Systems for Success
This podcast is for people who have the courage to learn and to do what it takes to design the life of their dreams. Many people think success is something that just happens to you if you’re lucky or work hard enough. We believe that behind every success is a system in action. Join Lonnie Gienger and his family as they share real life stories and learnings from our journey to create specific processes that produce success in business and in life.
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36. How Success is Achieved in NextGen Leaders with David Bentall
11/29/2021
36. How Success is Achieved in NextGen Leaders with David Bentall
How do you develop strong relationships that keep the family thriving for generations? David Bentall joins me today to bring some insight into just that with his years of multi-generational family business experience! For more than two decades, David worked in his family’s real estate and construction business, and during his tenure as President and CEO of Dominion Construction, the family business doubled in size with almost $300,000 in sales! As the successor of such a thriving business, he’ll share with us his experience as the NextGen leader, the appointed president who guided his family, and the owner who sold his shares then worked for the next family. So if you too want to build a business set to last for generations after you, this episode is perfect for you! Listen as we draw out David's experience as a NextGen leader on: Choosing mentors and heroes that effectively inspire and guide family business leaders. Developing emotional intelligence in next-gen family leaders. Fostering the 9 family leadership traits that next-gen leaders need to create and sustain success. Implementing effective communication and decision-making processes in the family. Creating career, personal and professional development pathways. Episode Highlights: David’s personal experience with next-generation succession. How David transitioned into helping other families with their business. The importance of emotional intelligence and how to develop that into the next generation. David’s life lessons for future successors of their family’s business. David's definition of governance and why it's so important for business families. What role faith played in building Davids company What David learned about managing expectations Thank you! Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page. We’d also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram
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35. Building Your Family’s Relational Bank Account with Tim & Michelle Seneff
11/22/2021
35. Building Your Family’s Relational Bank Account with Tim & Michelle Seneff
Learn how to build your family’s relational bank account as Tim and Michelle share how to create healthy boundaries between family members, how to create a cadence of communication in the extended family, and how to deal with failure both in your personal life and in business in a way that helps you and your kids see it as a growth opportunity. This is a rare opportunity to hear the wisdom Tim and Michelle Seneff are gaining as they learn to navigate challenging business and family transitions and intergenerational family dynamics in a way that brings deeper meaning and even joy. Tim Seneff worked up through the ranks of the private investment firm his father started. He eventually becomes President of CNL Financial Group which has formed or acquired companies with assets of over $25 billion. But everything started to change when a significant health crisis shifted his perspective and the focus he wanted for his wife and five kids. This forced them to grapple with two critical questions: What happens when the personal priorities of the next generation change or differ from the prior generation? How do you balance the priorities of work and family when you’re a part of a family business? Episode Highlights: How wealth and success can create lubrication for life that causes you to miss working on the hard stuff internally and in relationships. The pressure of wearing the family name or business name on your jersey every day. The value of crisis to reshape your perspective. The importance of having healthy feedback circles that call you on your stuff. Learning to enjoy the journey on a slower road where the people you love are with you. How to succeed as the second generation in the family business. Honoring prior generations (even when they make mistakes) while creating a culture of grace and truth and love. Thinking about what grace may I want my kids to give me when I'm older. How to be ready for major resets in life (e.g. relational fractures, divorce, or death in the family) Finding the balance between truth and love. Pressing onto peace instead of conflict. Leading with humility and diplomacy. Doing the deep work of knowing who you are and who you aren't. Families that play together, stay together. Wearing the right hand with each of your children based on the phase of life they are in. Creating a multigenerational mindset in your children through values transfer and storytelling. How divorce impacts adult next-gen and sibling relationships. The value of seeking personal counseling especially when not in crisis mode. Prioritizing your personal family over your family of origin while still loving your extended family well. Moving from predictable and controlled life to a position of risky adventure taking. The thrill and risk of measuring financial success are based on how much you give to others. Know the truth you believe, not just based on the truth your family believes. Shifting manhood identity to my pursuit of your wife and her heart instead of an identity based on achievement at work. Helping your kids develop the stewardship and entrepreneurship mindset especially when they are raised in affluence. Why it's valuable for your children to have failure being an option. Importance of not pushing the next-gen into your family business or into leadership roles too fast. Thank you! Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page. We’d also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram
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34. What 2020 Taught Us | A Family Round Table
02/01/2021
34. What 2020 Taught Us | A Family Round Table
2020 was a crazy year that gave us unique opportunities for profound learnings that can only happen when life is disrupted. We all learned more about ourselves, our relationships, our purposes and our values. Join our family as we gather around the table to share some of our highest impact learnings from challenging circumstances, accomplishments and mistakes. This entry from one of Lachelle’s 2020 reflection may give you some encouragement on your journey: When the world is chaos, when the boat is being rocked and the waves and the wind are large and wild, I have found my footing. I'm proud of us and proud of me. I love what we've created in our little family, how we see the world, the joy that keeps us going. We look for beauty. We are able to be flexible. We grieve and grow, but we don't stay low. We rest and we go. We create the experiences and work towards the attitudes we want to keep, that serve our lives. We are certain of our foundation, the solid rock. He is unshakable and has proven such more than ever this year. We know we will prevail because He prevails. We've established kingdom culture in our home more deeply than ever before. We're confident in His goodness! Episode Highlights: Key learnings from our family that can help you this year and beyond The power of focusing on gratitude How to use “effective blaming” to turn every challenge into a benefit The value of continual learning to take your leadership effectiveness to the next level How to create a 10 year vision for your business or family and the steps to make that vision become reality Keys to building abundant relationships Finding the one thing you can do that will make everything else unnecessary or irrelevant The power of going towards what you’ve been avoiding and pursuing the unknown Learning to turn inconvenient moments into beautiful, life enriching memories How disruption helps us experience and embrace what matters most Thank you Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page. We’d also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram
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33. Build and Keep Success for 120 Years
01/06/2021
33. Build and Keep Success for 120 Years
This is a rare opportunity to sample the secrets of multigenerational families from the leader of a successful billion dollar a year 120-year-old family business with 341 family member shareholders. What Are the Traits of a Successful Multigenerational Generation Family? They know the family story. They know who they are. They are clear on their values and live them out. They understand trust is important within the family and reinforce that through words and actions. They are clear on the direction they want to go as a family and move in that direction. Each successive generation is empowered to design their own destiny, building on the strengths and values of the prior generations. They value family unity and affirm each family member, but don’t endorse behavior contrary to family values. They intentionally nurture good relationships amongst all members of the family, regardless of differences. They make sure spouses of family members, and adopted children, feel like family by blood. How to Develop the Traits of a Successful Multigenerational Generation Family? They know the family story. They know who they are. Capture and tell the family story through interviewing family members. Provide easy access to videos and written content telling the family story. Ask questions such as, “How did our great grandfather start the business?" Don’t tell only the hero stories. Tell the whole story, warts and all, to communicate that success is possible even with struggles and imperfection. They are clear on their values and live them out. Discover through stories how the family’s values came about. What values drove the family to believe in their ability to create something worthwhile? What anchored them, keeping them from being destroyed when the storms came? Retell the stories over and over and over to reinforce the values. They understand trust is important within the family, and reinforce that through words and actions. Seek to know the expectations of family members and consider how those expectations can be incorporated into how the family lives out their values. Make it clear if it isn’t possible to include certain expectations within how the family interacts and deploys their resources. They are clear on the direction they want to go as a family and move in that direction. They establish a family compass - mission, vision, purpose, values. This provides direction. Then they frequently reassess, how are we doing related to our family compass? Where do we need to make course corrections? Each successive generation is empowered to design their own destiny, building on the strengths and values of the prior generations. They engage in open communication about honoring differing values and priorities amongst immediate family sub-units, while being respectful of the larger family's values. They value family unity and affirm each family member, but don’t endorse behavior contrary to family values. They are clear about family values but recognize not everyone in the family will enthusiastically endorse all of the family values. With love they affirm each family member, while not endorsing behavior that goes against family values. They intentionally nurture good relationships amongst all members of the family, regardless of differences. They look for ways to connect and enjoy being together. If there is not a good relationship with adult children, they look for and act on ways to rebuild the relationship. They are persistent until the relationship is restored, no matter how long it takes. They make sure spouses of family members, and adopted children, feel like family by blood. They embrace family unity and affirm everyone, making sure to include spouses of family members, and those who are adopted, in all gatherings and family discussions. Other Pivotal Family and Business Principles Discussed: How to make sure company and family values are not just marketing statements but are used as guiding accountability for the family and the business. How to make sure the direction you set on paper show up in the decisions and actions of the family and the business? How to keep the extended family pulling together for the good of everyone over multiple generations. How to handle family shareholders who cause disunity in the business or the family. How to remove family shareholders or terminate family employees and still maintain relationships. How to make sure your family business is headed in the right direction to get to the desired destination over multiple generations. How to educate all family members and shareholders about the family business by telling stories…warts and all… not just the hero stories. Defining responsibilities and communication lines between the owners group, family members the shareholders group and the board. Using a balanced scorecard that measures financial results, shareholder satisfaction, risk tolerance and stewardship of family values. How to build legacy with divorced parents. Don’t focus on the dirty laundry. Instead focus on the story you want your grand kids to know about. Start where you are and create a new branch in the family tree. Take the long view and determine what you can do today that could positively influence your generations 20 years from now. How to integrate next gen spouses in family business and legacy processes. Empowering each generation to be architects of their own destiny while at the same time building on the values of the prior generation. How to transfer stories, principles and values to next generations. Developing family traditions and routines that make the family and its values attractional to future generations. Thank you Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page. We’d also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram
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32. 280 Years of Family Legacy Learnings in One Hour with Mitzi Perdue
07/08/2020
32. 280 Years of Family Legacy Learnings in One Hour with Mitzi Perdue
This is a golden opportunity to hear the author of, How to Make Your Family Business Last, Mitzi Perdue, distill a combined 280 years of her own family’s culture-building wisdom into one hour. You’ll gain real life lessons and gain practical tools you can use to create and maintain a healthier family culture that could endure for generations. Mitzi combines the experiences of two long-time family businesses: her father Ernest Henderson co-founded the Sheraton Hotel Chain and her late husband Frank Perdue was the second generation in the poultry company that today operates in more than 100 countries. You’ll be captivated by Mitzi’s genuine passion to share practical tips and tools that have helped her two long-running families flourish together for more than seven generations. “When family members love, support, and encourage each other, there is a flourishing of the human soul that is incomparable.” — Mitzi Perdue Episode Highlights: Developing family traditions and gatherings that keep the family together over many generations The value and process for truly getting to know and understand family members Creating a system to ensure the family continues to meet and keep in touch on a regular basis over the generations Instilling family activities and awards that build and reinforce family values How to leverage philanthropy to reinforce family culture and build relationships How to leave the legacy of a “recipe for living” Reinforcing generational values and learnings through creative forms of autobiographies The value of developing an ethical will How to transfer a family value like frugality to the younger generation What does a high-functioning family look like and what is most likely to create this type of family How to educate the next generation of leaders How to generate happiness and build on the strengths of prior generations The importance of intentionality in creating family culture How to deal with family conflict: Perdue’s covenant and Henderson’s “we don’t wash our dirty linens in public” How to be up in down times To find more gems of wisdom from Mitzi, go to or get her books on Amazon. Thank you Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page. We’d also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram
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31. Catch the Current, Make Your Wave! Life Lessons from Seasoned Entrepreneur, Kevin McGovern
06/23/2020
31. Catch the Current, Make Your Wave! Life Lessons from Seasoned Entrepreneur, Kevin McGovern
The world has forever changed. It’s time to catch the current and make your own wave. What can you learn from the currency of success patterns from the past that will help you adapt to and succeed in a post-COVID-19 world? Learn how you can accelerate the innovation of a more ideal future—now and beyond the current challenges—by adapting past learnings to current realities. Gain valuable insights from Kevin McGovern who has founded over 25 companies, six of which have become world/category leaders (such as SoBe Beverages), and has been lead negotiator/principal in over 15 global joint ventures. Learn from the experience of a super successful, seasoned entrepreneur and how he is applying the lessons he has learned from his past onto the future of his investments, businesses, and well-being of his family! Find out how you can catch the current and make your own wave to make a positive impact on the world! Episode Highlights: Kevin shares his process of applying specific entrepreneurial learnings and life experiences to the new post COVID world that we live in today Breaking down impossible dreams into possible steps to achieve great things Key learnings about what creates entrepreneurial success from years of business acquisitions and ventures capital investments The importance of having good relationships and why sharing the same passion matters Knowing your purpose and making a difference Adaptation and iteration Kevin’s experience and thoughts on doing business with family members Relationships and communication Real estate investing: What is likely to be the best play in the new economy Thoughts and visions for the new 2.0 economy How Kevin applies his lifetime experience in the current crisis we’re experiencing right now How to engage in something that we don’t like so that we can make better outcomes for society How Kevin uses his confidence and motivation to positively influence others and make a difference in the word Thank you Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page. We’d also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram
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30. Wisdom from America’s Wealthiest Multigenerational Families—An Interview with Pierre DuPont
05/13/2020
30. Wisdom from America’s Wealthiest Multigenerational Families—An Interview with Pierre DuPont
Developing and preserving family wealth and strong values takes great effort. What can you do to make sure your next generations are building on what’s important to your family rather than blowing it? Why is the most common pattern “shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations”? Most families within one generation develop tangible and intangible values they are proud of. But all too often that which is valuable to one generation is not effectively transferred to future generations. In this episode, we’ll introduce you to two families that have managed to pass various forms of wealth to six or seven generations, including family businesses that have endured for over 200 years. Pierre DuPont shares a real-life case study of hard-earned lessons from his family which has been one of the wealthiest families in America for many generations. You’ll gain great wisdom from his intention to help other families and business leaders create a more positive, multi-generational legacy. Learn from the experience of world-renowned families how to manage, maintain, and preserve financial and non-financial family wealth in ways that benefit future generations. Find out how you can help your children, grandchildren, and all future descendants sustain principles that can multiply your family‘s success! Episode Highlights: Pierre talks about his family history, inherited wealth, the businesses developed, and his definition of wealth. We discuss: Forms of financial and non-financial wealth The best paradigm for generational wealth transfer Positive and negative impacts of financial wealth to your future descendants The value of open, honest, inclusive communication about family traditions Common principles and practices about finance in relation to family wealth The importance of training and mentoring family members of what’s important to the family Purpose and goals for wealth And we talk about how to: Keep families together over multiple generations Guide your future descendants on how to preserve and wisely utilize their financial wealth Develop and maintain family bonds and traditions over the generation Engage family members in business and philanthropy Pass the wealth to your descendants with appropriate guidance Thank you Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page. We’d also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram
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29. Integrating Work and Family
05/04/2020
29. Integrating Work and Family
Never before have so many families struggled with incorporating what happens in business with what happens in the home. The pursuit of work-life integration has become more important now than ever. But what exactly, does that mean, and how do you do it? Business can be an endlessly fascinating subject that encourages the exchange of ideas and eager discussions about the future. Or the constant demands of business creeping into the home can cause undue stress in the family and disintegrate relationships. How do you deal with the reality that the responsibilities of business can sometimes feel more urgent than the important everyday needs of your family? How do you bring your work life into your home life in a way that is healthy for you and your family? Join us in this episode as our family discusses how you can integrate your work into your family in ways that benefit both your business and your marriage. Find out how you can create healthy boundaries, support each other’s goals and use your work as an opportunity to build intimacy in your marriage. Episode Highlights: How to integrate work into your life and family How spouses can understand and support each other’s work life in ways that build intimacy in the marriage Deciding what to share with your spouse about your business and professional life The benefits of integrating your business and professional life into your family life The challenges of integrating your business and professional life into your family life Creating healthy boundaries Honoring your spouse’s needs and goals Thank you Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page. We’d also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram
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28. Keys to Positive Relationships Between Parents and Adult Children
03/23/2020
28. Keys to Positive Relationships Between Parents and Adult Children
Relationships are the greatest treasure in life that we could ever have. In this episode, you’ll learn how you can improve your relationship with your parents or adult children. The quality of the relationship you have with your family does matter. Having that best friend type of relationship with your adult children or parents is one that you’ll truly enjoy for the rest of your life. Join us as we discuss how to identify and truly value the differences in each family member, how we can appreciate them through a love language that they speak and keep a mindset of grace. Find out how you can overcome challenges between adult-children and parent relationships, as we’ll also tackle topics related to forgiveness, honesty, and love. Episode Highlights: The friendship relationship between parents and their adult children Staying curious with your kids and having the same curiosity towards our parents Understanding and speaking their love language What it means to have a mindset of grace Thank you Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page. We’d also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram
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27. Navigating Roles and Relationships Between Parents and Adult Children
03/09/2020
27. Navigating Roles and Relationships Between Parents and Adult Children
Nobody said parenting would be easy! Especially, when your kids are growing into adulthood. They are ever-changing, and everything happens very fast. Are you being a good parent to your adult child? Are you still treating your 21-year-old the way you treated him back when he was 14? Many parents struggle to navigate their role in their children’s life as they transition into adulthood. Just like how your child evolves and grows, so should your relationship with them. As parents, you must learn to relate to your grown-up child appropriately. You have to learn to listen more and let them talk about their thoughts and feelings. How do you create a strong bond with your adult adult-children? Join us in this episode, as we talk about navigating roles and relationships between parents and adult children. You’ll learn about the common beliefs that surround the parent and adult-child relationship. As well as the 4 phases to intentionally transition our parenting approach throughout the stages of our children’s lives. Know what you should do as a parent and as an adult son or daughter. I hope today’s episode inspires you to see your relationship possibilities in different ways than you have before! Episode Highlights: How to build strong bonds between parents and their adult children Key beliefs and practices that strengthen parent and adult children relationship Key beliefs and practices that prevent strong bonds between a parent and their adult children Navigating the 4 phases of parent child roles and relationships Establishing a good relationship with your children at a young age How parents can develop friendship with grown-up kids How adults can improve relationships with parents. Setting boundaries There are 4 phases of parent child relationships that should intentionally change throughout the different stages of maturity. I encourage parents to intentionally look for ways to build stronger relationships with your adult-children. And adult-children, be sure to make the most of the time you have left with your parents to do anything you can to optimize that relationship. Why not find ways to foster rich friendship in the majority of these later years of the parent-child relationship? Thank you Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page. We’d also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram
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26. How Mothers Shape the World
08/18/2019
26. How Mothers Shape the World
