students through a vision setting exercise called “The History of Your Future.” The activity is credited to Rick Krug. You can watch his Ted Talk here: History of Your Future.  Rick, along with myself, is a member of the John Maxwell Team and has graciously shared his material with the group. Here is a brief summary of how it works and an explanation as to its effectiveness. Step 1 Start by asking students to put themselves ten years in the future.  So the year is 2026 and they are 27 or 28 years of age. Imagining themselves ten years in the future, have them write down all of ...

Weekly Roundup To Help You Grow

I decided to do something different with my blog post this week.  Rather than share only one area of personal growth, I decided to highlight some of the amazing material that is out there in the four areas of life: Physical, Mental, Emotional, and Spiritual.  I believe that in order to succeed, people need balance and often times we focus on one area too much while neglecting other areas.  We also focus too much on complex goals when we need to start with simple habits to change our lives. If you want more on that idea, check out my blog: Habits So here is my weekly roundup. Physical - Steve Maxwell is one of the leading experts on movemen...

Find a Mentor – Ask These Questions

The importance of finding a mentor is instrumental to your personal growth. Without mentors we are limited to the knowledge that we have within ourselves. I have found in my life that the most important mentors are the ones that you can sit down with and ask specific questions. Using the questions below from John Maxwell’s book The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth, I have learned important lessons about life, health, and leadership. Use these questions below to be intentional about your desire to grow. What are their strengths? - This is where I’ll learn most   What are they learning now? - This is how I can catch their passion &n...

What High School Seniors Learned About Leadership

Last week the students in my Leadership Through Service class submitted first semester reflections detailing with the most important lessons and ideas from the semester.  Below are three rock solid lessons that students kept referring to.  If you are in the business of training young leaders, I highly suggest considering these topics to keep them interested, motivated, and growing as leaders. 1. Jump, and Build Your Wings on the Way Down       My students were less than pleased with me when I told them that their final exam was going to be a speech in front of the class.  After all, speaking in front of others is the number one fear in ...

Change Your Habits, Change Your Life

“Our lives change when our habits change.” – Matthew Kelly What are your 2016 resolutions? Do you want to lose weight?  Do you want to have better relationships?  Do you want to grow into the person that you were destined to become?  Your resolutions and goals can only be accomplished as long as you are willing to change your habits. Psychologists say that 90% of our day is habitual. Most of the things that we do are governed by routines. So if you want to change you life, change your habits. Recently I had a conversation with Phil Chung who is the president of Jim Karas Personal Training. (http://www.jimkaras.com/). Phil explained to ...

Intentional Living

“Intentional living brings you daily satisfaction and continual reward as you intentionally make a difference in the lives of others. " – John Maxwell In the past month, I have been putting emphasizing intentional living as a means to increase significance in my life while gaining deeper connections with those around me.   Below are the three strategies I have been using to live an intentional life. 1. Say Something Encouraging to People Within the First 30 Seconds. It takes great intentionality to do this, but it has paid huge dividends. Imagine someone coming up to you and telling you how they love your scarf, or how you knocked that ...