GIANTS are a big task, event, problem, or challenge that you have never tackled before. It is something that seems like a "GIANT Hill to climb," or "GIANT obstacle to overcome."  It is something that creates a crisis, hardship or difficulties in our team.   It seems like you are fighting a GIANT sometimes when you try to overcome, tackle, or “kill” these challenges. So today, we will become GIANT KILLERS and beat the biggest challenges we have ever seen.

1. Every Giant introduces you to yourself.
2. People who reach “giant positions” have defeated giants.
3. Giants are often Tools that are used to shape up for bigger opportunities. 

The word Legacy means (from Wiktionary.org) “something inherited from a predecessor; a heritage.  Example:  John Smith left as his legacy an enduring spirit of respect for the environment.”  And this definition - “something inherited from a predecessor” is the concept I want to talk about today. 

Many people fall into the trap of thinking that their legacy is about the company, building, work of art, or money they have made or created in their life.  However, success does not count for much if it does not live on after you are gone.  Only people live on.  Objects do not.

When I first started out my career, I wanted to be a great businessman and make a lot of money. That was it.  If you asked me how, I would tell you that I did not know, but I was going to be rich.  I was of course very immature and had no life experience.  As I grew and matured into my thirties, I wanted to create a great company and this company would become my legacy.  But as I built that company, I realized that the company itself had no life. The people who worked there did have life. So, I turned my attention to training leaders, building up leaders.  I started working with people that wanted to go to a Hole Nutha Level, but who needed someone to believe in them and give them a chance.  Hopefully, this attitude and spirit of caring about people and helping people will be a legacy that I impart into others that they carry on to others.

Developing Your Leadership Legacy

(Law #21, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, by John C Maxwell)

1.    Know the Legacy you want to Leave

Leaders of others must first lead their own life well– not merely accepting the circumstances we find ourselves in but leading ourselves through them.  If we want to have a Legacy we need to decide what that Legacy will be and then decide to work to make that legacy happen.  

 

In order to create a Legacy it relies on your attitude:

· Must first care about others.

· Must appreciate how great an impact a good legacy can make.

· Must understand how UNimportant you are compared to the task with which you have been entrusted as a leader. 

2.    Live the Legacy you want to leave

There is a great saying, “I can not hear what you are saying because your actions are so loud.”  Basically, this means that you are saying one thing, but doing another.  Your actions must line up with what you say you want your legacy to be.  

In the book Today Matters, it states that the “secret of a person’s success is determined by their daily agenda.” So look at what you are doing each day.  The areas taking the most of your time are the areas of most importance to you.  Does your daily agenda line up with your priorities?

Personally, I spend at least 5 hours per week preparing for our leadership trainings.  It is all on my own personal time during the weekend, but this is important to me, it is what I want my legacy to be, and thus my weekly agenda is lining up with my legacy. 

There is often a natural progression to how leaders develop in the area of legacy, starting with the desire to achieve. 

· Achievement comes when leaders do big things by themselves.

· Success comes when leaders empower followers to do big things for the leader. 

· Significance comes when leaders develop leaders to do great things with them.

· Legacy comes when leaders put leaders in position to do great things without them. 

3.    Make sure to pass the Baton

If you have ever seen a relay race, you know that it’s one distance (usually 400 m) run in 4 segments (100 m) by 4 different runners.  While speed is important, being the fastest runner does not guarantee success in the relay because the most important part of a relay is the exchange of the baton.  This exchange area is very similar to the exchange of leadership that must take place between the leader and successor. 

· Mistake #1 – Leader is running to fast for the successor (wreck).

· Mistake #2 – The successor is running too fast for the leader (no hand off). 

· Mistake #3 – The leader is not ready to hand off the baton (no hand off).

· Mistake #4 – The successor is not ready to take the baton (no hand off)

A good handoff of the baton means the following:

· Leader understands the Law of Legacy and the need for a Successor.

· Successor understands the Law of Legacy and the need to be groomed for the position.

· Leader has prepared the successor for the handover.  It happens gradually, not all at once.

· Success and Leader are running at the same speed – sign of this is good communication and they begin to think alike in the vision of the company.

Most relay runners could never run a fast 400 m race on their own. They are good at 100 m and good at a handoff to another runner.  Likewise, a good leader knows his limits and hands responsibility off to a successor who can carry on.   

On of the greatest challenges of a leader is knowing when to begin to work to find a successor. Many people believe that a success means you are no longer needed in our current job.  And that is true.  However, you can not take on another opportunity if you have no one to pass the baton. 

Remembers a couple of weeks ago we discussed empowerment?  And we talked about having your hands full of rocks, which if not passed on to someone else, would cause you to miss out on a new opportunity because you were “too busy.”  Well, handing off rocks to someone else and training them to handle these rocks is the process of development of a successor. 

In closing, we all want to have a legacy.  We all want to be remembered by someone after we are gone but the best way to leave a lasting legacy is with a successor who carries on and improves upon your work.  

Lead On!

Sutton

Last night we enjoyed Iftar with 110 of our Team Members at Sas al Nakhl. The teams represented Landscaping, Maintenance, Lifeguards, Health Club, Cleaning, Transportation, etc. It was a great night.
Lead On!
Sutton

We have gone to 4 countries, visited 7 ciites and interviewed over 2,000 employees over the last three months to find good service oriented employees to fuel the Khidmah vision.

