Posts Tagged ‘progress leadership’
MTA Motivational Speaker Article – Progress Takes Persistence (part 2)
a MTA Motivational Speaker Article
Progress Takes Persistence (part 2)
(excerpt from The Progress Challenge: Working and Winning in a World of Change by MTA Motivational Speaker Dean Lindsay. “More than a , Dean Lindsay is The DEAN of Sales and Service!” – Jeff Chernoff, President, Consumers’ Choice Award ® ) motivational speaker
Video Clips
Every moment that we focus on the strong reasons that have inspired our goals, the closer we are to taking determined action 
toward their achievement. The key is to not let reasons for pursuing other goals steal our attention, or become more compelling. We must keep our focus (and our employees’, customers’, and prospects’ focus) on the Six Ps of Progress that will be felt in accomplishing the goal.
The Progress Challenge Riddle (a classic): If there are five frogs on a log and three decide to jump off, how many frogs are still on the log? Answer: Five. Deciding is not doing.
Decided to make sales calls?
We may have decided to make a sales call, and it may even play out very nicely in our minds, but until we pick up the phone and dial, we are not making sales calls.
And we can’t let a misguided desire for perfection stop us. We don’t have to be perfect to Be Progress. We can always improve our technique, improve our plan and our actions.
Progress does not demand perfection, only persistence.
Things can and do go wrong. Missed opportunities should not be allowed to become big emotional “downers.” Self-pity is not part of a Progress Agent’s makeup. We must reframe setbacks to our advantage. Most “successful” people say they learned more from their failures than their successes because they were eager to learn what went wrong and to avoid repeating it.
Being persistent does not mean being bullheaded. If what we’re trying isn’t working, we must take a fresh approach. Consider that by eliminating another idea that didn’t work, the path to progress became clearer. When things go wrong, we can let Thomas Edison light our way. Asked if he was discouraged after thousands of attempts at creating a viable light bulb had failed, he replied: “Why would I feel like a failure? And why would I ever give up? I now know definitively over 9,000 ways that an electric light bulb will not work.” Make time on a regular basis to revise the plan. Creating a feedback loop is vital – even if we’re the only ones in the loop.
Fill days with action toward crafted goals. Start and, if we get sidetracked, we must acknowledge that the reasons for pursuing some other goal or goals have become stronger in our mind. Then is the time to ask: Why?
If the promise of our goals no longer propels us to action, we need to do a gut check.
Are they still our goals?
Are the reasons strong enough to propel us to persistent action?
“What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost, but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.” — Viktor Frankl
Each step toward a goal is progress. It is powerful for us to appreciate all that we’re doing to stay on track, and to express our gratitude to those who are helping and supporting us. Find ways to enjoy the journey. Pat yourself on the back. Reward yourself. These are our lives we are talking about here.
Go. Do. Progress takes persistence.
Be Progress.
Progress Takes Persistence is an excerpt from The Progress Challenge: Working and Winning in a World of Change by MTA Motivational Speaker Dean Lindsay. The ‘MTA’ refers to an endorsement about Dean from Consumer Choice Award … “More than a , Dean Lindsay is The DEAN of Sales and Service!” – Jeff Chernoff, President, Consumers’ Choice Award ®motivational speaker
How to Compliment Others (4.5 Ways)
How to Compliment Others (4.5 Ways)
by Dean Lindsay (Author of The Progress Challenge and Cracking the Networking CODE)
“Everybody likes a compliment.”
– Abraham Lincoln
A sincere compliment is a great way to offer the promise of prestige. Sincere compliments cost us nothing yet can become priceless for both the giver and receiver. As Mark Twain wrote, “I can live for two months on a good compliment.” Also consider that compliments can be used as conversation starters when we add progress based open-ended questions that relate to the compliment.
It takes some confidence to notice good things about others and to tell them about it. Giving people a lift has the power of raising our confidence even further because when we start noticing good things about people, we often start noticing more good things about ourselves also. But be careful, compliments that are ill-timed or thought to be insincere are likely to have the opposite effect than intended. Here are four and a half quick tips:
1. Practice sincerely complimenting others.
Start by finding something, however small, to genuinely praise others for. The more specific the better because it shows the person we truly noticed them.
2. Personalize the compliment.
Take the person’s interests into account. When communicating with someone, be on the alert for traits they value in themselves. Personalized compliments can go a long way in offering prestige but it’s best not to use them to often on the same person for they might be considered fake.