How Mothers Shape the World Both our married children recently had their first babies—two beautiful girls! As I’ve watched these new mothers learning to lead our precious granddaughters, it caused me to ponder the power of a mother’s leadership to shape our world. In our society, we don't always think of parents as being equivalent to "leaders." Leaders, we believe, are heads of state, prime ministers, elected officials, CEOs of powerful corporations, media personalities, and others. Those people, we think, are the real movers and shakers of society. Are they? In the organic cocoon of the family and home, character forms. And the character of each individual forms society. The person who makes decisions on war and peace in a political leadership position, the person who makes decisions that build or destroy companies comes from a home which shaped him or her. More specifically, that person came from a mother. One thing all human beings have in common is that we all had mothers. Our mother might have been great; she might have been terrible. She might still be our foremost fan and source of emotional support, or she might have abandoned us at birth. She might have helped or harmed us, or done both, but we simply wouldn’t be here if it were not for mothers. Mothers are, at the very least, a biological necessity for the continuance of humankind. What is more, for good or ill, mothers have tremendous impact and influence over who their children become. While mothers cannot take full credit or full blame for the way their children turn out, they are undoubtedly significant contributors to those outcomes. Hence, they shape society. A mother forms a child's first impressions of the world, even while the child is inside the womb. Some research shows the neurological influence the qualities of a mother's thoughts and emotions have on a child. Common sense tells us that a tense and anxious mother or one exulting with the joys of laughter and song has an impact on the person in her womb, even if only at the level of unhealthy or healthy heart rates. Of course, what a mother ingests also impacts her child, sometimes for life. In that sense, mothers are the first leaders we ever encounter in this life. The way they lead their lives starts settling into the folds of our brains early on to mold us into the people we are. Abraham Lincoln, considered one of our greatest presidents, said, “All that I am, I owe to my angel mother.” Even in eras where women had far less power in the voting booth and the marketplace, there was a saying: "The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world." Mothers exerted enormous influence over society by raising the children who would become tomorrow's adults. Motherhood is vital for the existence of society in both biological and non-biological ways. Yet motherhood is rarely honored or as highly esteemed in our society as a position of leadership. Our culture gives off endless signals that the commitments made by mothers are not that important compared to what women may do in professional roles outside the home. Motherhood is not recognized as a world-influencing profession, a role of genuinely heroic proportions that propels society forward in innumerable ways. One of the reasons for the devaluation of motherhood is that there is no economic value attached to it. Yet mothers provide services of high economic value. To purchase all the services a mother provides for a family would amount to about $143,102 per year, estimates Salary.com. This estimate is based upon the market value of replacing a mother's services by hiring a cook, a maid, a driver, a bookkeeper, a childcare worker, a laundress, a shopper, and probably a psychological counselor too. That’s just for a 40-hour work week! Mothers often work long into the evening and through the night. They are at work before office hours too. Of course, we all know that mothers contribute things that cannot be measured in dollars, invaluable things that humanity cannot do without. Yet we often hear in our culture, when someone is even willing to admit it: "I'm just a mom." Just a mom? Actually, a society-shaping leader! As a society, we do women a disservice not to support the life-altering leadership role they play as mothers. Raising children is something all of society should be interested in and supportive of, for mothers are helping to create the future. Moms are foundational to healthy and happy families, which are the building blocks of safe and prosperous communities and societies. An important part of motherhood is creating an environment in which the family can thrive--providing healthy food, cleanliness, cultural knowledge, pleasant words, a soothing voice, peace, and support. Creating a haven for her family is valuable opportunity for a mother. Some people remember the comforting and reassuring smells and tastes of their mothers’ cooking long into adulthood. They gaze with fondness over dilapidated decorations their mothers put up to celebrate important traditions. A compliment or a “word to the wise” from Mom can stay with and direct a person’s entire life. A mother can create an atmosphere in a family where the members feel accepted and safe. Creating a welcoming, cozy, and warm home can create refreshment of body and soul after being out in a world that can be very harsh and rejecting at times. It is immeasurably valuable to have that safe haven. A dedicated mother gives each child the individual attention he or she needs to flourish. She is the one who notices the drooping lip, who listens and offers counsel and help. She is the one who notices the hot forehead and gets out the thermometer. A loving mother is the one who points out, “You love to draw. Do you think you could draw a building?” or “Let’s spend some extra time together on your math skills,” or “I notice how much you like to help people. That’s a wonderful quality in you.” A loving mother is the one who knows you best and always has your best interests at heart. Where can you find someone else like that? The classic Disney animated film Peter Pan had a homesick Wendy contemplating mothers in song. Part of the lyrics of “Your Mother and Mine” are: “Ask your heart to tell you her worth. Your heart will say, ‘Heaven on earth.’ Another word for divine: your mother and mine.” Moms also give emotional cues to relating to others. She reinforces the family by showing how much she values each member from young to old through her care and appreciation of each. She demonstrates manners and how to form good relationships with others, acting on and instructing children in the power and value of close connections with fellow human beings. These connections are not only vital to human health and fulfillment, but they also help people succeed in the workplace as well, demonstrating emotional intelligence. The power of a mother to help a child learn to attach to other human beings is very real. If it doesn't happen in this relationship, it is vitally important for those deprived to seek neuro-emotional therapy; there is definitely help out there for learning to attach to others in healthy ways. Mothers offer companionship. They can be wide-eyed explorers along with their children, making life together fun and exciting and reinforcing the joys of collaboration. Mothers need to be resourceful; they make the best of what they have. When the children are bored, the creative mother comes up with ways to productively occupy the hours. In the traditional home, the man brought resources in, but it was the woman who made the best out of those resources, no matter how scarce or abundant they were. She made new curtains out of an old table cloth or a delicious stew out of odds and ends. She made a rainy afternoon a joyful discovery of the frontier as she put up a makeshift tent and taught her children about heroic explorers. In modern culture, there is a constant pull for both parents to work full-time to bring in more resources. Yet isn't utilizing existing resources one of the most important parts of any economic system? Every enterprise needs to maximize its resources since resources are, by definition, limited. In all cultures, in all societies, the powerful results of motherhood are being experienced right now, shaping our world. How much does it cost society in health care dollars, rehabilitation, and social welfare programs to make up for the actions of people who grew up without adequate mothering? Billions! Training kids to be benefits to society is an immeasurable contribution to society. What high costs to society if mothers are not able to raise their children well because they feel pressured into the workplace or unsupported in this vital role. Mothers are the most influential people in history as they shape and empower their children. Mothers, grandmothers, and mother figures have molded society by producing functioning, positive, productive human beings. The following is a sample list of what I would consider good motherly qualities. It is clear that these are the qualities of a good leader: Artful management of a facility (the home) and the people in it (family members) Resourcefulness Ability to multi-task Consistency Steadfastness Empowerment Encouragement Actions taken in the best interests of the whole Toughness Resilience Creativity Wise counsel Listening skills Trustworthiness Wouldn’t you vote for someone who had those qualities? Wouldn’t you endorse a person like that to lead a company or world enterprise? Children may not grow up to be famous people or heads of companies or countries. Still, they will be influencers and leaders. They will have an impact in their private and professional relationships and through their public personas. If mothers can raise children who add value wherever they go, who are benefits to themselves and society, then mothers lead the way in shaping society to create a better future for all. Thank you Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page. We’d also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. 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25. The Magic Elixir of Exercise
07/05/2019
25. The Magic Elixir of Exercise
The Busy Executive’s Magic Elixir Exercise is one of the greatest systems for increasing your effectiveness as a leader in business and/or family. Exercise is so powerfully beneficial in multiple ways that it can be said to be the mother lode, the fountain of youth—the magic elixir. Physical activity helps you in body and mind. It is clinically proven to reduce depression. It brings clarity of thought and reduces stress, energizing you to function at peak performance. It can even improve your sex life! What’s not to like? Apparently, quite a bit, if we judge by the all-time high epidemic of inactivity in our world today. Physical inactivity is now one of the leading causes of death worldwide. The situation is grave. Yet we all know that getting enough exercise is challenging. Most of us sit for hours at a time each day: at a desk, behind the wheel, or on the couch in front of a screen. Even when we are away from work, we spend many waking hours in sedentary screen-facing as we entertain ourselves with Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Netflix, TV, and messaging. Fortunately, increased physical activity is available to all of us for the taking. It’s free. It costs nothing. Exercise doesn't need to be complicated or expensive; you don't have to join a gym or buy new workout clothes to become more active. This key to a better life is entirely voluntary and readily available to just about everyone. First, we’ll take a look at the serious toll inactivity is taking on our health. Then we’ll provide some tips on how to build exercise into daily life, how to design a successful exercise plan, and how to incorporate three types of exercise into your busy schedule. The Toll of Inactivity Let's take an unflinching look at the downside of inactivity. The news is increasingly bad. Research has linked sitting for long periods with many health concerns. These concerns range from obesity to increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist, and abnormal cholesterol levels. Prolonged sitting also seems to increase the risk of death from cardiovascular disease and cancer. Some experts say that inactive people have a 147 percent higher risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke. World Health Organization studies show that physical inactivity contributes to over three million preventable deaths worldwide each year (that's around six percent of all deaths). Outside of infectious diseases like AIDS, inactivity is the fourth leading cause of death. The Mayo Clinic did an analysis of thirteen studies of sitting time and activity levels. They found that those who sat for more than eight hours a day with no physical activity had a risk of dying similar to the risks posed by obesity and smoking. However, there is no need to despair if you are stuck in a desk job! Mayo’s analysis of data from more than 1 million people found that sixty to seventy-five minutes of moderately intense physical activity a day countered the effects of too much sitting. Exercise is preventive of sedentary lifestyle problems, and it is also curative when a sedentary lifestyle is necessary for significant portions of the day. What’s more, too many people suffer from hip, joint, neck, and lower back pain. These kinds of maladies can be alleviated by getting up and moving around instead of sitting for long periods. Human beings are built to stand upright, stretch, and move. Our heart and cardiovascular systems, as well as all the other systems in our bodies, seem more to function more effectively with that kind of stimulation. The human body is designed to move, to be active, to optimize its functioning through exercise. When we are physically active, our overall energy levels and endurance improve. What is more, our bones and muscles become and stay strong. This is important because both muscles and bones lose density as we age. Exercise sends blood to weakened areas and strengthens cartilage and increases bone density, making physical activity a leading prescription for arthritis and bone mineral loss. Choose to Move! Many people find the idea of a regular, rigorous exercise regimen daunting. Yet there are simple ways to pack more physical activity into daily life. Stand rather than sit whenever you can. Rise from sitting at least every thirty minutes. Watching TV? Get up in the middle of a movie to do stretches, crunches, or lift weights. Jump up during commercials to do household tasks; don’t flip to another channel. You can walk on a treadmill or pedal a stationary bike while watching TV too. Get a desk you can stand at, or build yours up so it is standing level height. Take a walk with someone as a substitute for a sit-down meeting. Position a work surface, including a computer screen and keyboard, above a treadmill to walk throughout the day. Walk or pace while talking on the phone. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Walk on the moving stairs of the escalator. Park farther away and walk more. This has the added benefit of losing the stress of finding a close parking spot. Do squats while brushing your teeth. Rather than sitting down to read, listen to recorded books while walking, cleaning, or working in the garden. Stand up on public transport or get off one stop early and walk to your destination. An Exercise Regimen: How Much Do We Need? There's no single workout routine or type of exercise that works for everyone. The most important thing is to find an activity that you can do consistently, either because you like it or because you like the results it gives you so much that you’re willing to do it regularly. This could be anything from walking to swimming to taking a dance class. In general, thirty minutes of physical activity, five days per week, will serve a person well. In general, between two and a half to three hours of intentional physical activity a week is good. If you do a lot of sitting, though, you need more. If thirty solid minutes of exercise doesn't appeal to you, know that you can be active for ten minutes three times a day, and you will achieve the same goal. A simple breakdown of this would be a ten-minute walk before work, another ten minutes of activity during the lunch hour, and another ten minutes after dinner. That is very do-able for most people. What is the biggest reason people don’t exercise? “I don’t have time!” Yet there is a way to maximize the effectiveness of exercise so that you save time but still get the benefits. The guidelines say that seventy-five minutes of vigorous activity per week is equivalent to 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity per week. A recent study also found that as little as one minute of all-out sprinting, along with nine minutes of light exercise, leads to similar improvements in health and fitness as a fifty-minute workout at a moderate pace when done three times a week for twelve weeks. The Three Types of Exercise Needed Ideally, we would all get three types of exercise: Aerobic, Strength Training, and Balance and Flexibility Training. Aerobic activity is the kind we often think of when we think of exercise—that is, strenuous activity like running or biking, breathing hard and dripping sweat. This kind of exercise is critical to boosting fitness. Yet the two other types of exercise—strength training and balance and flexibility training—are also important. Dr. Edward Laskowski, the co-director of the Mayo Sports Medicine Center, says that aerobic exercise, while necessary, is “not as effective for overall health" on its own without the other two types of exercises. Doing all three types of exercise maximizes fitness and prevents injury. Strength training makes muscles stronger, which in turn helps to support and protect joints— and this could help prevent injury during aerobic exercise. Balance exercises use muscle strength in a coordinated way to stabilize movements and can also reduce the risk of injuries like ankle sprains. Flexibility reduces injuries and improves the range of motion around the joints. All three types of exercises support one another’s benefits, so it is important to find ways to incorporate all three into any workout system. Let’s look at the three types of exercise in more detail. Cardiovascular Aerobic Exercise This is repetitive, rhythmic exercise that increases our heart rate and requires us to breathe harder, using more oxygen. It is often called “cardio” for short. Running, swimming, dancing, brisk walking, playing a sport such as tennis, soccer or basketball, doing chores such as raking leaves or mowing the lawn Activates air and blood efficiency in the body Strengthens the heart so it pumps blood more efficiently Lowers our overall resting heart rate Increases levels of "good" cholesterol and lowers levels of "bad" cholesterol Makes daily activities such as mowing the lawn or climbing stairs easier You never know when you may need the power this kind of exercise gives you! While many of us may not have to run for our lives like Jason Bourne, being fit can come in handy. If your connecting flight is about to take off when you land, you might be able to run the terminal race to your next gate without keeling over! Strength or Resistance Exercise This is the process of building and maintaining muscles in the body by using progressively heavier weights (or resistance). Resistance training, weight lifting, toning, or body-building, including push-ups, sit-ups or even intense gardening like digging or snow shoveling Develops, maintains or prevents loss of muscle mass throughout your lifetime Maintains or lowers body fat percentage Strengthens bones and reduces the risk of osteoporosis Increases lean muscle mass, which is crucial to burning more calories for weight control Makes daily activities easier, like lifting a carry-on bag into the overhead bin of an airplane, carrying groceries from the car, and picking up bags of mulch for the garden Strength exercises should work all of the major muscle groups in the body over time—legs, hips, back, chest, abdomen, shoulders, and arms with a few sets of at least eight to twelve repetitions of an activity (like lifting a weight). To get the most benefit, each set of repetitions needs to work the same muscle to the point where it's hard to do another repetition. Rest a minute or so between sets and then repeat another set of resistance repetitions working that same muscle. Do this for three or four sets of 8-12 repetitions of the same exercise working the muscle group you are focused on for that day. When you first begin a strength training regimen, start with a light weight then gradually increase weight or resistance over time as muscles gain strength. Don’t exercise the same muscle group two days in a row because muscles need time to recover. They are rebuilt during the recovery time. Flexibility and Balance Exercise Flexibility exercise is exercise that stretches or lengthens our muscles. There are two types: static stretching, where you stretch a muscle without moving, and dynamic stretching, which combines stretching with movements. Many experts advise doing dynamic stretching as part of a warm-up before a workout and static stretching after a workout. For static stretching, we should hold each stretch for ten to thirty seconds. Helps us become more limber, which makes certain activities of daily living easier Helps prevent injuries when you’re performing everyday body movements and especially during exercise Reduces muscle tension, increases circulation, and improves posture Balance exercises improve our ability to control and stabilize our body's position. This type of exercise is particularly important for older adults because otherwise, balance tends to get worse with age. Shifting our weight from side to side Standing on one foot Using a balance board or stability ball Doing tai chi, yoga, or Pilates Ideally, we should include all three of these exercise types in our workouts. Does that mean three separate workouts? No. You can combine some exercises together, like strength and balance training. You could do bicep curls while standing on one leg. Some workouts, like yoga, include strength, flexibility and balance exercises. Your workout might include running or walking briskly for thirty minutes for aerobic exercise, then doing strength and balance exercises combined, with static stretches at the finish. Developing Your Own Exercise Routine Some people find that the momentum of routine and habit help them to maintain a self-designed exercise program. Others find doing the same thing week after week very boring! Some find it helps to get into an exercise routine by exercising with a friend. Choose a buddy who can encourage you or do it with you at regular appointed times. An alternative is to get a personal trainer to hold you accountable. In both cases, you're a lot less likely to miss a workout because you have someone waiting for you. A general rule is to start out low and progress slow. This means starting with a level of activity that's fairly light and gradually increasing the duration and intensity. Experts emphasize that if you're just starting out, low-impact types of exercise are best. Walking, swimming, biking, or using an elliptical machine are good ones to try. Low-impact exercises are best for beginners because they're easy on the joints and muscles. If people go from zero to one hundred, they're not going to stick with the system. It's better to start with small chunks of exercise and add in gradually to the point that it's part of your lifestyle. What system will you start with? Make a plan you think will work for you, and write it down. Revise it as you find what works best for your body and your lifestyle. Making the Time The biggest reason (or excuse) people give for not exercising is that they don’t have time. Exercise is important enough to our lives and well-being that we should make time for it. What’s more, even as little as ten minutes of physical activity can be beneficial. This can be as simple as getting up ten minutes earlier to do something vigorous. Some people are motivated by setting a specific exercise goal, like running a 5K or improving running time or achieving other milestones. If you want to feel better, have more energy, add years to your life, and increase your effectiveness in leading your family and business, just exercise! Create a plan, get a buddy to support you, and start doing something consistently, every day, to increase your physical activity. It will improve your life and be well worth the time you make for it. For the busy executive or family leader, exercise can be the fountain of health, youthfulness, and optimal life and work. We’ve found the magic elixir. Let’s stop making excuses and start moving more! Thank you Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page. We’d also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram
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24. What Will Your Family Look Like Seven Generations From Now?
03/20/2019
24. What Will Your Family Look Like Seven Generations From Now?
What Will Your Family Look Like Seven Generations From Now? I was really on the hot seat. I felt like I was being interrogated! Almost a hundred people were staring at me as I stood under the bright lights. One after another they bombarded me with deeply personal questions like: "What is your deepest fear in regard to this?" and "What is behind that fear?" and "Isn't this really all about you wanting control?" I had to answer too. Was I sweating it out! The scene of my mental torture was a conference in Miami for families and family business owners. The facilitator of the conference had asked me that morning to volunteer at her session if no one else did. I had easily agreed. I am not uncomfortable on stage. I figured I’d be up there for a couple of minutes and that would be it. Simple. Yet the hour-long grilling was so intense, I wished I had never agreed to be a guinea pig! The facilitator has a proprietary system for how to solve problems by asking effective questions. The questions were effective all right--effectively making me wrack my brain to come up with answers to things I never thought I would be asked in public. At the beginning of the session, the facilitator had asked everyone in the room to write down their current most pressing issue or concern in their family or family business. I had known instantly what mine was. My son and daughter-in-love had recently announced they are having a baby girl, and the thought had hit me as a stunning reality on the flight to the conference. It was happening; with the second grandchild coming soon, we were really a three-generation family; a new era was already dawning. This was real. When asked, I read this pressing concern out loud at the conference: “What do I do now to help ensure that our family legacy, especially our values and purpose, flourish in the third to seventh generations?” The audience had promptly asked: “Why seven generations?” I explained that it was based on the seventh generation principle of the Iroquois. It comes from their constitution, a model for our own very successful Constitution. Iroquois leaders of tribes and families are to consider how their choices will affect seven generations. Talk about forward thinking! The history of the Indian nations shows that it is only those families that rigorously maintain this seventh generation thinking that actually reaches the 7th generation and beyond to actually become a tribe. And I’d like to think that maybe something our family is doing in this generation could eventually result in a tribe that will have a specific impact for good on this planet 200 years from now. The World Will Get Better When We Do Family Well. I found the Iroquois perspective very compatible with my own ideas of leaving a lasting legacy to future generations. I believe the future of our world will be dictated by the progressive health of families and businesses in society. There is an undeniable rule of progress that any time you can build on the failures, successes, and learnings of something that happened before, you are more likely to have a better outcome in the next iteration. Unfortunately, the prevailing paradigm is that somehow families are the one exception to that rule. We have come to believe that each generation is supposed to stand alone, that there is no need to build on the successes, failures, and learnings of prior generations. But the way the world will get better is when we do family in a way where each generation builds on the shoulders of the prior generation to become increasingly more successful…however that family intentionally defines success. After all the pointed questions from the audience, I was required to write down all the solutions offered and commit to doing three of them. One of them was to have an open conversation about this with my family, which I did. The results are in the Systems for Success podcast, episode 24. You might want to have a listen. The eight members of my family going back and forth about this was easy in comparison to the probing questions of that audience! Still, my adult children are autonomous, critical thinkers and they did some ferreting out of their own. I am grateful that they agreed that leaving a lasting legacy to future generations was a worthy and valid goal. First, we went back and forth about what success in that would look like. Next, we came up with ways to make it happen. Success in families and/or in business doesn’t just happen. It has to be intentional. The right systems and processes have to be conceived and put into place. Many people think success is a matter of something that just happens if you are lucky or work hard enough. On the contrary, we believe that behind every success is a system in action. The magic is in the system. How many people are systematic about how they approach their family’s legacy? They may be very systematic about bequeathing money and property. But what about the non-material legacy? What’s the plan for passing that on? What will success in that look like and what should be implemented in the present to make it happen in the future? Affinity - A Common Thread My family and I agreed that a minimum baseline of success would be a clear bond of affinity throughout our extended family seven generations from now. We looked at one definition of affinity that seemed to resonate with all of us: “Close connection marked by community of interests or similarity in nature or character” Seven generations from now, we wanted our relations to feel an affinity with their extended family, including us. Beyond this, in our maximum vision, their individual and family compasses would contain some reflection of our current generation’s values, mission and vision. Was it realistic, we asked ourselves, that our seventh generation descendants would share "a community of interests" with us? No; we doubted our descendants were all going to play instruments or like backpacking and skiing like we do. What we hoped was that there would be a "similarity in nature or character…or value set" or, as we put it, a common thread. We decided that our main common thread as a family was spirituality. We hoped our descendants would share that. This doesn’t mean being the same religion. It shouldn't be rigid, and it has to encourage the creativity and expansion of future generations, including people who would marry into the family from differing backgrounds. Even now, in our family, we have different approaches as to how we live out our family values and mission statement. Yet spirituality binds us together; it is our main common thread. If our descendants shared that, it would be a marker of success. But how to pass down this and other parts of our family mission vision? A Tangible Legacy We thought it could help maintain the philosophical legacy if we could also leave some tangible legacy, like books that were important to us, documentation of past goals and accomplishments, documentation of individual family values and visions, videos of important family moments, memories and stories, maybe even some physical memorabilia that represent things that are important to the family. We talked about our ancestors’ journeys from Europe to America and how we wanted to pass down their stories through an oral tradition, but that we should also document our lives well. I told them about the office of a family business in Minneapolis, a national company in its seventh generation of family ownership. In the center of their office, they had dedicated a small little museum area to the family--all the generations from the 1800s. There were artifacts of the family's projects, interests, and milestones--even old love letters! They had the first generation’s copy of Poor Richard’s Almanac, open to things he had marked as important: values and principles related to money and good business practices. The family still tried to align their business with those values and principles. From that, we realized that we had to document our lives with what we wanted future generations to know about us. We needed to leave tangible items that told our descendants who we were and what we stood for. Individual Yet Part of the Whole Then we tackled the question of how to create and preserve a family legacy but to allow for new interpretations and variations on the themes because of people’s individual personalities, interests, and approaches. Here the married among my adult children made large contributions. They had already faced the fact that they wanted to be loyal to the family’s values and vision but that they also needed to create their own unique family identity. We decided that the best way to describe it would be that each new family would have its own “flavor” (and that prospective mates would probably be attracted to members of our family because they had a similar “seasoning” in their backgrounds). We realized that without extension and creativity, without each generation adding to and expanding the vision through their unique interpretation and bringing their own strengths to it, the family legacy would be weakened over time. Also, we decided we would not want future generations to think they had dishonored the family name because they had their own passions and interests, and their own autonomy. My wife Shelley summed it up: “If you guys did not expand beyond what dad and I originally taught and instilled in our family, I would feel like we would have failed. No parent wants to see their kids be stagnant but to be leaders of change and good in the world.” Timeless Values I had done some study on lasting family businesses and families. I had discovered that some families could flourish to the fourth generation by luck or by accident or because of common interests. Other times it was because they all lived in the same part of the country, or because of the sheer force of the strong personalities of the first generation. Yet none of that was enough to carry to the seventh generation. To last to the seventh generation, something had to withstand the test of time. There had to be timeless values. Love and acceptance, we decided, would have the strength to permeate and unite seven generations. With love and acceptance, even during the messy process of growing and changing and being different, things would hold together. Relationships were more important than being “right.” To last to the seventh generation, something must withstand the test of time. Maybe, we speculated, it would boil down to a few broad words like leadership, health, love, service and family. Those simple words and concepts have been honored in every society, in every generation. It is hard to imagine a future society where courage is not admired, friendship abandoned, service and leadership de-valued, or family ties completely dead. Timeless values stand the test of time. They traverse generations. Your Seventh Generation Descendant Now I’m going to ask you to imagine your seventh generation descendant. He has your eyes, Uncle Larry’s voice, and your granddaughter’s lithe physique. He plays a mean piano, just like your Great Grandmother Lucie. What else do you want him to have in the fiber of his character that can see him through the challenges of the 23rd century? What ancestral whisper do you want to come to him as he faces life? Courage? Family? Service? Leadership? Total acceptance and love? What can you build into the spiritual DNA of your family now that will strengthen him, that seventh generation iteration, who is a lot like you and plenty different? What lasting legacy can you give to him so he can steer straight in a world that will undoubtedly be very different from our world today? What can you give him that will be a lasting legacy? It’s worth thinking about. It’s worth being intentional about, and it’s worth fighting for now. After all, he’s family.
