Black Belt Productivity

In John C. Maxwell’s book, The 360° Leader , lead across principle number 2 is to put competing fellow leaders ahead of competing with them.

Healthy competition in the workplace can greatly benefit the organization. However, there is a fine line between healthy competition and a cut-throat culture. The line has been crossed when the competition damages organizational motivation and morale. Are you taking the actions you are taking for the purpose of getting ahead, or pushing the organization to its goal?

Maxwell contrasts by using the terms “Competing vs. Completing”.

Four years ago, I purchased my first Windows-based PDA. I got a Dell Axim X5. It was the first round of Dell’s PDAs. It was a great machine. I enjoyed using it. It was dependable. The only real complaint I had was the size. It was somewhat uncomfortable to carry even on a belt clip. I had a nice Sena belt clip case that I used it with. The case was great, but it could only do so much to make it easy to handle.

Since Jason is en route back to Alabama today, I will try to take a stab at the Leadership post for the week. Now he has read (and posted) farther ahead than I am in Maxwell’s The 360° Leader. So I will drop back a bit to a section that I thought a lot about since I read it.

I was planning a training session recently when I ran into one of those blocks. You know what I’m talking about. Where you just seem to reach a dead end in terms of mental organization and direction. I had to organize my thoughts. I had to get it together. After struggling for a while. I decided to mind map.

So I opened up Mindjet MindManager 6, and started to map out my thoughts. Fortunately, it helped me to clarify how I needed to approach my meeting. Now I can finish my presentation with the ease of knowing I am covering all of the material that I need to cover on Wednesday.

In the past, as we have talked about John Maxwell’s 360° Leader, we have talked about leading up. The principles we talked about in the segment on leading up involved our relationships with our leaders.

However, we cannot stop there. It is obvious that we can lead those who are natural followers. But it is important that we understand how to lead other leaders. How do we relate to our peers?

One thing that makes leading across so difficult is that, in many cases, those whom we are trying to lead will see us as adversaries. If someone attempting to lead across is seen as politically motivated or a brown noser, then their ability to solicit cooperation will be compromised.

Yes, today is my birthday. As I begin my 35th year of life here on planet Earth, I am wondering…am I truly getting things done to the level that I need to be doing. The answer of course is…no, I could be doing a lot better. We all could.

My calendar is pretty solid. I write down all of my appointments in my Moleskine 18-Month Planner. I really love it (and it was added to the picture above). My off the cuff NAs are pretty good to. I keep up with any one off next actions that fall my way. I am using the Planner page in the Moleskine to keep up with my next actions.

Please join me today in wishing my partner in crime here at Black Belt Productivity, Michael Ramm, a Happy Birthday.

Michael, enjoy your day today.

That title sounds like something Obi-Wan Kenobi probably spoke to Anakin Skywalker as he grew older and more arrogant.

You might say I am ranting tonight. But I really have grasped a truth in this situation that I must share.

At the moment, I am experiencing an interesting situation with a team I am on.

Teamwork can be especially difficult if the subject matter that the team is tackling is not the most pleasant thing in the world. In this case, some team members do not even want to participate. So how do we handle this? These team members have chosen to not show up for meetings.

Well, welcome to the new look Black Belt Productivity. Jason and I have tweaked this theme that I found and we feel that it is more professional looking than the old look. We are still doing a little tweaking, but overall, the look is finished.

Hello to all,

I just wanted to drop a quick note that we have an exciting change coming next week! On Monday, November 6, 2006, we will unveil the new look to BBP. Jason and I have talked about the look that we have now, and found a new look that we are both very excited about. We moved some stuff around and narrowed some stuff and added some color, and **BAM!!** we have a new site.