3. Share Others’ compliments.
No, I don’t mean bragging about good stuff people have said about you. I mean share the good stuff you have heard about others. A weird thing about us humans is that often when we hear bad things we are quick to tell others, but when hear anything nice about somebody else, we often keep it to ourselves. Bad form humans. When we hear something nice about someone, we need to share it with the person being complimented. They are likely to feel prestige from hearing it, and a bit of that Progress lands right on us.
4. Imply the compliment.
Often, we assume more truth from things we figure out for ourselves, than from facts handed to us. Try letting the intended recipient use their inner ‘Sherlock Holmes’ by allowing them to deduce the compliment from your comments. By indirectly complimenting we offer the promise of prestige, while avoiding sounding like a flatterer. “Wow, you finished college in three years, it took me four and a half” might carry more weight than “You’re smarter and more focused than me”. 
4 ½. Explain the compliment.
Instead of implying, try the opposite. Compliments can also become stronger when we share the why behind the compliment. “That color looks good on you because it matches your eyes.”
“If people did not compliment one another there would be little society.” — Marquis De Vauvenargues
Offer the Promise of Prestige.
Be Progress.
Progress Based Goal Crafting Rules 2 & 3
Progress-Based Goal Crafting Rules 2 & 3
2. Progress-Crafted Goals Connect to Personal Progress.
Plainly put, each person involved in a goal’s achievement must believe there is something favorable in it for him or her. We are unlikely to work toward a goal that we can not personalize as positive for us. For a goal to actually become a tool in its own achievement, it must generate genuine excitement when we envision its accomplishment. Why and how does the goal mean Progress for those who must act?
Often, individuals must make an organizational goal their own, as in a new technology rollout, reorganization, or a merger. To get all team members (including ourselves) psyched and committed to the organization’s goal, we need to dig into how the goal’s achievement will benefit all involved (via job security, bonuses, flex time, exciting new projects, raises, promotions, shorter commute, less stress, etc.).
If team members believe that the potential for progress is worth the effort, they will more readily take on challenges in support of the organization’s goals. When highlighting the reasons behind the goal, include the Six Ps of Progress.
Whether the goal is meeting sales quota, buying a new boat, becoming more efficient in customer-service calls, or finishing a financial report, we must find ways to make the goal progress for us in some way. With that personal lodestar ever in sight, we stay committed to reaching the goal. Why we want to achieve a goal is far more important than the goal itself. Remember, change is inevitable. Progress is a choice.
3. Progress-Crafted Goals Are Stated in Present Tense.
Stating goals in the present tense tells our subconscious mind that we are committed – that the goals will not remain forever stuck in a future tense – as in, I WILL be wealthy. Our mind takes ownership, sees the goal as an actuality (rather than a potentiality) – I AM wealthy – and works toward its realization.
“Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.” — Sun Tzu
The subconscious mind chooses a path of least resistance. If we write, “I will be debt-free,” the subconscious mind does not act, because the “will” postpones the goal’s achievement to some indefinite time in the future. When we craft a goal as if it were already achieved, already true, our minds want to make it happen. Examples:
Daily, I am … I weigh___ with a ___waist.
I know how to… My family and I are…
I own… I feel…
Well-crafted goals, stated in the present tense, serve as affirmations. Think of affirmations as personalized powerful ads that you tell yourself over and over again about yourself and your life. Get over any weird thoughts you might have about affirmations – we all use them. We have lived our whole lives making affirmations. Unfortunately, affirmations are often self-critical and self-limiting:
I am fat. I am a lousy speller.
I am not a good salesman. I am always tired.
I know nothing about investments. I’m destined to be poor.
Be careful about everything you say to yourself, or think to yourself, about yourself, because you’ll end up being right. As Luigi Pirandello noted some time ago, “Così è (se vi pare)” – Right you are (if you think you are).
“Your brain is a terrible thing to use against yourself.” — Dean Lindsay
Change is inevitable, Progress is a choice!
(Part Two of Three)
Insight from The Progress Challenge: Working and Winning in a World of Change by Dean Lindsay, the Find Progress in Change Speaker
Dean’s Progress Challenge is being Published 2/4/10 – Advanced Copies available here.
When a new opportunity comes our way, we internalize it, and size it up as Progress or Change. This new opportunity could be starting a new relationship, buying an electronic gadget, working extra hours on a project, getting up to speed on a new product line, working to meet quota, anything. All progress is change, but not all change is progress.
Let’s say I have an upset stomach. “Man, I’ve got a stomachache. Ouch! My stomach is killing me. This has got to change.”