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23. More Rest Equals More Success
03/08/2019
23. More Rest Equals More Success
Time is precious in our high speed, high-pressure world. We want to achieve more for ourselves, our families, and maybe for our communities. In order to do so, we need time, and we need to look for ways to maximize that scarce modern commodity: time. We often try to beat time by spending less time resting. We eke out one more hour of watching a late night show or using social media. We fuel our tired selves with caffeine. Such a lifestyle, though, hurts us in both the short and long terms. Less rest has been linked to Alzheimer’s disease and decreased longevity. Studies show that losing as little as three hours of sleep in a night can halve the effectiveness of the immune system! Too little rest affects our minds as well as our bodies. It can result in depression, paranoia, and even hallucinations. What’s more, we become irritable with those we love and work with. We lose focus. Creativity becomes just too big a hill to climb, subtracting from our joy in life and work. Let’s think about the flip side of this issue. What results do you want in your body and wellbeing? My wife, Shelley, is a professional health coach and she often talks about what she calls her five non-negotiable health results: brainpower, energy, motivation, calmness, sex drive. Who wouldn’t want their life to be full of these five outcomes? Shelley goes to great lengths to help her clients understand that a lifestyle of appropriate rest is foundational to every one of these health results. Let’s start by talking about sleep. Research has shown that seven and preferably eight hours of sleep per night are optimal. Are you getting enough? Reset, Rewire, and Refresh During sleep, the body heals. It absorbs natural, soothing forces that energize it after the daily grind of use and abuse. It is similar to bodybuilding. Muscles are built after they are torn during the workout process. They repair and rebuild during rest. Similarly, we grow stronger through rest after the work of the day. Our bodies are revived, rebuilt, and strengthened at night. A day’s work expends a lot of energy, and that energy has to be replenished through rest. Your body recalibrates its systems for a new day. (Weight loss tip: we actually release body fat when we sleep!). Our minds rejuvenate during sleep too. We dream out a lot of mind overload during sleep. It is similar to unplugging all electronic devices and letting them rest for a few minutes before plugging them back in. This clears up any signal jams. Good rest “unplugs” your mind and lets it reset, rewire, and refresh. For maximum vitality and clear-headedness, rest is essential. Ways to Get More Rest Try the app “Sleep Cycle”. This app tracks and assesses your movements during sleep. It will give you a baseline of your sleep percentage (deep, moderate, and light). Don’t stress if you don’t sleep pristinely according to this app! Just use it to get a rough idea of your rest levels and to measure improvement. Use herbals. Many mature men suffer from an enlarged prostate, which causes them to make several bathroom trips per night, a big sleep disrupter. Taking Saw Palmetto (readily available wherever vitamins are sold) helps balance hormones and promotes prostate health. Drink few or no liquids after 6 p.m., and finish a light supper three hours before bed to prevent sleep-interrupting bathroom visits. Other helpful herbals are: Organic, raw apple cider vinegar. Take a couple of tablespoons in a little warm water with a bit of raw honey just before bed. This stabilizes blood sugar and heals your gut while you sleep. Thanks to Tim Ferriss, Tools of Titans, we know that this makes the body more alkaline and rejuvenates hormones. 200-400 mg of L-Theanine before bed is very relaxing. L-theanine is an amino acid found in green and black tea as well as Bay Bolete mushrooms. It's also available in pill or tablet form at many drugstores. Ashwagandha root has been used for about 3,000 years as a natural stress-reliever; several studies show it lowers levels of the stress hormone cortisol. 500-1000 mg during the day helps balance cortisol and encourages sleep at night. It also supports energy levels, which in turn helps reduce stress and improve immune health. Seriphos or Phosphorylated Serine can be incredibly useful in cases of insomnia caused by elevated nighttime cortisol levels. If you have trouble falling asleep, get a second wind late at night, or wake up between 1 a.m.- 4 a.m. and can't get back to sleep, a cortisol imbalance may be the reason. One way to find out for sure is to get a cortisol test that will give you a snapshot of cortisol levels over 24 hours. Seriphos, an amino acid, acts to rebalance cortisol levels. Taking 1000 mg just before dinner and another 2000 mg by 10 p.m. on a regular basis is ideal. If you take it after 10 p.m., it may interfere with the morning cortisol spike that is your body’s wake up call. Lavender essential oil, rubbed on the bottoms of the feet, will help you fall back asleep if you wake up in the night. Four Facilitating Factors for a Good Night’s Sleep TIME As breathing and heartbeat indicate, the body thrives on rhythm! Circadian rhythms are your daily bodily rhythms or your body clock. If they are thrown off, say by an international trip or a sleepless night, you may have a headache the next day or remain sluggish for hours. People need deep sleep, known as Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, to repair body and mind. To make sure you get enough: Be in bed by ten p.m. or earlier. Avoid caffeine or at least cut it back after 12 noon. Caffeine wreaks havoc with your body clock! LIGHT STATE Sleep in a dark room. Make sure there are no green or blue lights visible in the bedroom. Use light-blocking bedroom shades or a sleep mask. Shut off all electronic screens one hour before bed. Read a paper book before bed. Don’t turn on screens if you wake in the night. Dim lights in the evening. Wear blue-light-blocking glasses in the evening. NOISE Noise bring us out of deep sleep or keep us from going into deep sleep. So monitor both sound noise and “electronic noise”. A white noise machine can neutralize night sounds. Earplugs help too. Earplugs are especially handy if your bed partner or pet snores. Silicone ones work well. Pull the upper ear back and up to insert. If worn properly, you won’t even hear the snap of fingers. Turn off your WiFi to reduce electronic noise. Four or five years ago, the University of Melbourne completed an extensive study on how electromagnetic field (EMF) radiation from WiFi networks affects the quality of our sleep. Our bodies sense EMF radiation as if it were light. Then the pineal gland reacts and slows down melatonin production, the hormone that regulates our sleep and circadian rhythms. Put your phone on airplane mode, unless loved ones may need to call. In that case, keep the phone 8 - 10 feet across the room to cut down on this electronic “noise”. STATE OF BODY and MIND Put your legs up the wall and/or do stretching yoga poses before bed. Exercise outside, even on cloudy days, to stimulate the neurotransmitter serotonin, which then makes more melatonin at night. To fall asleep or back asleep, take slow, deep breaths (4-5 count inhale, equal count hold, 4-5 count exhale, equal count hold, and so on). Try one method at a time for a week or so and see what works best for you. Rest without Sleeping Sleep is the foundational daily system for rest. However, other avenues of rest are important too. Daily Rest Even a minute of rest here or there helps. You needn’t go to sleep; you just need to go into a restful mode. Meditation and/or prayer in the morning can be vital to starting the day with a clear and calm mind. Go for a nature walk instead of taking a coffee break. Close your eyes for a moment or two and visualize a beautiful natural scene or revisit happy memories. Just breathe. Close your eyes and breathe deeply. Weekly Rest For one day a week, I stop doing things that I normally do to make money or accomplish things. Ceasing my own striving to succeed develops a trustful attitude and a sustainable lifestyle. Pursuing spiritual activities is a great rest from the hustle and bustle of the world. Take a weekly rest day and spend it doing soul-nourishing activities. Nurturing relationships with God and other people is restful and restorative. Good relationships are an important part of happiness and health; serving others results in a “helper’s high” and the reinforcement of belonging. It even affects longevity! Reading things to edify the spirit is important instead of reading potentially stressful news items. I spend time reading Psalms, Proverbs, and the rest of the Bible. I also read self-help books. I find these books realigning and refreshing for my inner self. Take the time to exercise more on a weekly rest day. I know exercising more on your rest day sounds like an oxymoron but for most of us who live a fairly sedentary life during the week, this can be one of the most rejuvenating things for your body and soul. Your rest day is a good day for a nature hike or other outdoor activities. Enjoy the process of making a healthy, gourmet meal and eating it in a leisurely way. Monthly Rest Have you ever had the electricity go out for a day or so and found yourself feeling deeply rested and peaceful inside? Once a month, take a media break or fast for a day or two. This will give you deep, internal rest from the constant signals and stimulation of the electronic age. Yearly Rest Be sure to take that annual vacation! Don’t cram it so full of activities that you don’t have time to get bored and laze around. Vitamin N We are part of nature; thus, nature gives profound rest to our bodies and spirits. We spend most of our week inside, in front of computer screens. We rarely get a chance to get out and see the sun or feel the wind. Research shows that spending time in nature reduces stress and improves health. You will know by the sense of relief and liberation you feel once you are under that blue sky! So get some Vitamin N into your system! Go for walks or hikes. Cultivate a garden. Develop an interest in different kinds of trees, plants, flowers or animals. Nature is deeply restorative. Dr. Oz is more than a TV personality; he is vice chairman of the surgery department at Columbia University's medical school. He says, “When we put patients into nature after [surgical] procedures, they actually recover faster.” Rhythms of Rest Never think that it is counter-productive to set aside significant chunks of time to rest the body, mind, and spirit. Medical science can track the benefits of doing this. Sufficient quantity and quality of rest pay dividends in better memory, healthier immune function, healthier weight, relief for depression, stress management, improved energy, longevity, and curbing inflammation that is linked to heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and arthritis. Develop your own system for success in creating the rhythms of rest that will give you the health results you want. Make a list of a few things you’re going to change, starting tonight. Enlist someone who will encourage you on your journey. None of this is time wasted. When the body, mind, and spirit are rejuvenated, we are more effective. Some of the world’s greatest discoveries have been made when someone took a rest! Rest was when it all gelled in the mind and the person had a Eureka moment. Rest reveals fresh perspectives. We are more productive when we are well rested! Rest well to live optimally. More rest = more success!
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22. Eight Keys to Vibrant Health and Energy
02/02/2019
22. Eight Keys to Vibrant Health and Energy
With the start of another new year, many people find themselves making health goals, from fitness to diet, to sleep or earlier mornings. This fascination with health related New Year’s resolutions may be the result of two back to back holidays when most people eat too much, do too little and feel too bad. Or maybe we all have the inherent conviction that the best way to improve our lives is to start by improving our health. And the start of a new year gives us the perfect launching point to begin new health journeys. My wife and I have found ourselves focusing more on our daily health practices over the years as we need increased energy and effectiveness for our busy family and business lives. We’ve found that abundant health doesn’t come from just focusing on one or two areas at a time but by making continual progress in 8 areas that foster wellness, vitality and ultimately effectiveness. Prioritizing Health with a Busy Schedule With busy families, businesses, jobs, social activities and causes...and through random unforeseen challenges that pop into our lives, it’s easy to just get busy and accept what is as the way it must always be in our health. Making health a priority starts with embracing how healthy practices make a visible and tangible difference to our lives and bodies. I know that when I make health a priority I feel good. I have energy and a clear mind. It takes less time to get more done. I see an increase in effectiveness and fulfillment in my family life and in my business life. We are the architect of our own body’s health. Without our health, we have nothing else. At some point we need to acknowledge that we have significant control over our own health and that our actions can truly make a significant impact. Through acknowledgment of our control, we will find it easier to muster up the discipline to follow through on our system with daily and weekly actions, even when it’s not easy or convenient. While we may not be perfect in practicing what we know is good for us, we can make it one of our top priorities to continue to make progress and to get back on track when life derails us from that next work out or getting to bed on time. Don’t Make Changes, Create Systems that Become Habits. We often get those urges to change some health practice. Like saying, today I’m not going to eat sugar. But creating the long term results you want in our health happens best when we systematize our health practices using a process we’ve developed that works for our unique body, lifestyle and preferences. Find a set of regular health practices that work for you and that you can follow fairly consistently over time...even when you’re traveling or in crazy busy seasons. If you were to ask Shelley or me to create the perfect health system for you it probably wouldn’t work. Why? Because what works for me is not likely to work for you. It may not get the results you need because your body and needs are different. Or it may get results but you may not enjoy the system enough to sustain it because it just doesn’t work in your lifestyle or schedule. Think about what you enjoy doing. Do you like walking your dog? Great, walk the dog longer or faster. Do you like making and eating stir-fries? Great, make more of them, put in more vegetables or make them all organic. If someone else lost 30 pounds eating a certain way, that’s great for him/her, but that may not be great for you. If you want to live every day like health is truly your priority, your personalized health practice must be full of actions you enjoy enough to sustain your unique system for health over time. I am only able to maintain my healthy lifestyle because I have created habits that I either enjoy or that produce results that I enjoy. Our 8 Health Systems We have found that it’s helpful to compile all the processes needed to create our own personalized health system into eight categories. We’ve actually seen that every human being needs to pay attention to these 8 areas of life in order to optimize their health and wellbeing. If you determine what unique practices you need to regularly incorporate into your daily lives to progress in these eight areas, it is quite likely that you’ll end up continually improving in health, energy and vitality. Quality Rest Our bodies need rest in order to function. I’ve struggled with getting the appropriate rest and it’s on the cutting edge of my personal learning this year. Rest is the key to restoration in our bodies. Are you getting the right quality and quantity of rest? Do you nod off whenever you're not active, yawn during the day, just run low on energy, need multiple settings on your alarm clock to wake up, or sleep a lot longer on your days off? If so, you are probably not getting enough quality sleep. Physical Activity Our bodies were made to move and these days most of us spend a lot more time sitting than moving. We sit to work, watch, talk, drive, eat, etc. With all that sitting, how can we make our bodies move more? What type of exercise is best for you? How do you create a sustainable system for exercise that works for you over time? What’s the balance between aerobic exercise, strength training and flexibility training that’s best for you? Pure Water Our bodies are made of mostly water and yet most of us aren’t very intentional about giving our bodies good, pure water. Our thirst is like the gas gage on a car. Our body runs on water but when the gas gage hits empty (when we get thirsty), we fill it with all kinds of other stuff besides water. Trying to run your body on soda is like saying I’m going to try to run my car on pop. Even if we drink enough water, it often has other pollutants and chemicals in it...chlorine and fluoride being the biggest offenders. If you put gas that’s mixed with a bunch of water in your vehicle, it might still run if you have a great in line fuel filter to extract the water from the fuel your vehicle is actually designed to run on. We are fortunate that our body does have a great in line filter to take out the other “stuff” that’s in the liquid we drink besides the water our body runs on. And our body filter is smart enough it actually tries to use whatever it can from what it filters out of the liquid we put in it. However, often the “stuff” that’s in the liquid we drink just clogs our filters or worse yet, has toxins that destroy our body systems. So how much water do you need, how often should you drink, how to you make sure what are drinking is really clean water and how does even the water you bathe in impact you? Fresh Air Fresh air is a key element for optimum health! Do you know the quality of the air you breathe both indoors and outside? How do you improve the quality of air you regularly breath? And how do you make sure you’re getting enough air in your lungs? Many people go through an entire day and never fully fill their lungs with air. This would be like running a car always at idle and never revving up the engine. Optimizing your lung capacity and usage is really vital to optimizing your energy and longevity. Nature and Sunlight There is something very therapeutic about being outside. Our bodies are made to sync with the vibrations of nature. Have you ever gone on a walk in nature on sunny day at the beach or on a beautiful trail in the mountains and you just feel so refreshed? Unlike our ancestors, modern life keeps us indoors the majority of time. But regular time outside in nature is a key system for success in health. Even being exposed to sunlight brings many health benefits when we enjoy it in moderation. Healthy Whole Food and Targeted Nutrition Yes, we are what we eat. So what we eat is always important. Most people eat things because they like them. What's wrong with that? Shouldn't we like the things we eat? Absolutely! The question is what is your system to determine the food and nutrition your unique body needs to function at optimum health, energy, and vitality? What foods are best for your body? Of all the vitamins out there, how do you know what your body needs? Self-Discipline Self-discipline is foundational to maintain the other 7 systems for health success. We can have the best intentions in the world in all the other areas but what good is that if we don’t have the personal discipline to do the right things our body needs for great health and wellness? It also takes self-control to practice moderation in those pleasures that may not be super good for you in excess but that bring you great joy. So what is your system to regularly foster your own self-discipline? An Attitude of Faith This one impacts every area of our inner life and therefore it impacts every area of our outer life, especially our health. Our state of mind has a major impact on our health. Faith is the ability to see things you want that are not yet there in reality as though they are already there. I also believe if we trust in a power outside ourselves, (what I call trusting in God) it is easier to see a better, brighter future for our life, for our family, for our business and for our health. My attitude is formed by my personal belief that there is a God who has good plans for me and for my health. What would it feel like if you were able to maintain an attitude that believes there is a better future ahead, that anything is possible and that you have access to power outside yourself to help you bring that desired future into the present? Do Something to Improve Your Health System Now I challenge you to do an honest assessment of your practices and outcomes in each of these eight categories. Rate yourself on a scale of 1-10 in each of these categories. Make a list of the practices you are currently doing that foster success in each of these areas then pick one category and brainstorm a few practices you could experiment with that would help you experience more of the success you want in that area. Over time, do this in all 8 categories to build your own unique health system for success. Stay tuned for more podcasts and articles on our learnings and practices in each of these eight vital areas for abundant health! THANK YOU! Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page. We’d also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram
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21. How We Make New Year Progress | Round Table
01/14/2019
21. How We Make New Year Progress | Round Table
An inside look at what inspires us, what we are learning and how we’re planning to support each other's progress in this new year. This round table discussion takes place right after we did our 2019 annual family goal setting retreat. A Powerful Philosophy of Progress Research shows that 80% of people give up on their New Year's resolutions by about the 2nd week of February! The reason? What most people call 'resolutions' are really just desires or fun things they wish would happen. The majority of people don't actually "resolve" or declare a new standard of intent that is backed with a specific plan to accomplish it. Why do we make these new resolutions or goals at the beginning of a new year? Because the date on the calendar makes us feel like it is time for a fresh start. And it is a good opportunity to reflect on the last year and set some new intentions for the next year. But what makes us happy is not setting new goals once a year. What makes us happy is the process of making regular progress on those things that are important to us throughout the year. Accomplishing things and obtaining things, is not what makes us happy. Getting money, promotions or even a new relationship that you want is not what really makes humans happy. It is PROGRESS that makes us happy. The new year is a good opportunity to decided how in this year we want to improve, grow, make progress. Progress is not the same as change. We don't have to work on change. Most things will eventually change no matter what. Change is almost automatic. But progress is not automatic. Progress requires clear intention for a new direction or improvement AND a specific process to head in that direction. A fulfilling life is about making progress you have determined is important to you. But progress doesn't happen just by stating the new results you want to produce in your life. Progress requires the right process or inputs to create the desired result. In our apple orchard, how much good would it do if I just declared that the trees should produce better fruit? Not much. Here is a true saying. "A good tree produces good fruit. No good tree bears bad fruit." So what does it take to make a good tree? It takes a consistent set of processes working right for that tree to be a healthy tree that produces good fruit. A bad tree can say I want to have healthy food all it wants, but if it doesn't have the right nutrients or the right temperatures at the right time of year…the right type of pruning, the right type and amount of water and sunshine, the right photosynthesis happening in the tree… then it will not produce good fruit. No matter how much the tree wanted to produce good fruit, it won't produce good fruit if the tree isn't in a process of getting healthy. That process is different for each type of fruit tree in each type of climate. It is not a one process fits all formula for success for trees or for people. This time of year we set intentions for the kind of good person we want to be, the kind of good life we want to have, the kind of good impact we want to make on this world. If those intentions are just resolutions or wishes without a specific set of processes to produce those good outcomes then it's like a tree saying I just want to produce better fruit but not having the right processes in place to make it a good, healthy tree. Because of this, we like to set New Year's intentions or objectives that are supported by specific goals, processes, habits or routines that are likely to create that desired outcome. Sometimes the specific outcome we set out to achieve does not happen. Or it doesn't happen in the time frame we had planned. But the processes we put in place to pursue that outcome will always produce some better outcome…some progress…sometime, somewhere. It may just prepare us for some other type of unanticipated outcome that we didn't even think was possible. Resolutions sound like one-time events. You say it, and it is supposed to be done. Although stating our intention is important, success is more about the process of building a strong life…getting a little bit better each day. Life is about making progress. A famous leadership coach named Jesus said, let me tell you what it looks like when someone listens to the good things I tell them to do and actually does them. It looks like someone who builds a house on a good foundation. And when the storms come, that house stands strong. If you dig down deep and build a foundation, when the storms come you can stand those storms. So don't let your New Year resolutions become mere wish lists. When you truly resolve something you declare this is how it is going to be. You set a new standard. We get our standards. We get what we believe about who we are and what we deserve. We don't as often get our wishes. We get what we believe must happen to align with our beliefs. We don't get what we think should happen. Burn the bridges on the past and commit to pursue your new standard. Combine this level of commitment to a new standard with a creating and regularly updating your action plan, routines or systems and you will make exhilarating progress toward the new standards you set for your life. THANK YOU! Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page. We'd also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram
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20. Realizing Dreams: Reality Show Round Table
12/04/2018
20. Realizing Dreams: Reality Show Round Table
