Congrats to our CEO, Frank Taylor, for being appointed Vice Chairman, to the Digital Arts and Recording Department at Orange Technical College. Through this partnership Mr. Taylor will be able to share his expertise in leadership, education and the music industry with students so that they will be better prepared to enter the digital arts and recording industry workforce.
Orange Technical College, formerly Orlando Technical College, is part of Orange County Public Schools.
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Welcome to our first video blog entry. We will do these sporadically to change things up. In this entry we interview Masterchef Junior Semi-Finalist Zac Kara. He provides wonderful insight on his inspiration as a chef and his views of leadership and success. We hope you enjoy! One of the greatest compliments I have ever received was when a former band student told me that I inspired them to become a better musician. And because of this they were going to pursue a degree in music education in college. Hearing that student share that sentiment truly warmed my heart. It was also vindication that through hard work and effort I was getting through to my students to share with them the wonderment that is music. When I started teaching I never made it my goal to inspire students. I wanted to impart knowledge to them and help them to discover within themselves the ability to meet challenges head on and be able to solve them on their own. As part of this process I knew that I had to find a way to connect with my students so that they would feel comfortable in the classroom environment and assure them that they have a voice. The underlying tone that came from mentors and administrators was that an inspired student will learn better. So we were encouraged to inspire but again for me that was not the goal.
Inspiration is found through observation and connection. The reason the student above had given me this wonderful compliment was because he had seen the way I cared for all of my students; through good grades and bad; through family struggles they were dealing with; through the normal changes of young adulthood; and sometimes through death. No matter what I put the students first. They knew that I cared for them. And because they knew this they felt more comfortable being in my class. There are a lot of television programs of various types that put regular, non-celebrity people in the spotlight. When I watch these programs, whether it is a music competition show, or an athletically based show, I am most often disappointed when people are interviewed and they say that they want to inspire people. Again inspiration is a great compliment but the true test of the human spirit comes in the actions you take. Don't announce inspiration as your cause. Let your actions, good deeds and successes be your focus. If you do this people will take notice and those that are inspired will let you know. Being a leader you have to walk a very fine line between arrogance and humility. Actually let's switch out arrogance with extreme self confidence. People want to follow a leader who is confident and can take charge and make things happen. However make sure you stay humble because someone who is very confident can be mistaken as arrogant and this will only work against you. But when you find that right balance of confidence and humility then people will see the good in you and that is inspirational. Building Leaders for Success is dedicated to educating and providing training and skills that will benefit you, your employees and your business. Check us out on the web at www.buildingleadersforsuccess.com, on Facebook at Building Leaders for Success and on Twitter @Leading4success. Enter your email address in the box to the right to receive these blogs and other offers from Building Leaders for Success. Whether you are a self proclaimed leader, a leader by action or a leader designated by others, most people want to leave a legacy. This begs the question would you want to be considered as an idol or an icon?
An idol, according to dictionary.com is defined as any person or thing regarded with blind admiration, adoration or devotion. An idol is something singular that is admired. In olden days a great example was a statue or an item related to a deity. From a more contemporary standpoint an idol can be a person that you aspire to be like. For example I idolize the musician Chris Botti for his tremendous talent and skill. An icon as defined by dictionary.com is defined as a sign or representation that stands for its object by virtue of a resemblance or analogy to it. This has a more broader range of inclusion. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was an icon of the civil rights movement as was Rosa Parks. Steve Jobs was an icon in the electronic industry. Chris Botti and Miles Davis are icons in the area of trumpet music. These are examples of people who were recognized leaders in a broad field and not only based on events directly related to them and them alone. Let's clarify one thing, it should not be a goal to become an idol or an icon. Taking that approach, for the pure leader, is laced in narcissism. Most leaders want their actions to reflect their success and how people view them. It is this type of humility combined with resulting success that will allow them to be idolized while becoming an icon in their field. So it is possible to be both an idol and icon but it should be a result of your leadership and action and not a cause for it. If you are not idolized or referred to as an icon, it doesn't mean that you have failed. These are designations that the general public places upon people. Your job is to continue being a good leader and striving for success and sharing that with others. If you accomplish that then that will leave a more long lasting legacy than any title. Building Leaders for Success is dedicated to educating and providing training and skills that will benefit you, your employees and your business. Check us out on the web at www.buildingleadersforsuccess.com, on Facebook at Building Leaders for Success and on Twitter @Leading4success. Enter your email address in the box to the right to receive these blogs and other offers from Building Leaders for Success. Thanks for joining us for a new blog. I realize that it has been a while since I've posted and for that I apologize. The upside is that we have been very busy with seminars and training people how to become more successful leaders.
