The Mayor

I donÂ’t have her name but the ASTD chair is discussing our current needs in the industry. She is describing how we make the world a better place to live and to help the bottom line. We are the link between learning people and performers. We need to ask ourselves what we bring to the organization. This is good. It is important to have a passion for what you do. She is asking us to commit to one thing when we go back.

ASTD is a community of practice that is trying to bring professionalism to the training industry. I think this is good, in that it starts to bring a framework for the field. The issue is that there is still so much various in approach, application, and evaluation of training.

I wonder what would be involved in getting involved?

They just showed the excellence in practice awards. Lockeed Martin, Cisco, HSBC, and Verizon.

Rudy is on the stage. Principles of Leadership. Business and personal. Started before Sept. 11. Picked it back up after the attacks. 6 principles of leadership. If you have to face a crisis in your personal life. Life is kind of a series of challenges. Business,

1. You have to know what you believe. Philosophy, goals, know what you are about. Where are you going to take yourself or organization. If not you become a follower. Know what you believe, why you believe it, and Â…. Theiultimatete beliefs get them through. Leaders understand that. President Ronald Reagan is where he got is information. He had strong beliefs. At anytime he could tell you where he was going. Communism was evil. Government was so large it kept people in poverty. Study, thinking. More change since Roosevelt. Many times he could change those ideas. Leaders need a philosophy and belief. Religious leaders need that. Dr. King had the idea that he could use non-violence as a mirror to America. Study, seminary school, old and new testament, Ghandi, and he stuck with it even when it wasnÂ’t populaDoesnesnÂ’t mean being stubborn. Means analyzing.
2. You have to be an optimist. People follow hopes, dreams, fulfillment of dreams. If you are offering solutions, then people are drawn to it. Must be combined with ethics and morals. Reagan and King were both optimists. Reagan was accused of seeing things with rose colored glasses. Leadership is about offering solutions. Report was asking Coach Lombardi what was it like to lose a game? He said I never lost a game. What? I didnÂ’t lose the game I just run out of time. He always envisioned success. DoesnÂ’t mean it will always have success. In the visualization of the success you can see how to get it there. In business visualize the success and see what you need to do to get there. How you get to the result? How do we win?
3. Having Courage? Many people think courage is a lack of fair. Many think it is extraordinary. Well, the fact is that they are afraid. The difference is that he doesnÂ’t let the fear stop him. Courage is the management of fair and overcoming fear. The regular circumstances of life, taking a new job. When he was mayor he would bring people to city hall (brave people) They would have a hard time explaining what he had done. Afraid of press questions. That man didnÂ’t take an oath to answer press questions. They use fear to prepare better. To reduce the risk to something they can manage. Training, studying, better equipment, all being done to reduce the risk. Should we be afraid of another terrorist attack? Yes. Of course. But having said that, it should motivate us to prepare. Better intelligence, better emergence plans,Â… Some people are scared to find out.
4. Relentless Preparation. You have to be prepared for the worst. You have to anticipate everything in court. Fours of preparation for every one hour in court. This was a great lesson. Prepare it, go over it, think about everything about it. But then the judge would say, there will always be something that you didnÂ’t think about is you follow the 4 to 1 rule. On 9/11 those words came back to me. Each moment said that I got worst. Police said keep looking up for debris. He saw a man jump from the 101 floor. He stopped. He said we donÂ’t have a plan, we are going to have to make it up. They had 20-30 plans. But we had no plan that said airplane used as missiles. As making the decision he thought about judges words, everything was a variation of one of the other plans. Relentless preparation. Figure out what is going to happen. Prepare. And everything will be a variation of that.
5. Teamwork. This is the core of peopleÂ’s success. If you donÂ’t understand you will get yourself isolated. The idea of divine selection can happen to anyone. Leaders canÂ’t show weakness. If you are in charge of anything or put in charge. Question: What are my weaknesses? Let me figure out someone that can balance my weaknesses with their strengths. Replicate yourself, then the organization is not better then you are. You have got to start with you. Begin by balancing your strengths and weaknesses with other people. In NY 2 big problems. Crime and economy. He knew how to reduce crime. DidnÂ’t know about economy. I am going to have to allow them to decide about the economy. Making decision quickly. Sometime you should take more time. Teams with the best balance win. Same thing is true in gov and war.
6. Communication. To be a leader you have to communicate and have a way to evaluate that. It is both practical and Â… A football coach is based entirely based upon other people. Teaching and motivating. Therefore communication is critical. Do the other things and this will be much easier. Spend your life figuring out where you are going. Nothing makes you a better communicator then relentless communication. YouÂ’ve got something to give, something to value. Relentless prepare. YouÂ’ll know it. No matter how terrific you are, you will have weakness. Understanding how accountability works. We figured out how to measure it. How much, where, all decisions on actual numbers. System of accountability. Crime statistics every single day. To see if they were doing a good job. YouÂ’ve got to understand accountability and communication. You have to figure out metrics or statistics. Reduction in crime. Case of welfare. Sign- IÂ’m responsible. Resources, training, people they need to get job done.

Final thought. If you run a human organization, you have to step back and remind yourself of that. Human beings have to be dealt with in an emotional way. Weddings discretionary, Funerals necessary. It is more important to go to a funeral then a wedding, because people need you more. A leader is needed when things are going wrong. Business and personal life. A leader is there to help them and support them. The way you get through things is by having people help you if you