Realizing Dreams: Reality Show Round Table Our family is launching an experiment called Fulcrum, a business that we think will make a difference in our city. We thought we'd share a bit about it with you and most importantly give you an inside scoop into the process as we will be on a learning curve and we hope that this will encourage some of you either as individuals, as families or a group of friends to dream great dreams that you think will make a difference in your world, your community and your city and take action to start pursuing those dreams. Overview of Fulcrum Fulcrum is a movement in the city of Yakima that we hope will bring creative people together to live, to work, to learn, play and build innovative solutions that will benefit our city and our county and ultimately the world. Fulcrum is a movement in the community of Yakima that brings creative people together to live, work, learn and play while they build innovative solutions that will benefit our valley and the world. The Fulcrum building will be an inspiring space where people can dream together, learn together, work together, eat together and do life together. The vision of Fulcrum Yakima is to be the catalyst that helps us unleash our collective creativity as a town. We are launching community and a space where young and old alike come together to dream again and leverage our collective resources and talents to accomplish those dreams. We are excited to be doing this as a family along with many other friends and community leaders. This is not a just a Gienger Family project. Our family may be pivotal in launching this, but are engaging many others. The Beginning of a Vision This idea came out of a discussion we had about a year ago about a brain drain trend we noticed especially within the younger people of our city who we found were wanting to get out of our city as soon as possible. By the time they turned 18 the first thing they wanted to do was leave because they realized that Yakima didn’t hold much economic opportunity our vision is to change that. Right now there isn’t a lot happening in town because the members of community who could bring the economic growth back are facing outwards, our goal with Fulcrum is to hold hands as a community, young and old alike, face inwards and make our city an economic hub, where people can activate their potential and unleash the collective creativity of the city. The Fulcrum building will be a physical space to house and cultivate this new innovative mentality and economic success for the city. When we had our first gathering in the Fulcrum building, our goal was to open up the conversation with the community about what we are creating and how we will all have a part in it. We spent the much of the time hearing people’s stories and their passion for our city and the differences they’d like to see. We also had the opportunity to share our vision for Fulcrum. This is a community project and we hope that a lot of people will be getting involved over time engaging the best and brightest minds of people in Yakima who are dreamers to come alongside and help foster great things in our city. As you've been listening to this podcast, you know that we're big on the value of developing businesses and the value that can bring to the world. The last episode talked about the value of the free enterprise system in America and my concern that not everybody is appreciates the value it truly brings to this world in building healthy societies. You can go back and listen to that episode if you'd like. What we're doing in Yakima is a bit of a case study, an illustration of the expression of what a lot of us care about. We'd like to foster some startup businesses that have creative ideas, innovations that we think could make our city and ultimately our world better. So that's what we're setting out to do here. With that background, we thought we'd just have an open round table discussion on what we're developing. Seeing A Need All great endeavors start with some idea to bring value somewhere and usually that value you want to bring aligns with your passions or skills or personal interests. So think of something that you'd love to do, that you're passionate about and that could add value to your world. Then find a specific related need and dream of how you could potentially fill that need. Creating A Vision and Researching Last year in January Chelann and I started talking about about the concept of a co-working space and business incubator or innovation center and what that could do for our city. Clearly a trend in this around the world. There was over 14,000 co-working spaces that started in 2018 alone worldwide...a huge trend that is clearly meeting a need. There's a big rise of independent freelancers, and in the number of new entrepreneurs which fosters the value of co-working and co-living spaces. The desire for a place where you can live and walk right down the hall or just right outside your room and have access to co-working space. The value of a space to live, work, eat, play all in one place. I think it's also meeting a need in the world where social media tends to make us a bit isolated from face to face personal interaction. Places like this create the opportunity to fill the need people have for more personal interaction. Developing Your Idea When you have an idea, you will have to throw it out on the table and watch it develop. Our idea started out as something more like co-working space and a business incubator and it's now morphed into something that's not really about a business incubator or just co-working opportunities. Instead, it's morphed into something much bigger and now something we're all very excited about. After our first official meeting as a family to brainstorm on this project, we started thinking about the possibility of taking this into multiple cities and we all got pretty excited about the impact something like this could make for small and large communities around the country. All of us became even so excited about it that we are willing to shift some of our priorities, businesses commitments and schedules to start focusing on this. Find Someone to Support You and Your Vision The next step we took was asking our family and others: “Who wants to be involved? What would you like to contribute?” After that, we had our first meet up within the community and had a turn out of 30 influential community leaders which just solidified our initial excitement for this project. It was energizing to hear from 30 influential community leaders who showed up and matched our excitement, letting us know they were behind us, giving us their cards and offering to help in any way they could. When you are able to engage everyone and delegate different roles to people who see the vision and share your passion it solidifies the emotions that you feel about your own project. I believe that through this process God has really opened the doors in a way that seems he already planned to do something like this and we're just tagging along. It has been as if all the stars aligned...from searching for a building, finding the ideal space and getting it under an agreement, to being blessed with a seller who is also very passionate about the vision of this project. Creating a Name and Mission Statement We got to the point with our project that we were calling it so many different things that we sat down and said we've got to figure out what to call this so we don't call it something different every time we talk about it. When we started the process of selecting name we got input from several people. We made a list a half dozen of the top names and sent them out to several dozen people in our target audience. When you have a vision and as soon as you start crystallizing some things, start getting feedback from your target customer as soon as you can about everything you can, as early as you can. We eventually chose the name Fulcrum because that was the most popular and fortunately it's got a great meaning to it because we think this is going to be like a tipping point for our city to change the culture and the economy. The next step we took, which is something you do early in start ups is to start getting clear about the mission, vision and values. What's the purpose behind this thing you want to do, what's the real cause? What will it look like when that cause if being achieved. And what are the values, the non-negotiable principles that will guide how we do what we do in this enterprise? We all got together just started spitting out different core values that were important to each of us and compiled them all into a google doc. From there it is a process of elimination of what will represent our vision and values best. What will resonate with people and give them a clear image of what we were all about about and what we're creating here? Creating Organizational Structure One of the first things we did to create an action plan was just by asking how are we going to organize this project from a big picture perspective. And we ultimately concluded that we're going to have three different sets of entities/companies to make this all happen. One set of companies has to do with the operations of Fulcrum, what happens on a day to day basis to facilitate all of these good things happening in the space and in the community. The second set of companies we'll need to establish will be the entities that won the real estate (the building and land and parking lot). Right now the real estate is under contract to purchase in the next 6-12 months. By the time we purchase the real estate and start doing the renovations, it will be owned by a single purpose entity (company) that will probably have multiple investors/owners in it. Once we get up and running and see some Yakima grown innovations turning into businesses that need funding, we'll have a third set of companies that venture capital investors can invest in and that will then be invested in some of the start up businesses fostered by Fulcrum. We plan to facilitate a process that will bring funding to the best ideas and the best businesses that start as a result of this process. There are a lot of venture capital investors who are excited about investing and startup businesses that have the potential to make a strong positive impact on this world. So we hope to attract investors like that invest in a fund that will invest in some of the businesses that start in Fulcrum. So, bottom line there will be three different sets of entities (or companies), operations, property ownership, and then venture capital funding. Clarifying Roles and Responsibilities The next thing we did is to get clear on roles and responsibilities. Who's going to lead what in these three different companies? We started discussing the passions and skills and potential matching roles and responsibilities of each person on the founding team. We then decided that one of the first roles we needed is an executive director for Fulcrum. Collectively we developed a written job description, and then an advertisement for that position based on that job description. We spent some money posting ads in places like ZipRecruiter. So this went out to many online job boards and we received a bunch of resumes. Then we went through a process of screening the resumes based on what we had in writing. This is a classic system for success in recruiting. You define a position, write down the job description, develop accurate advertisement for the position, get the word out in multiple ways trying to get as many applicants as you can then screen the resumes down to a small number that you think are qualified based on what you see in writing. And then the next step is to do phone screening interviews with those that look like they might be qualified on paper. So we offered the opportunity for top candidates to schedule a phone interview. And then the final step to do in person interviews with your top 2-4 finalist candidates that make it through the phone screening interview process. So we followed this whole process for the Fulcrum Executive Director position. We even had a final interview committee that comprised more than our family and included someone with experience in hiring and managing for this type of position in another business innovation center in a different city. We're excited to announce the Chelann Gienger ended up being the top candidate and was selected for this role. Establish a Specific Timeline for Your Project The most recent thing we've done is to establish an overall project plan and timeline for turning this dream into reality. Following is what we know about the timeline right now: When will Fulcrum open? The Fulcrum movement (or experience) starts now. We are in the process of building the most important aspect of Fulcrum as we speak and that’s the CREATIVE COMMUNITY. The physical space that will help foster the Fulcrum experience is targeted to open in late 2020. 2018 Q4 – Free community events start (Monthly Fireside Chats) Build volunteer team. Raise donations for seed funding 2019 Q1 - Architect model finished Q2 – March: First weekly Coffee and Concepts: Secure capital for project Q3 - Start construction Q4 - Construction, start accepting first members 2020 Q3-4 - Grand Opening How can I get involved? Join our Facebook group, Fulcrum Yakima, to stay in the loop with future events, volunteer opportunities and all things Fulcrum is up to! THANK YOU! Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page. We'd also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram
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19. The Best System to Shape Society (Socialism or Capitalism?)
11/16/2018
19. The Best System to Shape Society (Socialism or Capitalism?)
Hi Systems for Success Family! Well we just finished the 2018 midterm elections and it seemed there was more focus and more debate generated by these elections than any I remember in many years. And some of the conversations and debates around this have made me want to address something in this episode that I think is really important to the future of this country. I had a conversation with one millennial recently who was really frustrated with some of their friends for thinking they could just not vote and still complain about the way things were going…or that other of their friends could vote for politicians and policies that focused on increased government control, taxes and redistribution of wealth and still expect to see the same abundance for their kids as they experienced. Then there was , that came out right before the elections that said likely voters claimed to favor socialism over capitalism by something like five points, and the majority supported things like single-payer healthcare, federal job guarantees, and free college. According to Harvard's new poll, millennial Americans have grown to distrust capitalism and free enterprise. There was also a Fox News poll earlier this year that showed an uptick to 36 percent of the people polled who had the view that moving away from capitalism and toward socialism would be a good idea. The article I read said that Historical surveys from the late 1930s to the late 1940s show that only a tiny fraction of Americans embraced the socialist label. And now 36 percent are in favor of heading that way? What’s up with that? Let me be clear, this isn’t about the voting that happened last week. I think everyone should get out and vote their conscience. This is not a political commentary podcast and I’m not trying to turn it into that. What I’m talking about here goes way beyond political viewpoints. I’m talking about a system for success that built this country and I think really built our world…a system for success is now at risk. Political victories are temporary bandages over what I see as severe national threat posed by the revival of historically discredited systems like socialism as the system for success in societies. Somehow there have been all kinds of purveyors of global capitalism, from free-trade champions like Bill Clinton to way right-wing leaders like Paul Ryan, have failed to persuade young Americans that the free market has been significantly responsible for global income per person --that the free enterprise system has been responsible for eradicating poverty for , and a in both the length and quality of life. Many people, especially it seems in the younger generation, have begun to imagine that a fatally flawed system of having government control of who gets what will create long term success in societies. So in this episode, I want to share with you some thoughts about what I think is the antidote to that flawed system. Let me tell you what I love about the system for success of a free market economy. I share some of these thoughts in my book, Beyond Business, that will be published the last week of November. So if you want more inspiration on how business shapes our world, you can get that on Amazon soon. So here’s what I love about the free enterprise and why I think it is the best system to shape healthy societies. I love that it is a system where money is earned by serving someone else well. It’s a system where there is a built in incentive to serve someone well enough to make them happy with what you provided. If I paint your house, fix your car, make a certain tool that you need, you give me money. That money is in essence a certificate proving that I served you. With these certificates of service that you have given me, I can then go online and order some new tool I need from Amazon that some other business leader made well enough that others traded their certificates of service for it and were served well enough that they gave it a five star rating. Essentially, Amazon says, “When you place your order, you’re making a claim on something that some other business leader created. You’re asking this other business leader to provide value to you. But first can you prove that you provided value to someone else?” And I say, “Of course I can!” Amazon essentially says, “Prove it.” So I enter my PayPal account linked to my reservoir of certificates of service and prove that I have provided enough value to others to receive the value of this new tool I am buying for myself. Commerce is really an exchange of value. Money is just the symbol of value exchanged. Obviously, some people are more effective at creating value for society than others. Is it magic that they receive more certificates of service (make more money) than others who provide less value? Think about Bill Gates, for example. Why is his income so much more than mine? It’s because millions of people use the software his business created. I'm using the software he created right now as I type this manuscript, because it makes me more productive than just writing it all by hand. The mission of Microsoft is to empower every person on the planet to achieve more. Their mission is not to make money. Their mission is to serve people by helping them achieve more. I pay hundreds of dollars a year to the company Bill Gates started because it empowers me to be more productive. People pay me less than they pay Bill Gates because I haven't provided as much value to as many people as he has. There are some who would say it is not fair that Bill Gates makes so much, especially compared to others. They would even cheer the government on in trying to take more money from him (and other wealthy people like him) and give it to others. In doing this they are basically announcing to the world that they don't agree with the deliberate decisions of millions of people to give Gates’s company their hard-earned certificates of service. They are negating the decisions of millions of people who felt they were getting more value than they were giving up when they bought the products and services of his company. Instead, they are suggesting that we should use the arbitrary control of government to nullify all of those deliberate, independent decisions and redistribute those certificates of service without regard for the value created. Just as an aside, when you think through this lens, it almost appears that income redistribution is just a government-authorized version of what a robber does. They take what rightfully belongs to one person for the benefit of someone who didn't actually earn it. Free Enterprise Is a Gift to Humanity Think about the self-perpetuating system of positive regard for humanity that is built in to this free enterprise system of business. There is a built-in incentive to provide value to others before I receive value myself. There is a built-in system to reinforce the positive principle that the greatest servant will become the greatest success. There is a catalytic mechanism to encourage the Golden Rule of doing for others as we would want done for ourselves. Harvard Professor Steven Pinker says, “Commerce, trade and exchange . . . mean that people try to anticipate what the other guy needs and wants. It engages the mechanisms of reciprocal altruism.” That, in a nutshell, means that business makes people want to serve others’ needs. That sounds to me like a real gift to humanity! Now think of the alternative. For the sake of contrast, let’s talk about socialism. A socialist economy can essentially say, “Lonnie, you don’t have to provide value to other people in order to deserve the value that someone else produces. As long as you’re a member of our party, we will take what your fellow man produces and give it to you based on equality or need rather than based on what you produce.” This system has been well proven throughout history not to create sustainable success in relationships or true abundance in society. When it comes to relationships, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, a Soviet dissident who won the Nobel Prize, said that the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republic was a government at war with its own people. The very nature of the socialist system diminishes the dynamics that cause sustainable success in relationships. Peace and prosperity for societies have not resulted from such systems; quite the opposite. Socialism has demonstrated fairly well that if you take away the free enterprise business system of profit for productivity, it is likely that the real wants and needs of people won't be met as effectively. In our generation, some countries that have historically been most deeply entrenched in socialistic and communistic systems are now becoming more capitalistic in their approach to commerce. They simply realize that this creates healthier relationships and stronger societies. China is a great example of this transformation. When I started making regular trips to China a few years ago, I would have never even put “communism” and “capitalism” in the same sentence. Yet now that I have done a lot of business in China over the last three years, I can honestly say that China, while still clearly communistic in government, is one of the most effectively capitalistic in business. I vividly remember getting off a bullet train in Guangzhou, and my Chinese business partner mentioned that this was considered one of the wealthiest cities in all of China. I asked, “How does the Chinese government measure wealth in cities?” I was thinking he would respond with measures like we use in America: per capita income or average household income, but no. He said with great clarity, “In China we measure the wealth of a city based on the number of new businesses that are being started and the success of those businesses in providing value to people in the city based on how much profit they make.” Wow! The Chinese government measures the wealth of a city based on these leading indicators of success rather than lagging indicators like household income. They clearly understand capitalism, maybe even better than some governmental systems in America. The rapid social and economic transformation of China over the last three decades has once again demonstrated the power of capitalism to improve societies. In general, in a free market society, people who are wealthy have become so by providing substantial value to other people. I’ll provide a few well-recognized and somewhat extreme examples to illustrate this point. Think about the extraordinary value these business leaders have provided to people that has enabled them to earn billions of dollars. Jeff Bezos, through Amazon's efficient shopping and data systems Steve Jobs, through Apple's revolutionary products Mark Zuckerberg, through making people more connected than ever before with Facebook Elon Musk, through developing Paypal to enable simple and secure online money transfers for people around the world and then creating Tesla’s most energy efficient yet powerful luxury cars on the market The Mayo Brothers through developing Mayo Clinic as the number one medical clinic in the world solving health challenges no one else can solve Richard Branson, through his four hundred plus companies that provide products and services that improve the lives of people around the world Branson says, “I've always seen business as a group of people trying to improve other people's lives.” Zuckerberg started simply with a clear passion to help people be more connected. The Mayo brothers didn’t intend to build the number one medical center in the world. They began with a simple radical vision to eliminate disease in humanity. Often, these titans of business begin with an altruistic vision to provide value to society, and society rewards them handsomely when they do. Do we really mind that these iconic business leaders became very wealthy or that their companies made a lot of money? Do we really wish they had kept their ideas to themselves and not offered to sell them to us for an amount of money that would allow them to continue to make better products and services that we value? Do we begrudge them for making a lot of money? No, because they gave us so much “bang for our buck”! We’re grateful to them! When Steven Jobs died, a cartoonist showed him entering heaven as he was welcomed by Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison. Is there any doubt that these three people contributed more value to society than they received? Ben Franklin contributed too many inventions and discoveries to name. How could we ever repay Thomas Edison for lighting up the world? How could we ever repay Steven Jobs for putting the world of information in our hands in the form of smartphones? These people gave more value than they received by far. Isn't that a beautiful and virtuous cycle that we would want to see continue, whether on a large scale or happening at your favorite small local restaurant that continually makes better tasting, healthier food served in a great environment that fosters relationships? What these business leaders do with the free enterprise system is truly a blessing to humanity! Profit Perpetuates Customer Satisfaction Whenever the profit incentive is missing, the probability that people’s wants can be safely ignored is the greatest. This is because the ability of a business to make a profit depends on two simple factors. The first is whether the business is producing a product or service that society values enough to pay what they are asking for it. The second is whether that business is well led enough to use limited resources in a way that is efficient and effective enough to consume less resources than the resources others are willing to give in exchange for it. That’s how profit is earned, and it makes profit dependent upon meeting people’s wants and needs. As I have mentioned, I have spent a lot of time in both the non-profit and the for-profit worlds. I have led boards in both worlds, and I can tell you that in general there is a higher degree of consistency in customer satisfaction in the for-profit world than in the non-profit world. Why is that? I believe it is because in a free market economic system, profit is a built-in catalytic mechanism to constantly encourage service and value creation as of primary importance. Capitalism is compelled by the profit motive to look for and respond to people’s needs and wants. I'm not saying that capitalism or the free market economic system always produces other-centered people or companies. Certainly, greed and corruption can and do enter in to this system just as they do in many other good systems. At the same time, this does seem to be the system that is most closely aligned with the principles of an ideal society where the one who serves others best becomes the greatest success. In a healthy free enterprise system, the pursuit of profit by serving people and the building of what some might call “God's kingdom on earth” are one and the same. No one argues that the free enterprise system is perfect or free from abuses, but I believe it is the system that most effectively promotes the principles of God's ideal society where the greatest servant becomes the greatest leader. So here’s the question. Since free enterprise has proven to be a system for success that has build a better world wherever it is done well, what can you do to either spread the word or to actually get involved in free enterprise yourself. Do something that will put some heat around this topic and continue to raise the value and appreciation for free enterprise as a powerful system for success to build a better world.
