Hello Everyone
My week started off really great yesterday. I spoke to a couple of thousand volunteers at Church On The Move in Tulsa, Oklahoma. This was my second trip to Tulsa in the last month to work with Church On The Move. The cherry on top was that my book Creating Magic sold out quickly in the church bookstore and that really makes me happy. What a nice group of people….They really made me feel special.
Oklahoma folks are really friendly. Even the TSA at the Tulsa airport this morning were all especially friendly while doing their job extremely well. If you did not know it, I am from Oklahoma.
Today I am in Dallas preparing for my two day leadership workshop tomorrow at the Omni Hotel. Tuesday night I head to Denver to speak to another group and then I have to get back to Orlando to help the Easter Bunny prepare the eggs for our traditional Easter Egg hunt with my three perfect grandchildren. The Easter Bunny and I get up quite early to hide the eggs. I will also roast a nice leg of lamb for Sunday dinner.
Lessons In Leadership: It Is A Big Responsibility
The day you have direct reports or the day you have children, you move up a notch into a full leadership position.
Being a manager is a big responsibility, and it is really big if you have direct reports. The minute you have direct reports, the job of management becomes a leadership role.
What you do or don’t do has a tremendous impact on people’s lives who are depending on you.
If you take the time to:
- Find out how you can help your direct reports reach their goals,
- Take the time to listen to them,
- Involve them,
- Ask their opinion,
- Show complete respect for them, and
- Make them more knowledgeable
. . . then you will long be remembered as a great leader . . . and years later you will hear from someone whom you helped out years before . . . and they will be calling to say thank you.
This call will make you feel good, and you will appreciate it. The job of leaders is to produce more leaders, just like it is parents job to lead their children in a way which creates honest, ethical, self assured adults. Make sure that you understand this concept very well, or you could be responsible for someone not reaching his or her maximum potential in life, and that would be a shame and create a big regret for you. Don’t ever underestimate the influence you have on everyone. Be careful what you say and do as everyone is watching you every second and judging you.
Be a leader who encourages people to try . . . and a leader who others get where they want to go. You have the authority to help others, and you have the positions to do it! So make sure that you are using your authority and position to do great things!
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being a perfect score, how would you rate yourself at work and at home?….Lee
Dear Mr. Cockerell:
I was in the Church on the Move audience Saturday morning and appreciated the church bringing you in to share your insight and wisdom. I am also a former cast member of Walt Disnet World. I participated in the WDWCP during the Summer of ’88 and went back to work in Guest Relations at EPCOT Center after graduating from college. I’ll always be grateful for Rick Neely hiring me as an intern with the WDWCP.
Your book is a must-read for any business that takes it’s customers seriously.
Your talk inspired lots of note-taking, but the one thing I remember most of all was your point that a person should focus on one major challenge, both personally and professionally, and keep working on that challenge until it goes away. My wife and I talked about that point, as well as others,as we drove back to our home in Bartlesville.
Was great to see your book sell out so fast! I’ve got the audio version and have listened to it several times already.
Thanks for helping us volunteers at Church on the Move take serving to the next level in excellence.
Thank you for your time and information Saturday. This information is often forgotten, but very important to every aspect of our lives. I am so happy to be part of a Church that invests in its members/volunteers/people this way!
Thank you again,
Angie
It’s easy to forget that being a parent is part of leadership responsibilities. We are so focused, as a society, on work roles. Thanks again Lee!
Scott Milam Townsend & Lee,
I appreciated the thoughts of Scott on your presentation to the volunteer group.
What catches my eye in Scott’s comments is: “Your talk inspired lots of note-taking.”
Like you, Lee, I give hundreds of presentation a year but as I look into the audience I see very few people taking notes — hand written or electronically.
When I go to your presentations I leave with 5 or 6 pages of single spaced note that I refer to months later.
Is everyone else so much smarter that I am? Can they really recall important stories and bullet points months later when they need them?
? Maybe so ?
Jim