I am always entertained when we start a new calendar year. Out come the New Year's resolutions. People are going to lose weight, they are going to be happier, they are going to find love, they are going to start a blog, the dreaded picture a day and then they follow it with the phrase, "Let's do this." Resolutions, goals, achievements, whatever you want to call them are great but why wait until a new calendar year? The season of change starts with the beginning of a brand new day. So for all the people that said, "In 2016 I am going to do a,b and c," why did you wait? Why not start that day? If you have inspired thought or a change that you want to make in your life, take action immediately. The reality of life is that there may not be a tomorrow. Sorry to sound grim but the careless of others could impact you and all of the things that you wanted to start tomorrow, or next week, next month or next year, will be for nothing. With every new day find a way to be inventive and creative. It's not to say that you can't adopt someone else's resolution but it is ok to do things that will better YOU. You can't make others happy if you are not happy yourself. Seek out the things you would like to achieve, strategize your goals and start on them right now. In the spirit of the new year - Happy New Year! Have a great 2016! As your friend, don't wait for a new year to start your goals - start them NOW! Building Leaders for Success is dedicated to educating and providing training and skills that will benefit you, your employees and your business. Check us out on the web at www.buildingleadersforsuccess.com, on Facebook at Building Leaders for Success and on Twitter @Leading4success. Enter your email address in the box to the right to receive these blogs and other offers from Building Leaders for Success. At some point in your life you have probably heard and/or seen an orchestra, a band, a marching band or some type of musical ensemble perform. Maybe you didn't see the live performance but maybe on TV or heard and audio recording. Have you ever thought about the multitude of levels of leadership and success that is involved in putting a performance together?
What I am about to share with you can be applied to any other group or team effort that has one desired outcome. But for the purpose of this post we are going to focus on this musical team - an orchestra. Visualize, if you will, an upside down pyramid. The base of the pyramid will represent the goal at large and the joining of many people to achieve said goal. In this case the large, unified goal is to perform a concert at the highest musical level possible utilizing everyone in the orchestra. This can only be achieved when every person is invested and involved in the music making process. Each individual will have to contribute from their skill sets in order to make this happen. As we travel down this inverse pyramid we will see the role of responsibilities as we go from the whole group down to the individual. In order to meet the needs of the music we must have enough people on the various orchestral instruments to play the music that was intended by the composers of the music. When a composer writes music they will arrange various parts of the music to be performed by various groups of musicians or sections. An example of this would be the brass section, the woodwind section, the string section and the percussion section. Within each of those sections you have smaller sections such as the trumpet section, the violin section, etc. And within those sections you have the individual musicians. Keep that upside down pyramid in mind as we go from large group to individual. Putting together such a large group of people or even a small ensemble requires a plan and a designation of responsibilities. To help illustrate this I will reference Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The Covey references will be of the terms, "Dependent, Independent and Interdependent." Dependent - refers to the reliance on another person or people to achieve a goal ro complete a task. Independent - refers to the individual's capability of completing the task without outside help and interdependent refers to the joining of people to cooperate in completing a task. However for the purpose of this post I will use the terms, "You, Me and We" respective to the order of Covey's words. We've already stated the ultimate goal - perform music at the highest level utilizing every musician in the orchestra. In order to achieve this someone has to create the vision that will drive us to our end result. This person is the conductor, the person at the front of the orchestra, who serves as the visual representation of the music. As the conductor states the vision it shifts to the section leaders who have to help materialize the vision to the people within their section. After the section leader has achieved this then it is up to the individuals, on their parts, to prepare the technical aspects of the music in preparation of putting it together with the other individuals in their section, the other sections and consequently the entire orchestra. The success of the orchestra in achieving their ultimate goal is dependent on the success of each level mentioned above. Now let's apply, "You, Me and We" from the conductor's perspective in working to achieve this series of goals. As the conductor: - I expect each individual to prepare all technical aspects of their designated part. I expect them to have all the notes and rhythms learned and prepared. (You) - I am expected to present a clear and concise vision for my interpretation of the music. I will prepare the orchestra from a technical and musical standpoint that meets the vision of the composer of the music. I will make sure that no matter what happens, as a group, we will not fail. (Me) - With our combined preparation of the technical and musical aspects of the music we are not only doing justice in the eyes of the composer, but helping to educate the people who have come to watch us. Together as a team we will achieve greatness with our music. (We) This visualization of the, "You, Me and We" concept can be demonstrated in every aspect of the orchestra - the sections, the conductor and the individuals. In order for anyone to reach a goal, it is imperative that we are respectful of, "You, Me and We." In a team environment everyone has a role to play. Even in a situation where you might be working alone on a task or be a "one man band" this idea still needs to be applied. Everyone involved in any business transaction has a role to play in making it happen. In its purest form, the success of the orchestra is dependent on the success of the individual. If you have 100 individuals who are