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18. How to Examine and Take Control Your Life
10/30/2018
18. How to Examine and Take Control Your Life
How to Examine and Take Control Your Life Most people begin their lives reacting to whatever life does to them. This may be okay for an infant. But as adults, it’s important to develop the skills required to examine our lives, cultivate our personal values and make decisions that reflect those values. Many people find themselves reverting back to this reactive state in adult life because they aren’t intentional about making decisions and evaluating the outcomes of those decisions. I love how Tony Robbins explains life. He uses the metaphor of a raging river to describe life. You can read more from his book, . And this is what he said: “Too many of us don’t make the majority of our decisions consciously...in so doing, we pay a major price. In fact, most people live what I call ‘The Niagara Syndrome’. I believe that life is like a river and that most people jump on the river of life without ever really deciding where they want to end up. So, in a short period of time, they get caught up in the current: current events, current fears, current challenges. When they come to forks in the river, they don’t consciously decide where they want to go, or which is the right direction for them. They merely ‘go with the flow’. They become a part of the mass of people who are directed by the environment instead of by their own values. As a result, they feel out of control. They remain in this unconscious state until one day the sound of the raging water awakens them, and they discover that they’re five feet from Niagara Falls in a boat with no oars. At this point, they say, ‘Oh shoot!’. But by then it’s too late. They’re going to take a fall. Sometimes it’s an emotional fall. Sometimes it’s a physical fall. Sometimes it’s a financial fall. It’s likely that whatever challenges you have in your life currently could have been avoided by making some better decisions upstream.” Why don’t we always take the opportunity to take control of the future of our lives through our values? Once we understand the circumstances and reasons that can throw us off track we can address the issue of living without critical decision making and how affects our personal values. While we are all individuals and can experience different things that can influence us to misstep, the most common factors that cause us to live unconsciously are: Distractions in the present time Your attention required in other areas of life Lack of intention in the decisions we make today and how they influence our future As you can see, there is a theme with these three factors, attention and intention. That is why I like the analogy that Tony gives that life is like a raging river because it is. We become caught up in the rapids of doing the things that life seems to demand of us day in and day out. Goal setting and evaluation are primary tools we can use to keep the raging river of life from sweeping us wherever it wills. Many people set goals. But not many have a disciplined process to evaluate their progress on those goals. One of the questions I often hear is “what do I do when my family or team sets goals and forgets about them in a short time?” People set goals with the thought of the direction they want to go with their life, but often it doesn't happen because they get caught up in the river of life that just pulls them downstream wherever that river's going. The key to ensuring that we're floating on the right river in the right direction at the right pace is taking time to review the course of our life through regular examination of our progress toward living what we say is important. Living an Unexamined Life A quote that many are familiar with was uttered by Socrates right before his trial which ultimately led to him being put to death was “The unexamined life is a life not worth living.” Do you think is that true? And if so, why is that true? Why is the unexamined life a life not worth living? Many don't realize the importance of self-awareness and of living with intention. But at some point, we will all arrive at the end and will have the opportunity to look back and reflect on where the time went and what we did with it. If that is the only time you examine your life, you’ll probably be settling for the status quo, falling in with the herd mentality. The quality of our experience is determined by the focus of our attention. If our attention is fragmented, pulled in a million different directions, easily distracted, shallow and fleeting, then that is what our experience of life will be. If we are not examining our life and revising our focus toward living our values and goals, we will get distracted and sucked downstream on the river life creates for us, caught up in the current of noise, circumstance, and unconscious decision. If you wouldn’t want to go out on a hike, without a trail, a planned route, and destination, why would you then want to go through life the same way? A Philosopher’s Lesson I think staying true to our values, staying on our chosen path happens best through the discipline of intentional evaluation of our lives on a regular basis. We naturally tend to resist personal examination, because it brings back subconscious negative thoughts of examinations or tests we were given even in grade school days. We wanted to be right, to get the A, but we were often disappointed so why put ourselves through a self-examination. The possibility of failing makes us resist that opportunity to examine and reflect. Socrates actually chose death rather than giving up his right to gain wisdom from examination and reflection. “The unexamined life is not worth living” He felt obligated to live a life where he questioned not only what was going on in his life but also the rights and wrongs that happened. He would rather give up his life than not be able to question what was happening. He was such a threat to the s0ciety he lived in because he was such an examiner. He valued the love of wisdom more than anything else. He ultimately was given the choice to stop seeking wisdom through examination and live in exile where he could never question anything or influence anything or create wisdom again, or he could choose to die. And that's when he said if I can’t gain wisdom by examining my life it's not worth living. So he chose death. There’s another saying from a philosopher more ancient than Socrates. David says, “teach us to number our days aright, so we can gain a heart of wisdom.” He is saying, examine life based on the brief number of days we have and in that examination of each day, we will gain a heart of wisdom. That’s what makes a life worth living. Tools to Examining Your Life So the question I want to ask you how can you number your days intentionally, what tools help you live each day to the fullest? Are there regular activities and personal disciplines that you can engage in daily to help you examine your life? Here are several tools that have been shared: Daily Journaling: Find a process that works for you. Asking yourself questions like what you want to accomplish today, what will make today great, including your daily affirmation or mantra, and a reflection on what made today great or what could have made today better. Mentorship: Having the opportunity to gain information from mentors who are willing to speak into your life can be a huge eye-opener rather than when you are the sole examiner of your life. Mentors can point out specific things that you may have failed to examine yourself. Evaluate Your Day/Week/Month/Year According to Your Written Values: Formulate a question in line with your values like, “How did today matter in light of my values? How did today’s actions matter in terms of living the life I want to live? Did I create value in the world that God wants me to create?” Having a group of people, friends or family, that you can come together with and reflect on your personal compass, values, and goals. Celebrate how far you have come and how much more you get to grow. Create an activity that allows you to examine yourself: “If each person around the circle it only had 30 days longer to live what would you do differently? What would you want to say to each person or to this group of people? What would you want to do together? How would you spend the next few days? What would you want them to know?” Sometimes you may think back over my task list for the day and wonder if it was all worth it. What were all those emails about? But when you ask yourself the question, did today really matter in light of my values and goals, chances are you’ll know the answer.Did today matter? If so, great. Do more things like it tomorrow. If you don’t remember anything that made a difference? Do something different tomorrow. Before you start every day, take a few moments in meditation to connect with God (or your spiritual self), focus on what’s really important in life and decide what you’d like to see happen by the end of the day. After doing this, take some time to prioritize your calendar and tasks for the day. What’s most important? What is realistic to achieve?When you take just a little time and intention to examine your life, you’ll know where you are in relation to where you want to be and you’ll have a much better chance at making progress. Ask the Question Steve Jobs Asked Himself Each MorningSteve Jobs, the man who started Apple and brought it to become the first trillion dollar company in the world, was a master of living and working purposefully. Each morning, when Jobs woke up, he asked himself this one question:“‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ If the Answer is ‘no’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”You may think that it is a bit morbid to think about your mortality at the start of the day, but in reality, this is actually very motivating and filled with optimistic to do better in life, every single day. It helps us “number our days” so we can gain a heart of wisdom, live life to the fullest and create the legacy we’d like to leave in this world. THANK YOU! Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page. We’d also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram
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17. Make Money More
09/25/2018
17. Make Money More
I’m going to do a little rant today on a subject that impacts every single one of you every single day. The success of individuals, families, companies, and nations rises and falls on this subject. This subject is often not talked about much in the home…sometimes as hush hush or as embarrassingly glossed over in homes and schools as the birds and the bees. Yet our understanding of this subject has a significant influence on the height of our happiness, the breadth of our impact on the world and the depth of our bank account. Wanna know what the subject is? Okay, I’ll tell you. It’s a one-word answer. Money. Okay, when I say that word, “Money” what thoughts come to your mind? What emotions fill your heart? I was raised in a religious environment where the prevailing notion about money was that it was somehow evil or at least that it caused a lot of bad things. I actually had a mindset that was a bit afraid of it or at least afraid of having too much of it and I didn’t even know how to define what too much was. But more and more these days, I’m getting these crazy good opportunities to hang around people who have a very different view of money. Shelley, Chellan and I got to spend a couple of days last week at the Prestel and Partner Family Office Forum in San Francisco. It was hosted on this amazing 100ft yacht in the SF Bay. According to their website, the average Net Worth of the families and individuals at this event was $500M. I have no idea how they know that they sure didn’t ask my Net worth at the door, and it’s probably a good thing as they might not have let me on the ship cause my Networth would have lowered the average too much. Anyway, from how I used to think, you’d think that this would have been some uppity up event with people who were selfishly absorbed in making more money and having cooler stuff. But it was absolutely the opposite. There were a bunch of normal but ambitious business people but people with a driving passion to make the world a better place through what they do in business and through the money business creates. Honestly, the majority of the presentations and roundtable discussions were all about how to make a bigger positive impact for good on this world. And this wasn’t just for some feel-good stuff. Like we invest to make money but want to have it look like we are doing some good for the world in the process. No, these people are serious about real impact to the point of having very specific ways to measure and report on the impact for good. Impact investments are investments made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate social and environmental impact alongside a financial return. The focus is on providing or creating the money needed to address the world’s most pressing challenges. There were presentations and roundtable discussions about how to do this in sectors such as sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, conservation, microfinance, and affordable and accessible basic services including housing, healthcare, and education. Loved hearing one dad talk about how they play this game with their teenage kids where they pick one major problem in society and have a time limit for coming up with out of the box business ideas and plans that could address that challenge in society. From illiteracy to homelessness, to aids to racial injustice, etc. It was so refreshing and energizing to be around business leaders and families who truly view money as a tool to make society better. So different from the prevailing paradigm I used to have. This made me really wonder, why is it that money seems to get such a bad rap, especially from many well-meaning religious folks? Some people think that the Bible says that money is the root of all evil. In reality, it says: “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.”[i] If when you think about the money you have thoughts of evil or fear it will lead to one path that will miss the power I believe it was intended to do for Good on this earth. Far from being evil, money is meant to be the result of loving people well. It is only when we love money more than we love people that it causes all kinds of problems. Whenever my company begins loving the money more than we love the process of serving our customers and our team, we ultimately end up with all kinds of challenges. That’s why a couple of the core values in every business I’ve led for the last twenty-five years have been to always act in the best interest of our customers, and to always do the right thing regardless of the personal or corporate cost. These are non-negotiable guiding principles that keep money in proper perspective as the measure of how well we are serving people. Sustainable success and positive influence come from putting the needs of other people first. Not every company or business leader thinks that way. Because some people love money more than they love people, the wealth that commerce can create has sometimes been seen as something that is bad. But there is a long tradition of cultures that see business success as the epitome of service to society. Have had the opportunity to get to know several wealthy Jewish families at some of these events. Interesting to learn more about how the Jewish tradition has no problem with wealth because it is seen as resulting from and producing a great benefit to the community. Rabbi Daniel Lapin wrote a great book I’ve read a couple times now. Highly recommend it. Thou Shalt Prosper, recounts how money and wealth were viewed throughout the history of the Jews. It's insightful to understand how historic Jewish people understood money and wealth. Money as a Medal Jewish people believed that the wealthiest person in the community was the greatest servant in the community. Wealth was simply a measure of how well and how much you served humanity. Every dollar bill represented a certificate, or medal, proving that you had served someone, just like a military medal received for service to your country. Money was viewed as a medal for giving your life in service to humanity. Thus, in the traditional Jewish paradigm, if you had no money, you were not serving society. In historic Jewish communities, they gave the best seat in the house, the best seat in the synagogue to the wealthiest man. This was not because they were trying to suck up to him. No! It was because they truly saw the wealthiest person as the greatest servant of society, deserving the best seat. Today people often view making a lot of money as a sign of greed and spending money as a curse to avoid. We view spending as a curse because we feel we lose something by doing so, or we feel an aversion to materialism. Yet in the Jewish mindset, spending is a blessing to the world because we are paying for a product or service that adds value in some way to the world. The Tale of Two Tactics for Influence Let's go back in history to some time in the Middle Ages to a little Jewish community somewhere in Europe. Let’s make it a village in Germany, where my grandparents were born. In that little community, they would take their Jewish boys and find the most aggressive, self-motivated young boys and send them to school for a rabbinical education. Then they would bring these boys back to their community. They were now highly educated, self-motivated young boys. As the boys came of marriageable age, the community would arrange a marriage, possibly to the daughter of the wealthiest man in the community. Then this highly educated young man would say to his young growing family, “Kids, let me tell you, the money that you're going to end up inheriting from your grandfather isn't yours and it isn't mine. Let me tell you a story. If it weren't for Mordecai, Esther, Daniel, Shadrach, and Joseph, most administrations in every city our people have lived in would have killed us. We exist today because of the platform that previous generations have built for us. This wealth that we have is for us to manage and protect because it is designed to give us the ability to add value in and therefore influence every one of the cities and cultures where our people live. This is so our lineage can survive and thrive in future generations. So I want you to know, grandkids, you are not to spend this inheritance, wasting it on yourselves. Use it to build a business that builds a platform to add value to society. Your ancestor Mordecai, who saved our people from certain death, wasn't working a job somewhere in a field. He was a leader with influence where he could hear about the plot of King Artaxerxes to kill our entire people. Thus he was able to save his life and save Esther and thus keep our people from being killed. So we've got to continue stewarding our wealth by using it as a platform to create value and build influence in society. This wealth that we have and the wealth that we can create is designed to give us influence in every city. It isn't yours to be wasted on yourself.” With this ethic, the Jewish people became influential in many of the countries and cities where they lived. In Germany, for example, by 1923, 150 of the 161 privately-owned banks in Berlin were Jewish. About 75% of the attorneys, and nearly as many doctors were Jewish. Although only 1% of the German population, representing a negligible electoral power, by the early twentieth century the Jews’ economic, social, and political impact was considerable. By the 1930s, who in Germany owned and controlled most of the companies and industries? Who controlled the steel industry, the fur trade, the newspaper industry, etc.? It was the Jews. Now, in a normal society, this would simply be an example of how business and the wealth it generates can allow a minority population to exert significant influence on society. Unfortunately, as we all know, the Germany of the 1930s was taken down an abnormal path by an evil madman named Hitler. The evil forces of this world wanted to exterminate this group of people who were leading influencers in building a better world through doing commerce well. Hitler absurdly made the Jews’ influence in society into a scapegoat for society’s ills instead of honoring them for serving society and we all know the atrocities that followed. However, this story and the Jew’s resurgence of influence illustrates how much impact a healthy view of the value of wealth generated by a business can have on a society, even when exercised by a small and even unpopular part of the population. For contrast, let's go back to that same place in Germany, only let's go to a Catholic community instead of a Jewish one. Now the Catholic community takes their aggressive and self-motivated young boys and sends them off to the Jesuits and they come back as highly educated, self-motivated and aggressive young boys, many of whom become priests. These educated young boys begin influencing all of Central and South America and parts of the United States for Catholicism. These young priests are like pioneers. They gain vast amounts of wealth for the church and influence society quite a bit. Fifty-four cities in the United States are named after Catholic saints (Santa Fe, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, and Los Angeles are just a few of the more famous examples). Yet because these celibate priests didn't have families, the wealth they collected over their lifetimes was passed on to institutions. Institutions are not wealth creators. Individuals and families doing business are wealth creators. Wealth was never designed to be managed, protected, and built upon inside of an institution. Attempts to build wealth within an institution inevitably cause the influence of the institution to be viewed as paramount over the influence created by serving people well. I have come to believe wealth was designed to be managed and built upon inside the family and used as a platform for people to serve society in increasingly effective ways across the generations. This is a new paradigm in recent years for me. It has caused me to cast a new vision for my family and even revise my estate and trust structures to accommodate this new paradigm, where the wealth I create in this generation is passed on to the next generation, not for them to spend on themselves, but as a platform in trust for them to use as a basis for adding more value to society and rebuilding the world. This is, in many ways, the Jewish model throughout the centuries. Although there have certainly been abuses and mistakes made in this model, it has resulted in an inordinate influence on societies. Today, the Jewish people are relatively few in number (there are less than 15 million Jews in the world). Yet in relation to their numbers, they have a huge business and financial influence. Though more persecuted than almost any group in the world, Jews control more wealth per person than any other group. Arguably, they have more influence per person on society than any other group in the world. There are undoubtedly multiple causes for this inordinate influence. However, one significant cause is clearly their deeply embedded belief that money is a medal of honor for doing business that blesses society. Today, the Catholics are huge in number with more than 1.2 billion in the world. There are many highly successful and influential Catholic leaders around the globe. Some are my dearest and most respected friends. Yet in relation to their numbers overall, this people group doesn’t have nearly the economic strength or influence the Jewish people group has on society. In fact, many of the poorest countries in the world are primarily dominated by the Catholic Church. There are undoubtedly multiple causes for this. However, one significant cause is the historic religious belief that money and materialism are evil and that commerce is a necessary evil to make a living and create donations to the church. This also illustrates that churches existing on donations cannot exercise the same influence that businesses can. The Catholic Church primarily created wealth through donations, not by providing a product or service for a profit. On the other hand, the Jews primarily created wealth by providing a product or service for profit. Thus, their influence is both wide and deep, especially in proportion to their numbers. A company is in some ways like an extension of the family concept, where people work together to create value that has a positive influence on society. Those companies and families who understand how money and business can redeem culture are world changers and history makers. An Ancient Teaching on Influence Jesus was one of those history-making leaders who really got this. A couple thousand years ago when Jesus was teaching how God’s ideal society would develop in cities, he told a story that illustrates how business leaders who are able to turn one gold coin into ten gold coins are the ones who would end up having influence over ten cities. Society is built by business leaders who multiply their money and increase their net worth by providing a product or service or creating value so that it multiplies. This is what Jesus taught about how God's ideal society (what he called God's kingdom) is designed to grow. Yet it is interesting that the Catholic Church, which is supposed to be one of the primary vehicles for bringing God's kingdom to earth, ended up following a system that was not at all based on the system Jesus taught was to be used for building God's ideal society on this earth. Instead, the Catholic Church fostered what is, in reality, more like a socialistic system that takes from the producers to give to the non-producers. And for the most part, the institutional church around the world continues to perpetuate this basic paradigm of taking from the producers to give to non-producers more than it perpetuates the paradigm of people producing tangible value to build a better society. Don't get me wrong. I do believe there is great value in producers giving to help people who can't produce. I do believe there is great value in generously giving to the church or charity you believe can use those resources to do really good and important work that wouldn't otherwise get done in this world. For the last forty some years, my wife and I have regularly donated a pretty good percentage of our income to churches and charities like this. And I think many of our donations do make a positive impact on the world. I am simply making a statement about the systems that I believe will ultimately have the greatest impact on transforming our world. I would put transformational commerce at the top of the list. God's ideal society is not built best on a paradigm that takes from the one who produces and gives to the one who doesn't. I believe “the church” as Jesus envisioned it, as you will see in subsequent chapters, was actually designed to be people providing value to society through the marketplace. One Last Lesson on Leadership Influence This notion first started to dawn on me one day when I was reading the apostle Paul's last speech to the leaders he had been mentoring for years. Paul is known as the leader who did more to build the early church than perhaps any other person after Jesus. He developed leaders (none of whom were paid professional religious leaders) to oversee the church in various cities. He was about to make a long trip to Jerusalem, where he knew he would very likely be killed for going against the religious norms of that time. Just before he left, he gathered these church leaders, what we would call “pastors” today, and gave his farewell speech. With tears, Paul gave these pastors his final leadership advice for building the church. He didn't tell them to preach better sermons, build better buildings, start more programs to feed the poor or raise more money to fund the ministry. What he said was that he had not coveted silver or gold or clothing.[ii] In fact, he said he had always produced the money for these himself: “You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions.”[iii] Paul had worked for his own money, and he had been able to help others with that money too. He suggested that they do the same: “In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”[iv] In his last speech to the pastors he is mentoring in the early church, Paul is essentially saying, “I want you to be like me. I want you to produce so much profit from the work you do in business that you have plenty of money to give to those in need.” Now that's a switch. He's not telling pastors that the secret to success is to get their congregations to give more. He was telling pastors to make more so they could give more to their congregations! I want you to make enough money so you can give! Make profit so you can give to those who have a need in your congregation! I don't know about you, but I have never heard a sermon on how pastors are supposed to do so well in business that they can give to people in the congregation. That, though, is the essence of Paul's last speech. Clearly, Paul did not see money or business as the root of all evil but instead as the basis for blessing society. When this dawned on me, it became clear that business and the church are supposed to have a more significant influence in building a good society than what most of us understand today. So I’m going to challenge you to really evaluate your underlying subconscious beliefs and paradigms about money. Do you view it as an evil thing or something to avoid being around too much or to avoid having too much because it might somehow tarnish you? Or do you...
