Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Opportunities through Challenges!

I’ve never been one to shy away from a challenge and too often when we are faced with change in our lives we aren’t willing to go forward. We spend so much time looking back and regretting decisions made or choices we never made, we fail to embrace new opportunities or search for something better: A New Beginning. Although we often spend our time reflecting on the past, the uncertainties of the future should be our driving force. Our past successes and failures can form our outlook on life, but the adventure of growing and expanding our experiences through new opportunities, new friends or locations should drive us to succeed.

Everyday should be an opportunity to grow as individuals and our future success should continue to impact our family, friends and colleagues. How can this be accomplished? By having a positive attitude and outlook we deliver a message people will embrace and want to hear. My passion has always been embracing people and looking for the positive qualities they possess or are capable of obtaining. Sometimes a simple phrase or welcoming goes a long way. In its basic form, a word of encouragement can create relationships and bonds that last a lifetime. This can also change someone’s mind-set toward us or how they approach us. With uncertainties always around the corner, sometimes a great opportunity is disguised in a challenge, but we never see the opportunity because we’re focused on the challenge.

OE

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Leadership

Leadership is the art of motivating a group of people to act towards achieving a common goal.

"Leadership is a winning combination of personal traits and the ability to think and act as a leader, a person who directs the activities of others for the good of all. Anyone can be a leader, even if the only person they’re leading is themselves."

Susan Ward about.com Guide

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Leadership Smarts

Ken Blanchard's best-selling books have helped millions of people enhanced their leadership and management skills, as well as the quality of their personal life!

“Leadership Smarts,” provided leadership principals and powerful advice with practical every day insight in order to enhance leadership skills and increase personal integrity.

This book provides advice on:
How to aim for excellence?
How to maintain integrity?
Finding the courage to change!
How you can help others reach their full potential?
Practical every day advice!

Dr. Ken Blanchard is a best-selling author and extremely cherished business leadership consultant. Along with Spencer Johnson they wrote The One-Minute Manager, which has sold more than nine million copies worldwide! His other best-selling books are Raving Fans and Gung Ho! (both with Sheldon Bowles) His other best sellers are The One-Minute Manager Library of books. In 1979 he and his wife Dr. Marjorie Blanchard created The Ken Blanchard Companies, a group of management training and consulting businesses. He received his B.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Cornell University.

OE

Saturday, April 24, 2010

11 Keys to Define Success:

1. Confidence: an unshakable belief in oneself based on a realistic understanding of one's circumstances; a trait that most people admire in others and strive to acquire themselves.

2. Curiosity: being eager to know and learn; always showing interest and giving special attention to the less obvious; always being the person who says, "I want to know more about . . . ."

3. Decisiveness: arriving at a final conclusion or making a choice and taking action; making decisions with determination even when you don't have all the information you think you need.

4. Empathy: demonstrating caring and understanding of someone else's situation, feelings and motives; always thinking about what it's like to walk in someone else's shoes.

5. Flexibility: being capable of change; responding positively to change; being pliable, adaptable, nonrigid and able to deal with ambiguity.

6. Humor: viewing yourself and the world with enjoyment; not taking life or yourself too seriously; being amusing, amused and, at times, even comical.

7. Intelligence: thinking and working smartly and cleverly; being sharp in your dealings; "not reinventing the wheel"; planning before acting; working efficiently and focusing on quality over quantity. (Important note: This is different from IQ, the common abbreviation for intelligence quotient.)

8. Optimism: expecting the best possible outcome and dwelling on the most hopeful or positive aspects of a situation; believing that the glass is half full rather than half empty.

9. Perseverance: having passion, energy, focus and the desire to get results. Motivation, persistence and hard work are all aspects of perseverance.

10. Respect: remembering that it is just as easy to be nice; protecting another person's self-esteem; treating others in a considerate and courteous manner.

11. Self-awareness: a sophisticated form of consciousness that enables you to regulate yourself by monitoring yourself, observing yourself and changing your thought processes and behaviors.

Which of these keys are among your strengths? Which of the 11 are among your weaknesses? Self-awareness, the 11th key, is really the foundation for understanding yourself. If you are not sure how self-aware you are, ask several people whom you trust which of these 11 keys they believe are your strengths and which are not. Again, while no one person possesses all of these keys in equal amounts, each of them can be developed and improved.

Daniel Goleman "Emotional Intelligence"
Julie Jansen,"I Don't Know What I Want, But I Know It's Not This"

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Random Things About Me!

1) I love to laugh… even at the expense of others. (People are funny).
2) My family and close friends mean the world to me. They are the one’s holding the shovel… either to dig me out of a hole or to shovel the crap that sometimes surrounds me.
3) I don’t have to talk to someone daily to build relationships. If you were invited to participate in this note, you had me at HOLA!
4) If I make fun of you, that means I like you. It’s never my intention to offend anyone (oh wait, but I love to get a reaction out of people.) I love to imitate accents and dialects.
5) Traveling and meeting people are my thing. Many of my close friends were met outside of Miami. Consider yourself one of them!
6) Although I was born in Cuba, I’m a Southerner at heart. I love the South and have embraced the culture, food and people….the South shall rise again!
7) Although I’m a Southerner at heart, my Cuban culture and family in Cuba are my passion. I’ve never met a Cuban who was a stranger. We all have someone who is still on the island.
8) Music is my thing! I love any type of music. I have 3 IPods and a Zune, just because I’m a music hog! You name it, I got it!
9) My goal is to travel to 6 more states and I would have conquered all 50 of them. Which ones? Ask me!
10) My passion is educating people. It doesn’t matter the topic being discussed, you will get my opinion.
11) I don’t believe in being mediocre. We get one chance at this thing called life. I always knew I was created for greatness!
12) I don’t tolerate people who believe you have to be Hispanic, Black or White etc…. to sell, promote or deal with to build a friendship or relationship! In other words you can bring value to any group! No matter your background!
13) I’ve always wanted to learn how to play the guitar. Maybe this year I’ll start.
14) Reading is my vice! I enjoy reading and building my library. Hardbound instead of Paperback!
15) I’m a Sci-fi junkie! Watching movies or TV series can cause me to hibernate.
16) Writing is my thing! One day I’ll write books. Please visit me during my book signing tour in a city near you!
17) I’ve always been mischievous. What have I done? There are too many things to mention. I placed a tape recorder under my parent’s bed, when I was 11. (No Sex, just talking.) I forked someone’s yard! I convinced my siblings we had a sister in Cuba. I took flowers, after a funeral and used them to decorate the church. Everyone thought I bought them!
18) Most of my life changing decisions were/are made in front of the ocean!
19) I’m honored my parents would leave their homeland to afford me the opportunities and life I currently have. I am humbled by their sacrifices.
20) I don’t believe in Affirmative Action. Let’s get rid of it and employ people who are qualified to do their job! Forget the quotas!
21) My philosophy in life is “I’m not better than anyone, but there is no one better than me.” I’m not conceited. I’m just convinced.
22) I’m jealous of my dad because he has blue eyes. I tried wearing blue contacts once, but they irritated my eyes! He is sooooooo lucky.
23) Although I am a people person, sometimes I rather be alone. In other words I always need some Orlando time.
24) I don’t put limitations on others, because oftentimes they put limitations on themselves.
25) God created me an original! Why die a copy?

OE