(From Wikipedia) Pruning is the process of removing certain aboveground elements from a plant; in landscaping this process usually involves removal of diseased, non-productive, or otherwise unwanted portions from a plant. The purpose of anthropomorphic pruning is to shape the plant by controlling or directing plant growth, to maintain the health of the plant, or to increase the yield or quality of flowers and fruits.In general the smaller the wound (smaller the branch that is cut) the less harm to the tree. It is therefore typically better to formative prune the tree when juvenile than try to cut off large branches on a mature tree.

People must be pruned to bear fruit. What does that mean? In leadership this analogy is very true. People must be trimmed or corrected/improved/strengthened/ trained/etc. in order for them to produce fruit or other leaders/more work product/better quality of work/etc. So we show today how people are like trees in that for them to be promoted they must be trimmed or pruned.

What is promotion?
(From Wikipedia) A promotion is the advancement of an employee’s rank or position in an organizational hierarchy system. Promotion may be an employee’s reward for good performance i.e. positive appraisal. Before a company promotes an employee to a particular position it ensures that the person is able to handle the added responsibilities by screening the employee with interviews and tests and giving them training or on-the-job experience. A promotion can involve advancement in terms of designation, salary and benefits, and in some organizations the type of job activities may change a great deal.

So very few, if any, of us does not want to be promoted. Every one of us is different. Some want to be promotion for title, others for Salary, others for Benefits, others for more responsibility, others for political power or influence.

However, I have learned that you must be pruned to be promoted. You cannot expect to be promoted without change. If you keep doing the same, these same things that have not gotten you to the next level (HNL), then you must change what you are doing (Pruning) to be promoted.

How does this apply to leadership?
Above in the definition of Pruning it states: in landscaping this process usually involves removal of diseased, non-productive, or otherwise unwanted portions from a plant. In leadership, Pruning is the process of removal of non-productive and otherwise unwanted habits, characteristics, or weaknesses from the leader.
The purpose of landscaping pruning is to shape the plant by controlling or directing plant growth, to maintain the health of the plant, or to increase the yield or quality of flowers and fruits. In the same way, pruning in leadership is to shape the person/leader by controlling or directing the person’s growth, to maintain the health of the person and company, or to increase the yield or quality of work productive and leadership product.

A Leader bears fruit by:
1. Productivity in others
2. Producing other Leaders
3. Producing processes to grow more leaders and produce more (cycle of 1, 2, and 3 – builds momentum)

Illustration of a tree branch.
1. If you do not prune it, the branch becomes too thin. Then if growth does continue, when it starts to bear fruit, the branch is not strong enough to handle the weight and the branch is broken.
In Leadership, if you are not pruned/improved at a lower level, when the fruit comes or you are promoted to a HNL, you will not be able to handle it and you will break/fail yourself or the business.
2. If the branch breaks, it can cause an infection and can even kill the tree. So not trimming a tree and then allowing fruit to come – by not pruning, you risk killing the tree. By not pruning your leaders, you risk killing the department and even the company.

Takeaway Points: Promotion only comes from Pruning
1. Not Normal: It is not normal to growth of the branch or the person. Everyone just wants to continue to grow, or continue to do what he or she is doing and expect promotion. Promotion does not happen without Pruning.
2. It Hurts: It hurts, some more and some less than others. Yes, it does, no doubt about it. When you are pruned as a Leader that means you have to change what you are doing or focus on an area that is your weakness. That is not fun to do, but you must do it to be promoted. No promotion without Pruning.
3. Trust: Shows that you must trust the leadership and your supervisor who is the one doing the pruning. In pruning, the leader is revealing to you that you have a weakness. And in your old capacity, the weakness was ok, but to be promoted you must correct your weakness or it will not stand up to the weight of the next level (HNL) and the weight of the new fruit that will come. The branch will become heavy, and if you did not prune, the branch is too weak.
4. Change: Many times pruning is in the form of reprioritization by your supervisor/leader to get you to focus on what is important to get to the next level. This is many times hard, because it is a change from what you have been doing. But what you have been doing has NOT gotten you promoted, so pruning/change is required to get you to the HNL or next level.
5. Must Changes to Reach Max: You must be pruned to bear maximum fruit to reach your maximum potential.

So you want to be promoted? Then these are Questions you must answer yourself?
• Are you receptive to pruning? If you react with excuses and reasons for your weaknesses, you are not ready to be pruned.
• Are you seeking to be pruned? If so, when is the last time you asked your leader/supervisor what you can do to be better?
• What are you doing to take things off of your supervisor’s responsibility and add to yours? Do you know what is important to your supervisor/leader? Have you asked him or her? How can you prepare yourself to be promoted if you are not learning in your current role and assisting your supervisor in his/Her job?
• Will you allow someone to prune you?
• Do you understand that pruning hurts, and sometimes you must take a step backwards before you can take two steps forward?

If you did not answer “YES” to all of the questions above, you are not ready to be promoted – to go to a HNL.
Lead On!
Sutton

We “Started” service today in Bangladesh and then going to three cities in India. We interviewed and skills tested over 1200 candidates in 5 days. It was awesome.
It is just the beginning however, of bring good quality service oriented workers to the Emirates to make Khidmah’s Vision a reality.

Lead On!
Sutton