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16. How Personality Clashes Can Build Relationships | Round Table
09/10/2018
16. How Personality Clashes Can Build Relationships | Round Table
Turning personality conflicts into complements that create healthy relationships and positive outcomes is a powerful process that is within the reach of every person in every family and team. It starts with this basic belief system. The people who are in our family are there for a purpose. They are there to complete or balance us in some way. The people we work with in business are there to make your work and life more effective. Because of this, it is worth investing time to understand the unique strengths and contributions each person in our family and each person in our business team can best make to create great relationships and outcomes. Three Keys to Better Relationships in Family and in Business Understand your own unique behavioral strengths. This is the key to personal growth and finding roles where you will be most effective. Recognize and respect the behavioral strengths of others. This is the key to effective interdependence in families and in teams. Learn to blend the differences between people in your family and on your work teams in a way that best utilizes the unique strengths of each person in each situation or project. This will result in greater harmony, productivity and effectiveness. Core and Adapted Personality Styles We all have a core behavioral style that comes most naturally to us and that we revert back to especially when under pressure or stress. This core personality style does not change much from late teen years throughout life unless you experience a life-changing personal event like the death of a spouse or child. We also have the amazing ability to adapt our behavioral style based on what we believe it takes to be successful in our current family or team dynamics. These adaptations are generally a very healthy part of good human relationships. Be aware however, that significant adaptations in your overall behavioral style, over long periods of time, can cause personal stress and lack of effectiveness because you aren’t operating in your natural sweat spot. Communication Adaptations Another key to success in family and business relationships is for individuals to learn to adapt their natural communication style with others so it is most effective for others. Without great intentionality, we tend to communicate with others based on the way we like to be communicated with. However, servant leaders are always looking for ways to serve the people they do life with more effectively and will therefore seek to adapt their communication style to the style of the person they are communicating with. This means that we must understand our own strengths and weaknesses and understand and value the strengths and weaknesses of others. Ideally, this is a two-way street where both parties are seeking to understand and adapt to what the other person needs. So consider what you might need to do to express to your family or team members how you want to be communicated with based on your personality strengths. At the same time, take responsibility to proactively find out how others prefer to be communicated with and then communicate with them in this way. If you do this, your relationships and your effectiveness will increase over time. The Law of Differences to Build or Destroy Relationships This law is as predictable as the law of gravity. When I experience someone who has different strengths (or something that based on my strength, appears to be a weakness), I have a choice to make. I can choose to judge that person and see that difference as a weakness. This will lead to isolation (physical and/or emotional) which eventually leads to death in the relationship. You may physically spend less time together, choose not to go over and talk to them at events, no longer comment on Facebook posts where you once did, stop responding the same way to texts, etc. Judging a difference as a weakness leads to some type of isolation and eventual death in the relationship. But we have another choice we can make when we see or experience a difference in personality styles. We can choose to value that difference as a strength that I can learn from or that can benefit the situation or relationship. This draws people to us which leads to unity which leads to life in the relationship. The key to the unlock successful outcomes from the law of differences is understanding. It requires understanding your strengths and their strengths and the way these can be beneficially blended. Think about where you are judging the different personality strengths or weaknesses of your family members or co-workers in a way that is causing you to view them as “weaker” in some way. My bet is that this is leading to some type of isolation or diminishing of what the relationship has been or could be. There have been times where I have needed to apologize and say, “I am sorry the judgments I was making about you that was isolating you.” Where are you viewing the differences in others a weaker, lesser, undesirable and it is not leading to greater unity and life in the relationship? Through understanding and humility, you can move from death to life in relationships. The foundation of this process is an individual commitment to stop judging differences and start valuing individual differences. We want each person to be valued and be fully empowered to play to the strengths they bring to the table. We don’t want anyone to feel like they need to change their personality in order to belong to this family or this team. And when conflict occurs we will learn to value each other’s opinions and approaches, which will bring us closer and allow us to see things we wouldn’t ordinarily be able to see. Learning to recognize, value and blend personality difference is another key system for success in family and business. EPISODE RESOURCES: Purchase the assessment. Enter Promo Code: "Advantage" for a discount price of $19.95. Purchase the assessment for $49.99. Purchase the for $64.50. Take the free based on the Myers Briggs process. THANK YOU! Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page. We'd also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram
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15. The One Force that Influences Everything
08/29/2018
15. The One Force that Influences Everything
What if you could have the one ring that rules them all? What if you could leverage the one force that influences everything in this world? Those of us who are leaders in the business world, have an incredible opportunity to make the world a better place…much more so than we typically think about or believe. Virtually everything we can see that is man-made was made by someone who had a vision to start a business, and that business provided income so that people would have jobs, and those jobs created incredible blessing. When you make money you serve everybody, you bless everybody. Everything that is not in its natural state is there because somebody had a vision they turned into something that would bless somebody, something that would give value to someone. There's nothing like the impact of a business that provides jobs. All the employees then contribute to society. Those jobs create incredible blessing to society. Even a plumber with two can change the world! The process of making money is a way to make the world better. It’s a powerful process to serve and bless people. As the late, great Steven Jobs said: “Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you; and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.” What Transforms Societies? Some may argue that business isn't the only thing that influences the world. They're right! It's not. As I see it, there are seven primary forces that shape society in any city, nation, and country. They are: Family, Religion, Media, Arts and Entertainment, Education, Government, and Business. Of these seven forces, there is one that has the most pervasive effect on shaping or driving the other six. You guessed it. That one force that influences all the others is business. Business is the primary driver or influencer of all the other six. Government Government certainly has a significant impact on society. But where does government get tax money so it can operate? From the income created by business. People who make money in a business pay taxes that support the government. Arts and Entertainment There is no question that arts and entertainment shape cultural norms. What drives the growth of arts and entertainment in society? Who have been the primary patrons of the arts? Who is on the board of directors of the arts councils, the cultural centers or museums? Is it a homeless, jobless guy? Generally, it is the wealthy, who have become so through business. It is mostly business leaders who are the influencers of the makers of art. Robust businesses drive the arts and entertainment, which are influencers of society. If there was never any money exchanged or given to the artist or the one who created, what would happen to art and entertainment? If art has changed society or culture over time, it's because somebody was offering it as a business. If someone sets up an art studio or a theater, they do marketing, sell tickets, provide customer service, and maybe have employees, etc. Of course, there's a lot of good art that never results in money or has anything to do with money. But generally, art that transforms culture has a business element attached to it. Sitting in your room and painting or making music just for your own pleasure is good, but it is not going to transform culture. That work has to be marketed, as a business. Family I firmly believe that healthy families are the foundation of any healthy society. Yet the family requires money to function, and that money is generated by some type of business. Even if your family has inherited wealth, someone at some point made that money through business. The Bible indicates that if you don't work and provide for your family you are “worse than an infidel.” Unless you are stealing to provide for your family, you will probably be providing for them as a result of some type of commerce. What has given me the opportunity to focus on raising our family and for my wife to homeschool our kids has been businesses that produced income that allowed my wife to be home to give the best efforts of some of the best years of her life training our children. Religion Religion has certainly had a significant influence on shaping society throughout the ages. Every dollar that every church has ever used to do the good work it does, though, was created by a business. You can't give offerings if you don't have money to give. Where does that money come from? Business! Who is on the boards of churches? Who is on the financial committee? Who are the volunteers? None of these important roles are employees of the church. They are all employed by some business. Every volunteer in the church, by definition, is not paid by the church. It is those volunteers who do most of the important work that is done for communities by any church. Media Media doesn't just report on what's happening in the world; it influences what people know and believe about the world. How does business influence media? Every media company is ultimately a business. Furthermore, many types of media are strongly influenced by the businesses that become their customers. When a company says, “Our business will not pay for this million dollar advertisement on your media because we don't agree with your agenda”, they have real influential power over that media. Business influences media by voting for or against any media outlet with their dollars. Education Education shapes the future of society in many ways, and educational institutions are ultimately run as businesses if they are going to survive. Who is on the boards of universities? Where did money come from to build and run those educational institutions? Even educational systems that are completely free to the student ultimately receive some type of funding (with money created by business) and/or have leaders who volunteer their time on boards who make money to support their lives and their ability to give to causes through business. I'm not saying that business is the entirety of what shapes this world. All seven of these forces shape the world along with some less dominate factors that I have not mentioned. And certainly, there are other integrated or overlapping influences between these seven forces. For example, one could argue that government or religion could influence all the other forces. But you can see that business has an inordinate influence! Business and business leaders don't control the other forces that shape society. They simply have a significant impact, both through the influence of being an economic driver as well as through the systems and processes of business within each of those other six areas. If you took business out of a community, the other six forces would suffer greatly and eventually disappear. Of course, government could try to control all the other six forces. It might have the power to take control of resources and even to eliminate businesses. The Soviet Union tried that and demonstrated that this doesn't create sustainable success in society. Of these seven forces that shape society, business has proven over many generations and in many cultures to have the most profound and consistent impact on all the others. One has to at least ask the question: “Since all the primary forces that shape society are all influenced by and fueled by business, what is the best way to influence the world? What is the highest potential platform to transform society?” My bet is on business! And if you are a business leader, my bet is that you have more power to change the world than you might think. There is probably something each one of us can do to better leverage our business as a platform to improve society in some way. I’d like to challenge you to think of at least one way that you could more effectively use what you do in business to make your part of the world a better place. EPISODE RESOURCES: Discover your love language by taking this free . Order . THANK YOU! Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page. We'd also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram
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14. Building a Passionate, Fulfilling Marriage
08/14/2018
14. Building a Passionate, Fulfilling Marriage
Finding and keeping a passionate, lasting and fulfilling marriage relationship does not have to be an elusive dream. It can be your reality if you are willing to make finding and unconditionally loving your spouse the number one most important project. Listen as our daughter, Chelann, interviews Shelley and I about our marriage. She asks us key questions her generation of entrepreneurs wants to know about how to find and keep a passionate and fulfilling marriage relationship. We hope these unvarnished stories and learnings from the failures and successes in our marriage will benefit young and old alike. Some of the questions we answer in this episode: How do you know you’ve found “the one”? What are the core characteristics/traits to look for when choosing your spouse? Why do confident men sometimes become cocky when they’re around a confident woman? How can women start empowering men to be MEN instead de’MAN’ing them? What do we wish we would have known in year 1 of our marriage? We held nothing back in this conversation. Whether you’re single, dating or married, this episode will empower and inspire you. EPISODE RESOURCES: Discover your love language by taking this free . Order . THANK YOU! Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page. We'd also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram
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13. Business Leaders that Transform Society
07/31/2018
13. Business Leaders that Transform Society
Business leaders build a better world on three levels. The first level is simply building a good business that provides value to people. Second, they go beyond basic business expectations to do things in and through their business that provide extra benefit for people and communities. On the third level, business leaders intentionally use their businesses as a platform to make a transformational impact on society, to literally rebuild the world. If you are in business, you are already on Level 1. You are already building a better world just by doing good business! Level 1: Building Your Business At the most basic level, when you build a business you play a vital role in meeting people’s needs and thereby building a better world. If you do nothing but build a business that meets needs well and makes a profit doing so, you not only provide a product or service that society needs, you create the resources that put food on tables, roofs over heads, and kids in school. Even better, if you create a healthy culture in and around your business based on enduring values, you can create a little slice of a healthier society. What I have learned is that ministry happens in the margins. Going the extra mile only works if you’ve got gas in your tank at the end of the last mile. If you don't have a business that allows you some margin in your finances, time, and emotional capital, it's hard to use your business to do effective ministry that goes beyond the goodness of simply doing business well. So what’s the pathway to create more margin to be able to do more ministry for the world through business? I have found that the pathway is through implementing the right processes. The secret is in the systems that cause success. Implementing the right systems in your business is one of the most valuable means to be more effective at Level 1 and ultimately to allow you to enjoy more time and energy to function at Levels 2 and 3. To do more on Level 2, you must learn to build a business that accomplishes the mission of your business through implementing effective business operating systems in nine critical areas. If you’re interested in learning more about these nine categories of business operating systems you can check out the additional information in the Appendix at the end of this book. As you continue to implement processes that produce better outcomes and create greater margins of time and money, it will help launch your business into more Level 2 activity and impact. Level 2: Building Beyond Business Once you have a business that is generating some consistent value for others and creating some consistent profit, you have the greater ability to move to the next level where you are building beyond business. At this level you are going the extra mile to intentionally create value for others beyond the fundamental value of doing good business. Even if your business isn’t focused on changing the world, when your business goes the extra mile to create out of the ordinary value for employees, customers or their community, you are applying best practices that some of the greatest companies in this world follow. Such Level 2 initiatives are a good warm up for playing in the “big league” of Level 3 where you intentionally use your business as a platform to shape society and rebuild our world. Level 3: Rebuilding the World After you have basic success in building your business and some wins at building beyond business, at some point you begin to embrace the paradigm that your business is actually a powerful platform (some might even say an elaborate front) to transform society. You begin to see that the real power of business is more than creating valuable products, services, and environments. It's even more than going the extra mile to benefit humanity. It is actually a powerful tool to transform the world. For those who are followers of Jesus, their business can become a powerful platform to perpetuate the values of Jesus on this earth. For those who are church-going Christians, their business could even become an extension of the ministry of their church to intentionally infuse God's good purposes into the world. Regardless of your religious affiliation or lack thereof, your business can be a powerful platform to make what's wrong in the world, right! Your business is your pathway to transform your part of the world! EPISODE RESOURCES: In this episode I refer to the nine categories of business operating systems that every successful business needs to have in place. Following is some overview information and a few key questions about those nine business operating systems: Overview of the Nine Categories of Systems for Success in Business Building a business that gives you the margin needed to build beyond business and do more to rebuild the world requires the disciplined planning and implementation of nine foundational categories of business systems. Each of these business operating systems are powerful tools that will help you organize key areas of your business for maximum effectiveness. Together they work to make your entire business run like a perfectly constructed machine giving you the consistent results and margin you need to change the world through your business! I’ll give a brief overview of these nine systems, and also give a little insight into why each one is important to the success of your business. Like the designer of anything great, you cannot build a successful business that gives you the results you want and the margin you need to rebuild the world without first creating a blueprint; a vision of what you want your business to be. That’s why the first and most important system you use is the strategic planning system. Strategic Planning Systems Do you have a clear vision for your company and a step-by-step plan to achieve it? Success doesn’t just happen; you have to plan for it. In fact, the biggest mistake business owners make is failing to come up with a blueprint for their success. When you get caught in a cycle of firefighting, it is difficult to do anything but react to the crisis of the moment. Strategic planning is the way to get proactive about your business. It starts with a clear understanding or your personal mission, vision, and values so that you can intentionally build a business that is an outgrowth of who you are called to be. Then you will develop a crystal clear mission, vision, and the core values that set the direction and DNA for everything you do in your business. Based on this, you will develop specific strategies, objectives, goals, and action plans where you decide in advance exactly what needs to be done, and how you’ll do it. Your direction, strategies and goals will be in writing so it can be clearly communicated and consistently executed. You and your employees will know the specific tasks needed to accomplish each goal. With each positive change you make, your business will become what you designed it to be. But your designing work doesn’t end with the creation of an overall strategy for your future success; you also need to design each of the individual systems that have to work together to achieve your strategic plan. Here’s one powerful tool you can use to identify which systems you need to implement or improve in your business. It’s called the Performance Gap Analysis. In strategic planning, the performance gap is the difference between where your business is today, and where you want it to be in the future. Once you define what lies between you and your goals, you’ll be able to come up with a strategy to bridge the gap between the two. When you analyze where your business is today in terms of its strengths and weaknesses, you’ll be able to create a specific plan to leverage your strengths, and overcome your weaknesses and take your business where you want it to be. Marketing Strategy Systems Every business needs customers, but where do you find them and how do you get their attention? The purpose of your marketing strategy system is to create and communicate your unique competitive advantage that will attract the most probable and profitable customers to your business. Do you have a written marketing plan that clearly identifies your product, pricing, distribution and promotional strategies, and how they will be implemented? When you understand the characteristics of your target market, the trends in your industry, the strategies of your competition, and your products’ unique benefits, you’re able to make sure you spend your marketing dollars where they will produce the best results. Your marketing strategy takes into consideration everything you do in your business that impacts your customer, like your products’ features and benefits, hours of operation, customer service policies, and credit terms. But it goes deeper than that. Did you know something as simple as changing the color of the clothes you wear can increase or decrease your sales? So can the image your correspondence or invoices present, and the expression on your face or the tone of your voice. You can lose a customer just as easily over a little thing as you can over a big one. Your strategic marketing system will give you the confidence to launch a successful marketing program based on research and planning rather than on a gut feeling. It’s a powerful tool you can use to take the guesswork out of all of your marketing systems. Workflow and Organization Systems More effective marketing systems will attract more customers, but more customers can lead to more chaos. That is, unless you have work flow and organization systems to keep the inner workings of your business running smoothly. Do you have systems in place that ensure time is spent on the most important priorities for your business, and nothing is falling through the cracks? Workflow and organization systems specifically address the issues of time and your efficiency. Where is your time going now? And how can you create more time to do what is most important? For example, when you use a delegation system, you create time for yourself by assigning responsibilities in a way that ensures the task will be done properly, and on time. A project control system helps you save time by giving you instant information about every activity and deadline in your business. That’s so you don’t have to chase people down to see what is getting done. If you have inventory, an Inventory Control System ensures you have the right amount of the right products in stock. It also makes certain your cash isn’t tied up in a lot of slow-moving products. With business operating systems in place, you don’t have to spend time rethinking or explaining each and every task over and over again, hoping it gets done correctly. Organization systems create procedures for everything your business does on a repetitive basis, like opening and closing your business each day, maintaining equipment, handling customer complaints, or any other area of your business where you want consistent, predictable results. There is no such thing as “good enough” when it comes to building a successful business. Your operating systems can’t remain static. Your business environment is constantly changing. What works today may not be sufficient tomorrow. So you need a way to continually improve all of your business operating systems; a system to improve your systems! Here’s how: First, you have to decide which system to improve. Next, identify the specific goals and purpose of that particular system. Third, evaluate your current situation, and do a Performance Gap Analysis to identify your desired outcome. Next, brainstorm new ideas to bridge the gap, to improve the existing system. Then evaluate your ideas and select the one that seems most likely to succeed. That last step is where many business owners go wrong. They may have plenty of new ideas to work with, but most business owners don’t have a system to help them choose and implement the right ideas. Your strategic plan and market strategy help you identify the right ideas. Then you can use a different system to test, measure, and implement each one. This is called your “TMI Formula”. The first portion of the TMI formula is to test your new Ideas. For example, you may want to test a new print add by placing it in a small local paper before committing it to something more elaborate. New ideas can be expensive, especially if they don’t accomplish what you hoped they would. The second portion of the TMI Formula is what really separates the designer from the specialist. The designer doesn’t just try something new; the designer measures the actual results of the change to determine its success. So a designer who creates an online ad campaign will also set up a tracking system to monitor the new business that ad brings in. To measure the new business, you need to know where all of the new business comes from. Did the customer read the new ad? Or did they walk into your business off the street? Or did a friend recommend they come in? One simple way to gather information is to ask, “How did you hear about us?” whenever a person walks into your business or calls. With a good system for measuring results, a designer can tell how many responses the ad generated, how many sales resulted, and how profitable the sales were. Then you can determine with absolute accuracy whether or not the idea was a success. That brings us to the third step of the TMI Formula: Implementation. This is more than saying “Let’s do it”. Implementations is taking what works and turning it into a system. It’s taking the results of testing and measuring your ideas, and using that information to create procedures that will produce the same positive results over and over again. For instance, if you discover greeting a customer with a question like “Have you ever been in our store before?” leads to a higher percentage of sales than greeting them with “May I help you?” you’ll want to implement that greeting into your sales process. The procedure that gets the best results is then documented in writing; every employee is trained to follow it properly, and each person is accountable for using the system you’ve developed for a particular situation. The final result of the TMI Formula isn’t simply the creation of positive changes; it’s the systematic use of the changes to achieve consistent, predictably good results in your business. Personnel Management Systems Your employees are crucial to the success of your business, whether you already have people working for you, or you’re thinking of bringing someone on. Personnel management systems will help you get the most productivity and profit from your employees and create a highly empowering work environment that fully engages the best of each person. This helps you manage the entire personnel process, and it goes far beyond hiring and firing. You know you need to hire someone when an employee quits. But your personnel management systems will also help you forecast your future work force needs and develop a step-by-step process to attract the right people for the right jobs. Your orientation systems will prepare your new employees to become a dedicated part of your business and share your vision of what your company is all about. With effective personnel management systems in place, even disciplinary problems can be dealt with in a way that will reduce stress and miscommunication. How would you feel if everyone in your company loved what they did and consistently went above and beyond the basics of their jobs? When you take the time to develop your personnel management systems, you will reap the benefits of having employees, while you minimize the headaches. The right people, with the right qualifications bring valuable experience, needed skills, and renewed enthusiasm to the business. You will be creating a positive work environment where productivity is higher, communication and cooperation is better, and potential problems like low morale are likely to be avoided. The effect will be felt by everyone; you, your employees, and even your customers. Promotions and Advertising Systems Good advertising is as much as result of good planning as creative talent; whether you are selling a product or a service. Your advertising and promotion systems will help you get the most out of your advertising dollars, no matter what your budget is. Do your advertising and promotional efforts generate the response you would like? While the marketing strategy systems help you to position your product in your market, promotions is the job of presenting your product in a way that makes the consumer want to buy it. Advertising, personal selling, public relations, and online marketing are all considered promotional activities because their ultimate objective is to make sales. Advertising is one of the best ways to promote what you are selling. But unless you know what you are doing, it can be risky for a small business owner with a limited budget. The promotional and advertising systems you implement will help you understand the ad buying and pay per click process, so you can create advertising that gets noticed by the right people. Even if you have someone else create your advertising, it’s important you understand the elements of an effective ad, to give the direction needed to ensure success. Whether creating an ad for a print publication or for online presentation, your promotional systems will help you create an effective message that will reach the right people at the right time, and generate the sales you want. Business Communication Systems As a business owner, you probably spend most of your day writing, speaking or listening to someone. Business communication systems help you master the skills you need to document your other systems, and clearly communicate your ideas to form better relationships with everyone you come in contact with. If a breakdown in communication has ever caused problems with your employees, or your customers, you know resolving these problems will cost you valuable time; sometimes money. Business communication systems will help you get your message across in any situation: one on one, in a group or when you need to resolve conflicts or negotiate agreements. Most importantly, you will hone your listening ability and use it as a tool for better understanding. Without good communication skills, your strategic plan will never get off the ground. Your promotional strategies won’t reach their full potential, and you certainly won’t be able to lead and motivate your employees, or build strong relationships with your customers. Since so much is riding on how you communicate, it is important you develop the systems to help you do it well. Personal Selling Systems While your marketing and promotion systems will attract prospects to your business, you still need effective personal selling systems to turn those prospects into costumers and achieve consistent sales results. Do your sales people have a systematic way to discover what the customer needs and wants? Do your sales depend on the talent of a particular person? Or do you have a sales system that enables all your people to produce consistent results? You can reach a certain level of growth while your sales are still dependent on you or another sales person. But unless you have the right systems in place, you’ll eventually hit a ceiling, where your sales will eventually drop off. Maybe you suffer from the “Peak and Valley” system. You can go out and sell as much as you can; then your business comes to a grinding halt while you switch hats and deal with the orders you just got. You may be waiting for a superstar sales person to show up and solve your problems, but there is no guarantee they will be able to work their magic in your particular business, and...