Somebody hears me, walks over, and punches me in the nose. Is that change? Yeah, it’s change. But it’s not progress. Well, maybe to the person who punched me, but not to me.
What may seem like progress (good) to one person or group of people may seem like change (bad) to another. Propaganda, book burning, even war and murder are all thought of as “progress” at some point in the minds of the perpetrators (scary). Because progress is subjective, there is no single factor that clearly determines whether an event represents progress or change.
However, we can say that we:
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Start businesses to progress, not change
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Hire employees to progress, not change
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Work on teams to progress, not change
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Make the tough choices and the tough phone calls to progress, not change
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Keep our cool when dealing with belligerent customers to progress, not change
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Cross the road to progress, not change
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Answer the phone to progress, not change
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Spend our hard-earned money to progress, not change. (We would rather keep our change than change, but will offer our best to progress.)
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Diet and exercise to progress, not change
As we age we realize that slowing change can be progress. Think of the forty-year-old swimmer who manages to equal her performance from five years before. Maintenance is progress in that it avoids change for the worse.
We do not want life-changing products, services, experiences, ideas, and opportunities. We want life-progressing products, services, experiences, ideas and opportunities.We should be careful not to mistake mere change for progress. Just because something is new or flashy does not mean it is right or adds meaning to our lives. And as my friend and fellow author Shama Hyder says, we do live in a “next big thing” world. However, because all progress is change, people who claim to be 100% “resistant to (any) change” are often choosing to be resistant to the possibility of progress.
CHANGE & PROGRESS Questions to Ponder in Next Post.
Be Progress.
Three endorsements for Dean Lindsay’s The Progress Challenge: Working and Winning in a World of Change
“The Progress Challenge is a much needed kick in the pants for all of us. Dean Lindsay’s witty words and questions will wake up your sleeping intentions and challenge you to move forward with purpose in your life. What an enlightening book!”
– Ken Blanchard,
coauthor of The One Minute Manager®
and Leading at a Higher Level
“The Progress Challenge is an excellent guide to both personal and professional success. The book helps the reader understand that change is inevitable, yet progress is a choice. In Lindsay’s words…”be progress”.”
– Jim Keyes
CEO, Blockbuster
“If you desire to become a better leader, I recommend you add Dean Lindsay’s The Progress Challenge to your leadership toolkit. I especially liked the insight into the life and work of Viktor Frankl as well as Dean’s use of humor throughout the book – a valuable and enjoyable read. The Progress Challenge is an honorable challenge that anyone aiming to make a positive difference should take.”
– Ramon F. Baez
Vice President and Chief Information Officer
Kimberly-Clark Corporation
Copies of The Progress Challenge available here.
For Bulk purchase discounts call: 214-457-5656
Funny Business Leadership Speaker Video – Progress vs Change
Funny Business Leadership Speaker, Sales Training
Dean Lindsay, Author of The Progress Challenge, on Progress vs Change
Follow him at: www.Twitter.com/DeanLindsay
Endorsements for The Progress Challenge : Working and Winning in a World of Change
“Finally a meaningful book with a workable process for progress.”
– Gerhard Gschwandtner
Founder and Publisher
Selling Power Magazine
“The Progress Challenge is a much needed kick in the pants for all of us. Dean Lindsay’s witty words and questions will wake up your sleeping intentions and challenge you to move forward with purpose in your life. What an enlightening book!”
– Ken Blanchard,
coauthor of The One Minute Manager®
and Leading at a Higher Level
“The Progress Challenge is an excellent guide to both personal and professional success. The book helps the reader understand that change is inevitable, yet progress is a choice. In Lindsay’s words…”be progress”.
– Jim Keyes
CEO, Blockbuster
“If you desire to become a better leader, I recommend you add Dean Lindsay’s The Progress Challenge to your leadership toolkit. I especially liked the insight into the life and work of Viktor Frankl as well as Dean’s use of humor throughout the book – a valuable and enjoyable read. The Progress Challenge is an honorable challenge that anyone aiming to make a positive difference should take.”
– Ramon F. Baez
Vice President and Chief Information Officer
Kimberly-Clark Corporation
“The Progress Challenge is a fun to read book crammed full of thought-provoking, practical and motivating take-aways. With the 6 P’s of Progress, Dean gives us all the incredible opportunity to be purposeful in creating progress, not just change, in our lives and work.”
– Julie Weber
Senior Director, People
Southwest Airlines Co.
Be Progress.
Funny business leadership speaker video, Dean Lindsay