demonstrating success on their instrument while adhering to the vision created by the conductor then you are in fact, achieving the ultimate goal where every individual is contributing. Now the only thing left is for the conductor to shape the notes and sound from all of these successful individuals into the musical masterpiece it is meant to be. The orchestra is flooded with leadership and leadership opportunities. The obvious leader is the conductor who is guiding the whole orchestra through the musical experience. The other obvious leaders are the section leaders and their roles with preparing their sections. If you have read these blogs before you will know that a title means nothing without action. The greatest leaders that I've known have known when to lead and when to follow. Sometimes the most effective leader is the one who does what they are supposed to do and simply leads by example. This is the role that so many of the individuals within the sections play. With so many levels of leadership - from those people who have the desire to lead large groups of people to those who choose simply to lead by example, there is no bad leadership except for no leadership. Don't get me wrong, there are those who use their influence from a leadership position to guide people in the wrong direction. This is not so much a case of bad leadership but of negative goals and questionable motives and direction. For most of us our hope is that people will continue to use their leadership skills to create better situations for the people they work with. An orchestra is only as good as its leadership, which means EVERYONE is responsible! After all, we are all leaders when it comes to making music. So in this symphony of life, don't simply be the notes on the page, be the music that inspires art and life. The orchestra pictured above is the Central Florida Community Arts Symphony Orchestra from their recent performance, "Colors". Photo courtesy of Cami Grudzinsky Fine Art Photography. Building Leaders for Success is dedicated to educating and providing training and skills that will benefit you, your employees and your business. Check us out on the web at www.buildingleadersforsuccess.com, on Facebook at Building Leaders for Success and on Twitter @Leading4success. Enter your email address in the box to the right to receive these blogs and other offers from Building Leaders for Success. I was driving in my car the other day and as I observed how I drove compared to how others drove, I wondered, is there a correlation between driving a car and being driven for success? Thinking about the way I drive it does make sense. When I get in the car no matter whether I am in a rush or not, I like to get where I am going. The whole, "Let's go for a leisurely Sunday drive just doesn't work for me." I think the only time that may have been applicable was when I first got my license. Like most people I wanted to drive for the sake of driving.
As I embark on my journey to my destination I like to drive the speed limit (maybe even 5 over - occasionally). I am going to drive in the lanes that pose the path of least resistance. Why? Well it's more efficient and is going to help me arrive at my destination quicker. My dad, lovingly calls me a "lane changer" because I do not stay on one lane if it is hindering me or slowing me down. I think about the designation - "lane changer" and it really does apply to me. When I reflect back on my past and current successes I realize that I achieved those successes and goals because I had to constantly maneuver myself and change my way of thinking. Staying in one "lane" was not going to get me to my goal in the time frame that I wanted and in some cases not at all. I had to be willing to change lanes but also know when to slow down and speed up. It was not necessary for other people to know the rhyme and reason to my actions but as long as I knew what I was doing that is what mattered. In fact I have been criticized numerous times because the direction I was travelling was not the path that someone else thought I should travel. But they lacked the insight of what my goals were and where I wanted to go. When I drive I try to take the approach with my fellow drivers that they themselves are driving with purpose; that they are trying to get where they are going in an efficient manner. So besides driving my path toward my goals I am constantly tweaking and changing to help those around me. I don't know about you but this sounds like a great success plan - work toward your goals while helping others work for theirs. To quote the great Stephen Covey now we have a, "Win Win." Let's look at the flip side. How does my being a "lane changer" differ from a reckless driver? As I stated above my premise is to work for my goal while helping others work for theirs. If this means I have to stay in one lane longer than I planned or maybe drive a bit slower, then so be it (this is the WE approach). The reckless driver drives with purpose but it is theirs and theirs alone. They are going to get where they are going at whatever costs necessary and as quickly as possible. It is all about them (This is the ME approach). So I present to you some comparisons of driving and being driven to success. This is conjecture and may not apply to everyone. See if any of these apply to you:
Maybe you know some of these people, maybe you don't; maybe you are one or more of these people. My hope for you is this - whichever way you are driving to success, do it smartly, safely and think about others as you do so. Hopefully they are thinking about you as well. Building Leaders for Success is dedicated to educating and providing training and skills that will benefit you, your employees and your business. Check us out on the web at www.buildingleadersforsuccess.com, on Facebook at Building Leaders for Success and on Twitter @Leading4success. Enter your email address in the box to the right to receive these blogs and other offers from Building Leaders for Success. Any good business person knows that one of the keys to a successful business is good customer service. Providing customers with a positive business experience is key to repeat business and customer satisfaction. In the process of providing good customer service, developing a relationship with your customers gives them a sense of comfort and creates a safe environment. As a customer would you want to revisit a business if when you entered you get a bad vibe or you don't feel like you are wanted? Absolutely not! The reasons why you DO revisit a business is because the products or services offered meet your standards and needs, the atmosphere is inviting and you've had or you continue to have an experience that pleases you.