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12. Keys to Healthy Accountability
07/10/2018
12. Keys to Healthy Accountability
Keys to Healthy Accountability Is it possible to hold people accountable in a way that is healthy for relationships? Why has accountability received such a bad rap? Why is it such an unpopular subject? Many people have had bad experiences with unhealthy accountability that feels more like control, judgement, manipulation and even punishment. It is not your job to punish a spouse, friend or employee for not doing what they are supposed to do. It is not your job to force him or her to stop or change the unhealthy behavior. Accountability is not about trying to make someone else be or do what you want. You are not responsible for your partner’s actions or decisions. If you have permission or request from your spouse to point out when they get off track from something they want to do, your job is just to point it out, not to control or cajole them. What he or she does with that information is out of your hands. Healthy accountability starts with a servant heart. It starts with, how am I here to serve you? It is not at all about I am here to make you shape you or break you. More effective words for accountability might be how can I help “support”, “encourage”, or “assist” you in accomplishing what you want? The foundation for beneficial accountability is a strong relationship characterized by unconditional love and complete transparency. Healthy accountability thrives in a safe environment where there is unconditional love and transparency. Healthy accountability requires fostering honest, open communication. People need to know that sharing the good, the bad and the ugly will all be received with the same love, acceptance and even forgiveness when needed. Healthy accountability thrives in an environment where people know that nothing they do or don’t do will make you love them any more or less. Honest mistakes do not make me look down on your or punish you, whether in family or in business and regardless of the size or consequences. Radically close relationships require radical transparency. And transparency is a pre-requisite to healthy accountability. For example, in our family we give each other full access to each other’s life including passwords for everything. Hiding things or lying is a cardinal offense because it destroys transparency and trust and diminishes the ability to have healthy accountability in that relationship. Whenever accountability moves towards control it becomes cancerous to the relationship. Accountability can easily turn to judgement and control easily whenever the actions desired become more important than the relationship. Accountability requires relationship and permission. You only know how and when to hold someone accountable best when you have a close relationship with someone. In reality we can't truly hold someone accountable, as if we had complete control over someone else's behavior. We can't force someone else to be accountable. We can actually only hold ourselves accountable. Self accountability is taking extreme ownership for our own actions. What we can do is hold ourselves accountable for supporting someone else in their efforts to hold themselves accountable. The specifics of how accountability is done will look different in each relationship. However, there are three steps that seem to be fairly common in any healthy accountability relationships. Simple Three Step System for Healthy Accountability Understand what the other person wants and determine best way to help them. Seek first to understand their desires. Ask questions like, “What do you really want in this area of your life (or business) to look like? What would you need to do to make that happen?” That means the other person has to have a desire to be do or have something different. You can't make that up for them or make them want something that you think is better for them. Sometimes you can serve them well by helping them figure out what they want. This is more often the case in the work environment. Agree on clear expectations and get their permission to help. What are you telling me that you’d like to do differently? Are you serious about doing that? When do you want to start taking action on that? Would you like me to help, encourage or support you in doing this? How would you like me to support or encourage you in doing what you’re saying you want to do? Follow up. Care enough to pay attention to what is happening in their life. Do what they’ve asked you to do or given you permission to do in supporting them. Make the call. Schedule the meeting. Send the reminder. Ask the question. Etc. Celebrate the wins and have the difficult conversations when needed. Look for any possible opportunity to encourage, celebrate and cheer them on for any progress they have made toward their desires. And be willing to have the tough conversations in love when needed. Always remember, the relationship is more important than the results. Cautions about Accountability Accountability does not mean punishing them for not coming through, by yelling, the silent treatment, ignoring them, complaining... taking something away. Those things create no value in the relationship or in their life. For example, if we ask someone to do something or show up in a certain way and they don’t, what can we do? It helps to first gain some clarity. If someone does not follow through on something they agreed to, then we need to discuss it with them. We need to listen to what they want to tell us (not what we want to hear, but what they want to say), and then we need to accept it. At that point, we need to honestly state our truth without beating them up. Focus on exactly how you feel now and/or the impact on you or your family or team now, not the other times they let you down by doing something that you or they wanted. When you ask yourself how you feel or what the impact is on you, it takes great self-awareness to separate the current situation and impacts from past situations and impacts. Some people have a deep-seated feeling of low self-esteem or disappointment with your own life and those people sometimes try to hold others accountable because of that perspective of neediness in their own life. They need to show us we’re worthy and when they don’t come through, for many of us it is additional indictment to our level of self-worth. They have once again proven how unlovable we are reinforcing our failures. That is obviously never a position from which you can create healthy accountability in relationships. Ask yourself some questions to clarify what is happening inside of you. Is this a significant incident in the overall treatment we receive in the relationship — is it the standard operating system of this person not respect me? Or is this an isolated incident? Or does this incident really have nothing to do with their respect for or honor of me? Is this about them meeting my needs in an appropriate way? Am I doing everything I can be doing to meet my own needs? How do I treat myself? Am I respecting my own boundaries? Am I saying what I mean and backing it with action? If I’m remiss in how I treat myself, it is more likely that others will mistreat me. We must practice self-care, love and respect. In self-care, we shift the control of ourselves from waiting or wanting someone else to fulfill us, to making sure we are honoring ourselves. We must begin with self-acceptance, which includes where we may judge ourselves harshly too. Often, those who have a huge inner-critic also are tend to judge others harshly. Self-care doesn’t mean we do everything on our own. It just means that we’re willing to do what we need to make sure we’re taken care of and that includes having boundaries for how we want to be treated. It always comes back to us when we’re talking about accountability. If we’re serious about a relationship, we need to be clear on those boundaries and what it means to uphold them. And if we’re not treated appropriately by others and we’re treating ourselves with respect and love, then it is probably time to re-evaluate our expectations of that relationship. Settling when we really love ourselves is not an option. It’s when we don’t really love ourselves that we want to hold everything outside of us accountable for that lack. Speak up with love, look within our thoughts and feelings to get clear follow through with action to back up our words, thoughts and feelings. If you’ve done this and you’re sure that the tough conversation you want to have is not driven by some of your own insecurities or internal deficiencies, then have the courage to have the difficult conversation. Having Crucial Conversations We recommend that you read the book, Crucial Conversation for more specific training on how to have healthy, tough conversations. Defining moments in life come from having crucial conversations (as these create significant shifts in attitude and behavior). This book focuses on techniques on how to hold such conversations in a positive space when surrounded by highly charged emotions. Their findings are based on 25 years of research with 20,000 people. Their model has essentially 7 steps: 1) Start with the heart (i.e empathy and positive intent) 2) Stay in dialogue 3) Make it safe 4) Don’t get hooked by emotion (or hook them) 5) Agree on a mutual purpose 6) Separate facts from story 7) Agree on a clear action plan Our success in life is dictated by the quality of relationships we can engender. Some people seem better at negotiating better quality outcomes (for all) than others do – they work with people rather than through people. They are able to hold deeper, more honest conversations that create a new level of bonding and are able to transform people, situations and relationships. By being prepared to hold these conversations (often early) they ensure clarity over responsibility, define expectations and hence maintain high levels of performance. When we let these conversations go by, we let standards slip and unwittingly give permission for unwanted behavior to continue. Crucial conversations lie all around us – all the time: from performance appraisals at work, up to discussing problems over sexual intimacy in marriage. The skills we need in the boardroom are the same skills we need in the bedroom. Instead of having these crucial conversations, people tend to fall into one of three behavior camps: Those who get emotionally drawn in and resort to threats/name calling; Those who silently fume; and those who speak openly, honestly and effectively. Upon analysis they found those in the third camp were more likely to stay together. Communities that embraced the issues and discussed things in open honest dialogue were ‘healthier’ than those who either tried to control or ignored them. Crucial conversations, by their very definition are important and can affect a person’s life. There are three factors that tend to define a crucial conversation: 1) Opinions differ 2) The stakes are high and 3) Emotions are high. If handled properly they create breakthroughs. If handled badly they can lead to breakdowns. Whole relationships can hang on how these are dealt with. And the reality is many people do not deal with them well – or at all. They live in either a sub-optimal state or hope the situation will resolve itself. EPISODE RESOURCES: and sign up for several free resources including a simple questionnaire to help better understand our own style when under stress. THANK YOU! Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page. We'd also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram
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11. How to Build a Better World | Reveal
06/26/2018
11. How to Build a Better World | Reveal
What if what you are doing in business right now is actually the most powerful platform you could possibly have to make this world a better place? Think about that! In what other world could you find a better opportunity to impact every element of society? Let me explain. I’ve spent the past thirty years straddling two very different worlds: the world of building businesses and the world of building churches. I have been involved in starting businesses that serve many people well. I have been involved in starting churches that serve many people well. My prevailing paradigm over the years was that the world of building a business to create happy customers and the world of building a church to create happy followers of Jesus were very separate and distinct. Of course, I tried to take my faith into the work world, and I tried to take some basic business savvy into the church world. In reality, though, it seemed quite normal for church and business to be very different spheres. As I entered the second half of my life and started focusing more on meaning, I began to experience an internal conflict. When I was in the business world, I felt that I should be focusing more on the church world to do things that “really counted” for my life mission and legacy. When I was in the church world, though, I had a similar gnawing angst–that I needed to do something in the business world that could effectively change society in ways the church world was not. A few years ago, I felt convicted to write a book on this subject. It was not because I had any ambition to be a published author. It simply felt like I needed the discipline of slowing down to ponder what, if any, connection there was supposed to be between these two worlds that could potentially make me and others more effective at building a better world. I needed to figure out at a deeper level what is the ideal system for building better world. You’ve Got to Wonder “Why”? On my journey to understand what, if any, intersection there was supposed to be between the business and church and non profit worlds, and what would be the ideal system to build a better society, I started by questioning a lot of my paradigms and assumptions. Why is it that it seems more noble or spiritual to build a church than it does to build a business? Why is it that more parents (especially religious parents) aren't telling their kids that the one of the best things they can do to build a better world is to build a highly effective business? Why is it that the pursuit of profit is seen by many religious people as somehow being an “unholy” or second class pursuit compared to being a missionary or working in the ministry of a church? Why is it that business leaders don't often add to their scoreboard of success the value they create for society just by doing business well and providing quality products, services, jobs and thereby helping to build healthy communities? Why is it that churches don't celebrate the transformative effect that the business leaders in their church have on their city through the meaningful value they provide to society through their product, service, and/or culture? Why is it that when pastors are celebrating the food, clothing, shelter or education their church provides to needy people in the community through charity, they don't at the same time celebrate the business leaders who also provide food, clothing, shelter and education to thousands of people in their community through the income they provide employees, taxes paid and the goods and services they produce? Why is it that being Christian has often come to mean being religious people who isolate themselves from the evil influence of the world rather than being world-changing culture creators, as was the founder of Christianity? Why is it that the church is not more effective at accomplishing its original mandate of actually transforming cities and nations? Why is it that the church has become more known for what happens in the programs it holds on the weekend than for the influence it has on society throughout the week? Why is it so rare for the effects of the church to show up in improving economies and providing for people’s tangible needs? Why is it that churches, businesses, and governments have not been able to agree on an ideal system for improving society so they could cooperate more effectively to build a better world? Why doesn't everyone understand the role businesses have in building a better world and why isn't there a defined model for doing this? Why is it that faith has been either largely ignored by successful business leaders or relegated to a religious notion that is perceived to have little bearing on success? What Are We Missing? As I though about these questions, I really started to wonder: what am I missing here? Could it be that the way I was defining the role and system of church in this world might fall short of the originally intended paradigm? Could it be that the way I was defining the role and system of business in this world might fall short of the ideal value proposition? What do you do with the fact that the leaders Jesus chose to start the original church were not religious people but where actually successful business people and strong leaders in the secular community? The four books of the Bible that Christians call “the Gospels” (Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John) were all written by marketplace leaders, not religious leaders. Matthew had a tax collection business. Mark was the manager of a family business/trust. Luke had a medical practice, and John owned a commercial fishing company. The key women, highlighted in the Bible as influential in the early church, were business leaders. Dorcas was a clothes designer. One of the most famous women in the early church, Priscilla, was a partner in a commercial tentmaking business. Another influential woman in the early church, Lydia, owned a textile brokerage company. Men and women who built the early church were actually building businesses. The founder of the Christian faith was actually a successful business leader in his community. Jesus wasn’t viewed as anything close to a religious leader for at least thirty of his thirty-three years on this earth. He was known as a regional business leader. He was known as a businessman who ran a profitable business by serving people well as he ran his family construction business. Jesus didn’t go to religious seminaries, temples or synagogues to find the key leaders whom he intentionally chose to launch a world-changing movement. None of the twelve core leaders that Jesus chose were religious leaders, priests or rabbis. Not one of them. They were all leaders in the marketplace. As I began to ponder these basic facts of history, I had to wonder why for much of my life as a business leader, I’d had this nagging feeling that when I was doing business I was not really doing all I could be doing for God–that if I was really devoted to God and His church, I would just be a pastor or a missionary and forget all this business stuff. If I was really spiritual, I would just build the church and not worry so much about building businesses. At the same time I had to wonder why for much of my life as a church leader, I had this nagging feeling that when I was doing church stuff, I was not really having the depth of impact on building a better society and transforming the world for God that I could be having–that if I was sold out to seeing the church be as strategic and as well led as a highly successful business, that somehow it would transform cities and nations like it was supposed to. I have believed this som much that I even started a non-profit that trains and coaches pastors on how to lead churches more strategically and for 20 years now we’ve been coaching pastors to lead churches more effectively and have seen many churches become more effective at accomplishing their mission and vision. The Consistent Key to Success in Building Society More and more these days as I do business around the world, I see that building successful businesses is the most consistent system for building successful societies across all nations. Our family was recently in Ireland. In the period of one day, we toured ruins of a village from 1000 B.C. and a market from 1000 A.D. Then we walked through a modern, vibrant shopping area. Toward the end of the day I asked Sky, “From what you've seen today, what are the top two or three most common elements that build society in all cultures, in all times, in all places?” This led to a very interesting discussion. You want to know what our conclusion was? We concluded that all societies, at all times, are built on two fundamental things: family and business. And that’s one of the reason why when we started this podcast a couple months later, we decided to focus this podcast primarily on systems for success in family and in business. I believe that when done well, family and business are the two most fundamental pillars of healthy societies. We have a lot of content in these podcasts on systems for success in families and we have some on systems for success in business. Many of the systems for success apply to both realms. Societies throughout all times and in all places have been built on families. As far back as we can go in history we know that people have lived in families. There is no time in history where this was not the case. There has been no society that has succeeded very long by trying to destroy the system of family . . . There have been and continue to be plenty of proposals at changing the family system. And despite many actual experiments over the centuries, actual results have proven that human societies work best when there are healthy family units. Yet families have always been economic units too. Throughout history, they engaged in doing business. What they could not hunt or farm for themselves, they traded for by offering something of value to others. They formed cottage industries and engaged in money-making activities. As I do business in many of countries these days, it has become glaringly clear to me that building better businesses is a vital key to building a better world. The heart of building our world is constructing businesses that make families, communities, societies, and nations flourish. Yet much of society believes that the church or non-profits are the key to building a better world. There is this huge perceived chasm between building businesses and building churches. For some reason, most people don’t see any correlation between pursuing commerce and pursuing cultural change through non-profit ministries. There is this giant perceived gap between going after commerce and going after God. I am now starting to see that this perceived gap continually perpetuates a cultural paradigm that hold the church back from having ask much tangible power as it could have to make the world a better place. It also blinds business leaders into missing the real value in they bring to building a better world and accomplishing God's purposes on this earth. So, as I’ve been journaling my journey on this subject in recent years I started to crystallize new paradigms and processes that are giving me fresh insight and inspiration regarding how my life as a business leader impacts building a better world. God Loves Business! Another one of my initial core conclusions is that God actually loves business and God really loves business leaders! God doesn't hate money, and He doesn't hate people who make a ton of it by serving their fellow man well. In fact, I'm not sure there is anything that makes God smile more than seeing business leaders create so much value and serve people so well that those people are willing to give up this thing called money in exchange. At the risk of this statement being a bit of a spoiler, I will say that I am increasingly convinced that God might have even chosen business as His preferred method to manifest His presence and perpetuate His values in this world. What if what you are doing in business right now is actually the most powerful platform you could possibly have to make this world a better place? What if what you are doing right now as a business leader is really God's ideal strategy for doing His best work to transform society on this earth to be more like His original intention? I have spent my life being very involved in many wonderful churches and other non-profits which are valiantly attempting to meet the desperate needs of society. Churches are full of wonderful people, including wonderful business leaders, who believe that the people and programs of the church are the best way to solve the massive societal problems facing our world. Many churches certainly play a valuable role in attempting to address these problems. Churches mobilize tremendous talent and pour out significant resources to address these needs. Churches have invested two thousand years of hard efforts trying to meet these needs through what we have considered the directly sponsored ministries of the church. The results are mixed, though. In fact, the brutal reality is that churches are not making the progress that they want nor the progress the world needs in overcoming these global challenges of society.. Dare I say that the church is not winning the war on poverty, illiteracy, hunger, etc.? For sure, the church can show that it is making some progress. The church can show many benefits it is providing that help meet the social needs of the world. But its contributions are small in comparison with the scope of what really needs to happen in this world. The reality is that there are very few churches or non-profits that make a truly significant dent in these global problems. Why is that? There are many reasons. Let me just address a couple of systemic reasons which cause obvious limitations: money and manpower. Most churches and non-profit agencies believe they could do more if they had more resources. If they just had more people and time committed to the cause, if they just had more money to pour into the mission, they believe they could make a bigger dent in the problems. This is no doubt true. But the practical reality is that most churches and non-profits operate on a small percentage of the income of their constituencies. Because of this there will never be enough resources to meet a large percentage of the world's needs. Even if everyone donated 10% of their income, there would never be enough money to meet 100% of the world’s needs. There will simply never be enough donor money to deal with the realities of the societal challenges of the world on a large scale. So, one of the practical challenges the church has is a basic resource problem. There’s an old gospel song that says, God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Well If God owns the cattle on a thousand hills, then where are the cattle when it comes to meeting all the needs of the world? They don't all seem to be in the church. Where are the resources to meet the practical and tangible needs of our world? Only Business Can Create Resources Resources are created in business! In fact, all money is actually created by business. Business creates resources when it meets a need at a profit. Business receives revenue when it serves the needs of people in a way that makes them happy. Business earns profit when what it costs the business to serve the needs of others is less than the dollars that are received from the customer. That profit is what pays the business owner for the skill, risk, and time he or she invested to serve that need. That revenue produces incomes for employees and results in taxes that fund the building of society and in also results in personal charitable donations that fund the building of the direct ministries of the church and other non-profits. Some Christians and certain other religious groups actually see profit as evil, as if business only makes a profit by taking advantage of or doing harm to people. Yet they profit system is pretty simple. Profit is simply the difference between the price that is paid for a product or service and the cost to produce that product or service. It is profit that empowers the business to create more value to benefit the world. It is profit that allows a business to invest in meeting whatever need the business finds, and profit that allows it to meet that need in ever-increasing magnitude. It is profit that allows the business to increase the scope of the value it provides to more and more people. For example, if you can make a profit by serving ten people, then you have a pathway to make a profit by serving one hundred people, and then a thousand, and then a million. It becomes a self-perpetuating, ever-increasing vehicle to meet more needs in society. Not everyone sees or uses their business as a platform to make the world a better place. But my increasing conviction is that is not only the highest and best use of business, it is the use the system God designed to make the world rebuild the world with sustainable values, norms and outcomes. Historically, many pastors believe that the primary value business or business leaders bring to the church is that they will give more donations to the church if they make more money. But after two thousand years, that paradigm has not yet successfully fully resourced the direct ministries of the church or the direct outreach and social service programs of other non-profits. It has not yet enabled non-profit institutions to meet the ever-increasing societal needs of the world. Of course, business should continue providing resources to the valuable programs of churches and other non-profits. And business leaders like me should continue donating to those good causes. However, what I am proposing here is that business not only has the power to create resources for the mission of the church, it also has the power to build great value in the world just by doing business well. My closing challenge for you today is to first change your paradigm about the power you have in business to make this world a better place. And second, think of one or two things you might do differently if you really believed that what you do in business could have an impact way beyond just the doing of business. What could you do that would make life better for your coworkers, your customers, your clients, your suppliers or the people in your community that your business effects? What could you do that would in some way influence better values, better relationships, more joy, more fulfillment in the people whose lives that you touch in business every day? Go beyond just doing business. The time you spend in the business world is your system to build a better world. EPISODE RESOURCES: There are no additional resources on this subject right now. But watch for the book coming out soon! THANK YOU! Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page. We'd also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram
