Posted on Monday, February 3, 2014

The School Assignment: What makes me…ME!

by Rene Rivera

I still have the privilege of helping my boys with their homework assignments. I get the privilege of peeking under the hood peek at the heart and discover what men God is allowing them to become. The school assignment this week in Communication was a speech about themselves. My oldest decided to mix his unapologetic humor to a interesting perspective about himself that would make any parent proud. I thought I would share it with you.

I was born in 1997 at midnight to my mother’s discomfort. When I first came out I was unable to breath because my cord was wrapped around my neck. Well life for me started as a fight. At an early age I was a barbaric gentleman. My dad and my grandfather were always hard on me to be respectful, polite, and to do things to the full glory of God given my abilities. My dad taught me to fear God and him.

My brother and I were home schooled for the majority of grade school by my loving mother who taught me the meaning of respect through the belt. Unlike my brother I went to public school my first few years of school. All my friends were Hispanic and Black: I found them easier to get along with than the white kids. At home, my brother and I would play outside for hours; we never wore shirts or shoes we believed that was for wimps. To this day I still have very little feeling in the bottom of my feet due to the hot concrete on my feet. When I was five I received a puppy, it was my responsibility to take care of her; that was the first time I ever had to care for someone other than myself.

Playing outside I broke my arm doing a wheelie on my bike I was very little and my brother locked me out of the house. Pain grew me that day, because of that first break I’ve never cried again when I broke other bones in my body. Also I came to love the Simpsons, Sponge Bob, Dragon Ball Z, and Ed, Edd, and Eddy since all I did was watch T.V. My father with the combinations of those shows gave me a great sense of humor. My father also knew I wanted to be a soldier so he put me in MMA and Scouts around age 12. I got in trouble in Scouts one day for getting in a fight with a little punk. My dad told me one of the important things I remember “Don’t start fights just to make sure you finish them” . That along with the punishment from my MMA Instructor taught me to control myself. Later the same kid and his friend would ambush my brother and me when I had my broken wrist. My little brother who was 9 at the time protected me from three different kids. This is first time I began to appreciate my brother. We finished that fight.

My brother and I are still in Scouts today. Boy Scouts has taught me time management, communications skills, and how to survive. It has molded me into a leader. I’ve missed Homecoming Events every year for Scouts. I’ve missed many fun events with my friends from school because I was climbing mountains, riding horses, licking something by the side of road, jumping off dams, canoeing up stream, fishing, burning other Scout’s things, doing back flips off mountains, running from bears, eating wild hog, shooting shotguns, falling in mud, hiking 125 miles uphill then hiking another 100 downhill just to say I did it. And to this day I will never regret this ever. That’s what makes me. Me!

Posted on Friday, January 31, 2014

Financial Leadership at Home – Part 2 – A Budget

by Dan DeVries

In my recent post about Financial Leadership, I stated that many leaders find their financial responsibilities at home continually failing to reach the top of their priority list. Other things seem more urgent, more interesting, or just easier. However, finances are an area that a leader in the home simply cannot ignore.

The foundation of financial responsibility, whether in an organization or in a home, is a Budget. Much like other areas of leadership, creating a budget is a proactive, forward looking activity. Simply reacting to financial needs and decisions as they come rather than planning and providing vision is, by definition, not leadership. Most financial obligations are predictable, and even financial surprises can be anticipated and prepared for.

There are many methods and tools for budgeting. With each, the objective is to decide, in advance, how the family’s money will be spent. Beyond the basic food, shelter, and clothing, it also requires determining what is (or what should be) important to the family, and often times prioritizing those discretionary items. My goal here is not to provide a “how to” lesson or to give financial advice, but rather to encourage you who strive to be leaders to take this basic step if you haven’t already. Having a carefully prepared budget provides the justification to say “no” to discretionary spending that cannot be supported by the current income, and it also makes it easier to say “yes” when the family wants something that is within its means and consistent with its values.

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Posted on Thursday, January 30, 2014

The Pot Bowl?

by Wayne Butler

: MendezEnrique / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA

I want to make clear this viewpoint is from a leadership perspective and NOT a political view. It has plenty to do with the decline in leadership of core moral values that has made America a great country, and Colorado and Washington great states respectively. I have been following this issue with a keen interest for some time and feel now is an appropriate time to share my thoughts. I have arrived at this conclusion largely due to Wyoming being a peripheral state to Colorado.