So if providing good customer service is for the purpose of selling products and services and retaining customers, what is reverse customer service? Is "Reverse Customer Service" a real thing? Granted this is a phrase that I coined but hopefully you will understand this concept by the time you finish reading this post. To preface this please know that my businesses but more importantly my employees and my customers are extremely important to me. In order for me to provide jobs and thus take care of my employees I have to have customers; in order to continue to evolve my businesses I need customers; in order to keep customers I need to provide experiences and services that keep them happy and wanting to continue to utilize our services. In order to accomplish this I am constantly working to develop relationships with everyone that I meet. Essentially reverse customer service is being a good patron to other businesses. Many of the businesses that I patronize on a regular basis happens because I have created relationships with the people that work there. My personality lends me to feel generally comfortable talking to people that I don't know. So when I am at a checkout counter I will joke or participate in playful banter. If I have the opportunity to learn something about the person working that can further the conversation or be used on the next visit, then I have taken a step to developing a relationship with that person. "OK, so you are a friendly person and you talk to the people at the businesses you frequent. How does this help your business grow?" Great question. You see as the continual relationship grows the people you are conversing with will naturally start to take an interest in what you do. Maybe they will see a logo on your shirt for your company or maybe you are buying the same items on a repeated basis but to someone who is paying attention and is pursuing good customer service, they are going to ask questions. The more this relationship grows you may find that these people are starting to refer people to your business or maybe they themselves are wanting to utilize your services. Now you have created a partnership with someone who is essentially working to help your business while you are helping them by being a repeat customer. Your good patronage and relationship skills are leading to good business decisions that can benefit everyone thus you have demonstrated, "Reverse Customer Service." Building Leaders for Success is dedicated to educating and providing training and skills that will benefit you, your employees and your business. Check us out on the web at www.buildingleadersforsuccess.com, on Facebook at Building Leaders for Success and on Twitter @Leading4success. Enter your email address in the box to the right to receive these blogs and other offers from Building Leaders for Success. I have had the pleasure of seeing and hearing a lot of speakers talk about success and one thing many of them have said was, "Dream big" or have "Big goals" and even make "grandiose movements." Maybe this is a the work of Freud seeping into the minds of even our most greatest success educators. Why does there have to be a size to the dream or the goal? Does having a "big" dream mean you are going to have a great reward when you achieve it?
Dreams.. the ideas that we see in our minds, sometimes while we sleep and sometimes during the day. These ideas can represent reflections of actions or scenarios that we have encountered, fantasies to allow us a mental break from the stresses of the world, the impact of the divine or cosmic forces on us or maybe - dreams are the key to finding out what we want to achieve with our lives. How many times have you dreamt of having a certain car, a promotion in your job, becoming an entrepreneur, starting a business, taking a trip to a certain destination? What exactly constitutes a "big" dream? By putting this size label we are theoretically saying that certain goals or achievements are considered to be more important, thus "Big" while others are not as important so they could be considered, "small." Instead of equating size with a dream, why not equate it to the end result of what someone wants to accomplish. As we are all different in our personalities, hopes and dreams, we should focus on the actual act of having dreams. In order to be successful we have to have an idea, a goal, a dream, something that is driving us. Using the size theory, what might be a "Big"dream to one person may be a "Small" dream to someone else. The way to achieve that dream is by following the various steps and actions needed to make that dream a reality. Depending on your work ethic, you will determine how quickly you can achieve the goals needed to make your dream come true. Although despite my best efforts I have not quite figured out how to fly like Superman but I dream about it. There needs to be a realism to your dreams. As much as I would like to fly like Superman, until modern science finds a way to make that happen, I may have to wait. Now if I was a scientist or had a deep scientific background, then maybe I would be the one to find a way to make it happen. However since I don't have that background I will focus on the dreams that I know I can make a reality, like continuing to build my businesses to successes even in the faces of the many obstacles that I run into, educating people on how to pursue their dreams and pursuing my music career. Maybe the idea of dreaming "Big" is for you. That's fine. My advice to you - Just Dream. Explore your dreams and find what you want to achieve in life and make it happen. Let your dreams be your guide for finding success. Do this and I think you will be pleasantly surprised with the results AND you will be happy with what you have accomplished. Building Leaders for Success is dedicated to educating people on success and leadership. Enter your email address in the box at the bottom right and receive our blogs instantly when they are published. Check out our services at www.buildingleadersforsuccess.com and like us on Facebook at Building Leaders for Success. Achieving success in a business is like wielding a machine with many moving parts. In order for one part of the machine to work, another part must work and in order for that part to work, another, etc. Of course any machine requires fuel to get it moving. As the entrepreneur/owner/manager/CEO, you have to be that driving force, that fuel that makes the machine work.