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10. How to Control Money so it Doesn't Control You | Round Table Discussion
06/12/2018
10. How to Control Money so it Doesn't Control You | Round Table Discussion
Money is not important enough to let it control our life! So why not learn how to control our money so we gain more control of our life? But money is like water. It's a valuable resource necessary for life that can easily slip through our fingers. The key is to not let it slip through our fingers without our permission. In this round table discussion, we share some of the things we have done to build money management paradigms and processes into the fabric of our individual and family finances. We reference The Gienger Good Stewardship plan that we developed to help debt proof our family and give our kids a solid financial foundation for their adult lives. Several times in this episode, we reference the following introduction to the plan which we used when we first presented these concepts in our family: The Gienger Good Steward Plan Gienger Family Mission Statement: To courageously lead generations of people to become devoted friends and sold out followers of Christ. Gienger Family Vision Statement: To be intimate Friends of God and effective Kingdom Builders. Gienger Good Steward Plan Purposes: To develop our kids into effective manager’s of God’s resources which He provides them so they can be generous on every occasion in ways that result in thankfulness to God. To teach our kids to be channels of God’s material blessings to the world so that people will be lead to become devoted friends and sold out followers of Christ. To help our kids learn to give, save and spend money wisely and avoid consumer debt in order to give them a solid financial future. To gradually turn over to our kids the money required for their care and support as members of our family. To trust them to be good stewards of a portion of the Gienger family resources. To provide a foundation of personal financial management training that will serve them well the rest of their lives. Plan Guidelines Salary and Other Income While on the plan, kids will receive a monthly “salary” that will become theirs to manage. The amount of salary will be determined by the parents. Salaries will be subject to annual review by parents, or more often as deemed necessary. Salary will be reviewed and may be increased on the first day of each new school year at parent’s discretion according to the kid’s real needs and demonstrated ability to be an effective and wise financial manager. Note that additional money may be earned to supplement the base salary from income producing jobs…inside the home for specific pre-agreed extra tasks for extra money beyond normal “privileges” for being a part of this family. Giving and Saving Requirements Kids must give away at least 10 percent of the total salary and other income to things that directly build God’s Kingdom. They must save or invest at least 10 percent of total salary and other income in a real bank or other parent-approved investment vehicle. The balance of the monthly salary will be used according to the kid’s plan and in keeping with our family’s values. Note that kids can give additional money and/or save up more in short term savings for future larger purchases from additional earnings or under spending. Financial Responsibility List Kids will have a list of items and activities the parents will no longer pay for while the kid is receiving a monthly salary. The list is subject to review and revision at any time by the parents. Additional items will be added to the list on the first day of each new school year related to the increase in salary. Home Privilege Responsibility List Kids will continue to have a list of tasks they will be responsible to do as a privilege because they are part of the community of this family. Citations with fines may be required if these tasks aren’t done in the time or manner agreed. Spending Plan and Record Kids are asked to develop a plan for how much money they intend to spend in each category and keep a record of actual expenses by category. The next month salary will only be given after the record of all spending from the prior month is shown to parents. Once It’s Gone, It’s Gone Kids will not borrow money from anyone including parents, not even for five minutes. There will be no “advances” on ahead of pay day. It they run out of money before the next payday, that’s their choice, but there will be no more income until the next pay day. Hands-Off Parents will not criticize or interfere with the kid’s management decisions as long as the child follows these guidelines and demonstrates their ability to live and manage their salary according to the family’s values. Graduation Date Kids will graduate from the Gienger Good Steward Plan within two months after they are no longer full time students or when they move away from home, at which time their salary will cease. EPISODE RESOURCES: If you'd like to use the cash envelop spending system that we reference, it is helpful to have an envelop for each budget category. That envelop gets funded at the beginning of each month with the monthly amount of cash budgeted for that category. All cash spent for items in that budget category comes out of that envelop and you write a something on the front that describes what it was spent for. We just used standard legal size envelops, ran them through the desktop printer and then punched holes in them so they could be held vertically in a regular three ring binder. If you want to create your own cash spending envelops, here's a link to our word document which you can customize and print. At the end of each month you total up what you spent in each category as recorded on each envelop as you spent the money throughout the month. Then you write the total amount of spending for each category on a summary spreadsheet that shows your budgeted amount for each category and the actual amount that you actually spent that month in each category. At the beginning of each school year, we created a new list of expense items and monthly budget for those items that each child was responsible to pay for with their "salary" money. And we also listed which expenses that mom and dad would continue to pay for. Here's a link to the spreadsheet we used which you could customize for yourself. THANK YOU! Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page. We'd also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram
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9. Pathways to Multi-Generational Legacy | Presentation
05/23/2018
9. Pathways to Multi-Generational Legacy | Presentation
What would it be worth to you and your family if you had a process that you knew could help you leave a harmonious world changing legacy for many generations? Your family legacy includes all that your family holds dear and wants to preserve in future generations. In this episode, you’ll hear the content from a presentation that I have been doing recently at conferences for wealthy families. I share a strategy and case study illustrations from my own family as I’ve spend the last 16 years trying to figure out how to create my own multi-generational legacy. Sixteen years ago I met a man named Greg Gunn who asked me a question that rocked my world. He said, “Lonnie, why do you invest so much time developing and implementing clear mission, vision, values and strategy for your business but you don’t take the same intentional approach to leading your family?” I honestly had never thought about it that way. I didn’t even know where to begin leading my family that strategically. So what I am sharing with you in this episode is based on many years of coaching and trial and error practice in our own family. A I believe this is a strategy that can help anyone develop multi-generational harmony and world changing legacy. Great legacies are no accident. Mere hope is not a likely pathway to a legacy you’ll be proud of. A great legacy requires a clear strategy and action. This process for creating family legacy results in a more harmonious family with greater sense of shared identity and purpose. Here’s an overview of the two-stage process for creating multi-generational family legacy. The first stage is defining your family compass that will provide consistent direction to your family now and in future generations. Your family compass has three components: Family values Family mission Family vision. The next stage is planning your strategy for implementation of your family compass using specific Relational pathways Structural pathways I’ll be providing you with the principles that drive each of these components, a process you can use to do this in your family and some practical case study illustrations from our family. Check out the link in these show notes Resources for the PowerPoint presentation that has all the questions and processes you need to work through in order to begin to implement this in your family. I’d recommend that listen through the podcast once to get a good overview. Then, if you want to actually do something to impact your legacy, listen again following along in the PowerPoint presentation and pausing the podcast and answer the questions on your own or with family members. Yes, if you want this to actually make any difference in your life, you’ll need to actually take action on it. :) RESOURCES: Download the PowerPoint presentation used during my recent presentation on this topic at the IMN Family Office Conference, check out THANK YOU! Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page. We'd also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram
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8. How to Develop Great Relationships | Round Table Discussion
05/07/2018
8. How to Develop Great Relationships | Round Table Discussion
Relationships are the carrier of all success in life and in business. So why not plan and implement specific systems that will develop the relationships that are important to you? Why not be as intentional about the practices that develop healthy relationship as we are about the practices that develop healthy bodies or healthy businesses? Why do we focus on relational systems? Because relationships are the primary mechanism to carry your family and business legacy to multiple generations. Children don't rebel against authority, they rebel against lack of relationship. How is that teenagers will do everything their favorite coach or favorite teacher tells them to do? But they don’t listen to their parents? Why is that? Because that relationship is important to them. How is that teenagers will live under authority of their friends or the gang and yet they will live in rebellion to their parents. Because the teens don't rebel against authority they rebel against lack of relationship. Those relationships with their coach or teacher or friends are often stronger and more important to them. Where family identity and relationship is strong, peer pressure is weaker. So how do we make sure we are continuing to build relationships within our family so we aren't driving them outside the family to get their identity and vision for life? We have found that you do that by implementing a consistent strategy of specific relationship systems. Following are some of the relational systems our family has practiced over the last 25 years which we mention in this round-table discussion: Family goal setting retreats Family compass review vacations Family council meetings Family nights One-on-one dates Family connection time Monthly “Shield Meeting” with Spouse to review relationship values and standards (Kylon & Te) Intentionally working together The “Listening Game” (An intentional process to listen well) Intentional variety to keep relationships vibrant ANNUAL GOAL SETTING RETREATS We do this all together as a family at the Beginning of each new Take 4 hours of solitude and silence where each family member journals on their successes in the last year and writes down goals for the new year After everyone takes time alone to work on their individual goals, Then everyone comes together to share so we celebrate each other’s successes and plan to support each other’s goals If you’d like more information on this check out the Systems for Success Podcast Episode 2 where we do a round table discussion right after doing our annual goal setting retreat. FAMILY COMPASS REVIEW VACATIONS We do a fun annual vacation that the whole family enjoys in the middle of the year every summer. Our family loves backpacking in the mountains so that’s usually what we do. During these annual vacations we Plan intentional time and specific activities to review our family mission, vision and values We Celebrate successes that we see individually and as a family in living out our mission, vision and values. We take time to discuss how to better live it out And most importantly, we make creative memories related to our family vision, mission and values. We’ve done plays and skits about our family mission vision or values. We’ve built things that represent our mission or vision. We’ve made up songs and chants about them. One time we wrote our visions statement with 15-20 foot tall letters on beach that you could see for miles away. FAMILY COUNCIL MEETINGS This is the official guidance group of the family especially as our kids have all become adults and most are out of the home. Comprised of family members who are actively engaged in guiding family activities in a way that is informed by and responsive to the family compass and goals. Meets every two to three months in a formal meeting with clear agenda, leadership and minutes. First generation families can start with this as its only regular family assembly. As the family grows larger and to multiple generations, the family council may be an elected subset of the entire family assembly that includes all family members. In this case, compose the family council so that it looks like the family, with representation from all generations, both genders, in-laws, active and passive owners, etc. In larger, multigenerational families, the family council is a representative group of the entire family for more efficient planning, creating policies, and strengthening business-family communication and bonds. Following are some good questions to ask during Family Council Meetings: What is something you are really proud of that our family or a business or individual in our family has accomplished since our last meeting? What have we done as a family or individually since our last meeting that demonstrates the living out of our family values, mission or vision? What could we do to continue to improve our relationships or communication? Does anyone have a problem they’d like help solving? What can we do? How can we help? How are everyone’s business and entrepreneurial pursuits going? How can we help, support, collaborate or synergize with each other more? Do you have personal needs or challenges that any of us can support you with or at least pray for you about? What do we have planned between now and our next meeting that might benefit from coordination or communication about family schedules or resources? Following are the responsibilities of our Family Council: Celebrate family and individual successes. Steward of family mission, vision values and constitution. Oversee family Investment Committee and monitor performance of family investments. Managing and drafting legal documents concerning the family estate planning. Managing the family’s philanthropic efforts. Overseeing family property and asset management. Resolving family conflicts if haven’t been resolved informally. Managing the strategic and tactical goals of the family enterprise. Organizing activities that strengthen family bonds. Formulating policies for family members working in family businesses. Define the responsibilities of a family office. Forum where family members can share personal objectives, concerns and ideas with reference to matters affecting family values, family unity and business success. Strategic planning for family businesses, family non-profits/foundations and the family council. Formulating policies including inclusion or exclusion of spouses in council or other family entities. FAMILY NIGHTS It’s best if this is the same night every week and we all make it a high priority so nothing else gets in the way of this important night. The primary purpose is to build relationship Do something fun and interactive that builds relationship. Don’t just watch movies or play video games And sometimes take some time to share stories and/or discuss questions or concepts related to your family mission, vision or values ONE ON ONE DATES First priority is weekly date with spouse (if you’re married) And have typically done a date with each child at least once a month When you’re having this valuable one on one time, Look for opportunities to celebrate ways they are living family mission, vision or values and look for opportunities to celebrate progress on their personal goals Primary purpose of these dates is to build relationship. Have fun and make good memories. DAILY CONNECTION TIME Find a daily time to connect with your wife and kids who are living at home. It’s amazing how easy it is to get so busy that we don’t even share meals together. We’ve found it important to prioritize Finding at least 30-60 minutes a day to turn off all media and just communicate and build relationship This could be during a meal, first thing in the morning or right before bed. Take this opportunity to ask some meaningful questions like: What did you learn today? What was the high and low experience of your day? What are you looking forward to tomorrow? You’ll be amazed at what these simple relational systems do to build strong relationships in your family! RESOURCES: For more information on the concepts behind "The Listening Game" referenced in this podcast, check out . THANK YOU! Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page. We'd also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram
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7. How to Accomplish Big Goals | Round Table Discussion
04/23/2018
7. How to Accomplish Big Goals | Round Table Discussion
Our latest learnings about how to accomplish big dreams and goals by setting a plan of action, and following it. In this family round table discussion, you’ll learn what we’ve discovered about how reaching goals takes a systematic approach to planning & action. QUESTIONS DISCUSSED --Think of some big dream or goal you’ve had that felt so massive that you didn’t know if it was possible, but you ended up finding a way to accomplish it? What was the dream or goal? Why did it seem overwhelming when you first set your sights on it? What did you end up doing to break it down into actionable steps and discipline yourself to make progress? What did you learn from that process? --What do you think keeps people from setting or effectively pursuing big, important goals? --What has helped you personally move past your hesitations to accomplish big goals? --What is the most effective system you’ve currently found to break down your big dreams or goals into action plans that help insure regular progress? What are some real-time learnings or best practices about how you are doing this now? A SIMPLE GOAL SETTING SYSTEM Chelann referenced the goal setting system that she uses that is described in her book. Following is an excerpt from Dear Millennial, If you want to order the entire book, you can find it on Amazon or Audible. GOALS TURN YOUR MISSION AND VALUES INTO REALITY The point of an audacious goal is to reach for something that appears to be bigger than life, and most definitely bigger than what seems realistic. That’s why it’s a goal—it seems just out of reach, and that is the exciting part. The challenge is that we get excited in the moment, and once that excitement wears off, we tend to become daunted by the dream. This leads to feeling like it’s too big to accomplish. That’s why action steps to your goals are going to be your best friend. They take a giant objective and break it down into small and realistic action steps. When we are goal setting we constantly apply the saying, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” Although, on a side note, I’m not sure who ever wanted to eat an elephant in the first place. But it works for the analogy. As I mentioned above, too many people stop at creating their mission and values. They may read over them a couple times here and there, but because they aren’t taking action on them, they get discouraged and stop all together. A car without wheels is of no use to anyone. Your mission and values are your car (the foundation and engine to your dream) and your goals are your wheels. Goal setting is your map to success. And with a plan, your dream will seem more than realistic to accomplish. You’ll feel fully equipped to chase it instead of stressed about the unknown. WHAT MY GOALS HAVE DONE FOR ME If a 15 year-old can create a compass for herself without having any idea of what she’s doing, you can, too, no matter what your age. I’m going to help you break your dream down into actionable steps with your mission and values as a foundation. When it comes to my compass, I break life down into spheres. A sphere is each major component of your life. You can create your spheres in whatever fashion you would like. I have a sphere for myself spiritually, mentally and emotionally, financially, physically, and for me as a business woman, which contains sub-spheres each of my business endeavors below it. Underneath each sphere is a description of my overall object for that sphere that year. This helps me categorize different areas and roles in a more organized fashion. Here’s an example of what one of your spheres could look like. This is a sub-sphere underneath the overarching sphere of business; it’s essentially what I used to break down the giant objective of writing this book plus or minus a few details. Sphere: My first book Overall objective of that sphere: I will have my first book published the week of September 26, 2017. Through the book, resources, and processes that come from it, I am establishing authority as a young entrepreneur and inspiring and empowering the younger generation to live in extreme freedom and complete life balance through the platform of being an entrepreneur and Christ follower. Yearly Goals: - Book published by September 26, 2017. - Have 5 cold lead documents for exercises throughout book - Over 10,000 copies of book sold within a year of publishing - Have book reach Amazon best seller status in two categories - Get over 100 positive reviews on Amazon within first year - To be generating $$$ a month from book sales - Grow email list to 5,000 - Have a process/program people can purchase through book (convert readers into customers) Monthly Goals: - Finish writing rough draft of book - Hire an editor - Research how to create an audio book - Research how to create pdf book - Create two of the cold lead documents Weekly Goals: - Write three chapters for rough draft - Publish an ad for editors on Upwork - Ask 3 people who’ve created an audio book how they did it - Research pros and cons of pdf book vs print - Create one cold lead document After reading through that goal sphere, do you see how all of a sudden my giant goal of writing my first book before the age of 21 not only has a step-by-step plan but also feels realistic to make happen? This is one of my favorite topics to talk about because no matter how big the goal, there is always something you can do today to get a step closer to accomplishing it! As you can see, I started with my overall objective. This is basically a phrase that summarizes your overall goal in a sentence or two. I like this sentence to be formatted in the present tense, like it’s already happening. That way, when you read it, it affirms your ability and desire to achieve it. SMART GOALS Next, make your yearly goals. Take your overall objective and break that down into bullet points of specific SMART goals that need to happen for that overall objective to be accomplished. It’s very important that these goals are SMART goals. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timed. Meaning, I’m not just going to put “sell a lot of books” as one of my goals because, when do I reach that goal? When I sell a hundred books or when I sell 10,000 books? Instead, I put a specific and realistic number of books to sell by a set time. As a result, I know without a doubt exactly when I will reach that goal and can celebrate that victory. Your yearly goals are the big overarching goals that you need to have done in order to accomplish that big main objective. Next come your monthly goals. These goals are your yearly goals broken down into what you need to accomplish month by month. I usually go through each of my yearly goals, picking them apart and placing them into my monthly goals in a way that results in them being completed within a year’s time. Now we get to the fun part—your weekly goals. Go through each of your monthly goals and break them down into your week. Break them down into specific action steps that need to be done each week. This part isn’t on my compass because that would be one long document, but the next obvious step is breaking your weekly goals into daily goals. Every evening, I sit down and look at the weekly goals I need to accomplish in each sphere. From there, I write down what I need to accomplish for the next day. One of my most effective hacks for having a productive day is planning out the day the night before! Waking up with a plan is one of the best feelings. It leaves no room for wasted time or purpose. TIME BLOCKING If you’re super list oriented like me, you’ll take those daily goals and organize them into a time-blocked timeline for that day. Time-blocking is a simple system I use each day to insure that I stay on track with what I need to accomplish for that day. I’m sure you’ve heard the concept of a task expanding to the time you allot to it. Well, I’ve tested that out multiple times and it’s true. If I allot one hour to finish a chapter in this book, it’s going to take one hour. I time-block by starting from the end of my day moving backwards. If I want to be in bed by 10:00 p.m., then I’m going to start time blocking from that point backwards. Here’s an example of what my time-block schedule could look like for any given day: 10:00 p.m.- bedtime 9:30 p.m. – get ready for bed 9:00 p.m. – time-block tomorrow 8:30 p.m. – get home from family dinner 6:00 p.m. – family dinner 5:30 p.m. – get ready for dinner 4:45 p.m. – edit and finalize one Entrepreneur Before 25 Podcast episode 3:45 p.m. – respond to all messages (emails and texts) 1:45 p.m. – edit 3 chapters of rough draft of book 12:00 p.m. – workout 6:45 a.m. – work at NUYU Juice Bar 6:15 a.m. – get ready for the day 5:00 a.m. – morning routine You get the picture. Notice how I have set and given myself a realistic amount of time for each task. I like to add this buffer to make sure I set myself up for success. I know that it might not take me an hour to respond to all my messages, but I’m going to allot myself that much time anyways just in case I’ve fallen off schedule somewhere else in the day and need some catch-up time. Now, time-blocking might not be for you, but I would encourage you to at least give it a try. Time-blocking allows me to get everything done that I need to throughout the day, and with my personality, that level of organization takes my stress levels down from where they would normally be. Through this break-down process, we took a giant objective and broke it all the way down into what you need to accomplish today in order to make your big, audacious dream a reality. How exciting is that? Don’t be overwhelmed by this process. It’s a process that can take place in many different forms. You just need to find the one that works best for you. But no matter what, goal setting usually has this same type of foundation. If you have a dream that scares you, and you feel like is bigger than life itself, you can and you will accomplish it using this process. TAKE ACTION Now it’s time for you to take action to create another system for your success. Download the systems for developing your personal mission. Then take some time answering the key questions that will help you begin to define your personal life mission. Go ahead. Take this foundational step to designing the life of your dreams...a life full of fulfillment and purpose! RESOURCES: To access the Tello app which was referenced in this podcast as a tool to help you organize your goals and tasks, go to or you can search for it on your mobile phone app store. For a template on creating the goal portion of your compass, go to this link: THANK YOU! Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page. We'd also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram
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