As many of you know Colorado and Washington have recently embraced the use of marijuana. I have no real issues with people using marijuana, but here is where the real rub comes in. Does Peyton Manning really want to be associated with retiring after the “Pot Bowl”?

Seriously now; During this time when Colorado and Washington are embracing (according to federal law) an illegal drug, for the sake of revenue, Colorado has lost to the state of Wyoming (so far) three legal revenue generating manufactures.

: abcovey / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

An even deeper look at the issue of safety shows these states are lacking in judgment and are neglecting to provide their residences reasonable safety measures for a “few more dollars”. This is also indicative of a continued moral decline in leadership of both the Federal and State governments by telegraphing the message, “You don’t have to step up and be responsible, we’ll lower our standards to meet you where you are”. Meanwhile signaling danger to all who travel the highways as well.

The short term effects afforded the states are as follows:

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Posted on Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Where have all the good (young) men gone?

by Billy Long

– Herman Melville, Moby Dick

I have had a few instances in the past few weeks where I have had to think to myself, what would your father think about that? Not only your earthly father but your heavenly father as well. Sometimes I get the idea that some young men (not all) don’t think they will ever have to be accountable for their actions. Back to that in a minute…..

First of all I want to thank a few of you fathers out there that are raising God fearing young men. I think it will save me a lot of time with a shovel, when my girls start to date. I ask you though, where did you learn the lessons you are sharing with your sons? I bet it was your father and grandfather. I am confident my parents would still be married today if my father was still alive, and I watched my grandfather sit beside my grandmother’s hospital bed as leukemia took her.

Please don’t get me wrong, I am not the perfect father, Lord knows, I ask for help. But sometimes I see or hear of something some young man has done or said, and my first thought is not, What would Jesus Christ think…..It is what does your father think? Is no one accountable anymore? Are we a soft enough society that a village no longer raises a child? I am pretty sure all of my neighbors had “Beat on sight when necessary” instructions for me when I was a kid.

We spend a lot of time on this blog discussing leadership, and I have come to think as leaders we are responsible to not only each other, but those without a good example. I said to someone, “…that really isn’t any of my business…” and their response to me was “Why isn’t it?” It has taken me all week to figure out that, maybe I should make it my business. Maybe we should all start making a few more injustices our business.

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Posted on Monday, January 27, 2014

Another Reason to Take Care of Our “Youngers”

by Steve Petronio

I am beginning a short adventure in Western Europe. So, I thought I would try to learn a bit about my environment. Things are very different here. The economics, education, families, are very different. Locals do not blink to pay several dollars for a small plastic bottle of Coke or Dr. Pepper or a month’s rent for a nice dinner. The very fabric of the workplace is also very different. The undercurrent often seems to be that Europeans are superior to Americans and that we are a couple of generations behind them socially. But I found one area that we should try to avoid.

Please do not interpret anything herein as a criticism of life here. People have been very warm, inviting and friendly and I think I am going to love my adventure. That is not the point. The point that I hope to make is that we, as Leaders can learn from our Western European colleagues as we try to assist and support our younger generation towards greatness.

I want to share some recent research that caught my attention studying why the younger generation and employers are so mismatched. Some of the findings suggest ways that you and I should be focusing on our efforts to mentor, lead and support the younger ones around us.

Here is the proposition:

The problem of youth unemployment in the European Union is not new. Youth unemployment has been double or even triple the rate of general unemployment in Europe for the last 20 years. The events of the past few years have dramatically exacerbated it, however: 5.6 million young people are unemployed across Europe, and a total of 7.5 million are neither being educated nor are they working. Moreover, while young people are eager to work, more than half of those without jobs say they simply can’t find one—all while businesses across Europe insist they struggle to find young people with the skills they need.

This sounds terrible to me. There are areas where things may be slightly better, but there are areas where things are much worse. For example, in Italy, the unemployment rate for people under 24 years of age is more that 40%. The root cause for this appears to be

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Posted on Friday, January 24, 2014