When I think about dreams and dream jobs and what we have to do to make those dreams reality, I am reminded that it takes extreme amounts of teamwork. The various teams that make up a business are equivalent to the gears or the parts to the business machine. Each team has to be functioning properly in order to assist with the next team and the next, which in the end helps the business or project to work properly. I would like to call to mind three concepts presented by the great Stephen Covey from his book, "7 Habits of Highly Successful People." Dependent - as it suggests a dependency on someone else to do or accomplish something. We'll think of this in the terms of "You" Independent - you as the individual take on and maintain responsibility for a task or project without having to rely on someone else. We'll think of this in terms of "Me" Interdependent - this refers to the idea that people come together to work together to accomplish a task or project. This is ultimately the direction we want to go in terms of forming a team. We'll think of this in terms of "We" I am going to show you how all of these terms come together to form the team that is going to move you towards success. To do this I am going to illustrate this idea with a symphony orchestra. Lets identify some of the teams within an orchestra and then we'll later demonstrate how it all fits together. There has to be a creative team that develops the concept or theme for a concert; a logistic team that will coordinate the preparation of music, scouting locations and securing any necessary equipment; a production team that coordinates the lights, sounds, curtains, stage work; the musicians, whose individual teams are the sections of musicians who play together and of course the conducting team, which can be one or multiple people. Now lets apply our three terms to this example: Dependent - in an orchestral situation one person must depend on the next to make sure that they have practiced and prepared their music so that when they come to rehearsal they are making good use of their time. Within each instrumental section, the section leader or principal player depends on the people in their section to come prepared with music. While the section players depend on the principal to provide them with music if the designated music distributor is not available. The conductor is going to depend on each musician to come prepared with the notes and rhythms prepared so that the role of the conductor can be that of shaping said notes and rhythms into a musical idea. This is all about depending on someone else to do their part and not yours. Independent - this refers to the individual musician and the conductor. It is my responsibility to practice my part and prepare everything on my own. When I enter rehearsal my job is to play my part and not have to depend on anyone to do my work for me. As a conductor it is my responsibility to make sure that I have properly prepared my interpretation for the music to be performed. This is all about me being able to act independently in my preparation and execution of the music. Interdependent - this is when it gets really cool. This refers to the combination of dependency and interdependency. Now instead of you and me, it is now WE. We are independent in our personal preparation; we depend on each other to work together to make the music happen but we coordinate our efforts and we do so as a team. Multiple teams have now moved from the approach of the individual to the approach of the group. The success occurs because all of the moving parts (the individual musicians - section teams - large group teams - full orchestra) are now working together in a harmonious union of dependency, independence and interdependence. Another quick example - if you are a sports person, you can apply this to the dynamics of a sports team. In order for the team to function, each player must be independently prepared on his/her position and have prepared the skills needed to be successful in that position. They have to depend on one another to have prepared for their position and then interdependently they can work together, putting all of the moving parts together, to make the team work. Success is all about having the dream and then building the team to make it happen! For more success tips and blogs coming directly to you, subscribe using the link on the bottom right of this page. For more information and utilizing our services, check us out at www.buildingleadersforsuccess.com or on Facebook at Building Leaders for Success |
AuthorFrank Taylor is founder and CEO of Building Leaders for Success, Inc. A musician of 25 years, educator of 15 years and a motivational speaker of 16 years, Mr. Taylor brings a wealth of knowledge that will promote success and fundamentals of leadership. Archives
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