Are you two-faced? I was.
Mack Story, Blue-Collar Leadership?
Helping Leaders Engage the Frontline to Improve the Bottom Line.? │ Author of 15 Books │ Leadership Speaker │ Cultural Transformation
Are you two-faced? I was.
You can bend your actions to conform to your principles, or you can bend your principles to conform to your actions. ~ John C. Maxwell
After many years of learning leadership accidentally, I started my intentional leadership journey in 2008 when I discovered The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Dr. Stephen R. Covey. These principles changed and continue to change my life. I think about them and speak about them daily. A friend shared them with me in 2005. Yes, it took me 3 years to even take a look at the material.
What I quickly found out in 2008 was how much work I still had to do on me! I started working on the easy stuff as most of us tend to do. For nearly four more years, I still continued to bend some of the principles I was learning to match my actions. But over time, I slowly bought into the fact that I was being a two-faced leader unless I began to make real changes in my life. I had to start bending ALL of my actions to conform to the principles I was telling the world I embraced and was asking others to embrace.
What you are shouts so loudly in my ears I cannot hear what you say. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Three years ago today, on May 18th, 2012 nearly four years after starting my intentional growth journey, I made the choice to stop drinking alcohol. I haven't had a drop since and haven't missed it. I no longer value it. Then, I joined the John Maxwell Team in June 2012 and attended the first of many live training sessions with John in August 2012.
I also chose to stop using profanity (even the little words) during that experience in August 2012. I made a conscious decision to represent John Maxwell at the highest level that I could, which meant I would have to make A LOT of changes in my personal life. After all, he was trusting me with the reputation he had built up over 40 years. That was the least I could do if I was going to truly lead at a high level and not just pretend to lead at a high level in order to make more money and pretend to be something I was not.
Eventually, if there isn't deep integrity and fundamental character strength, the challenges of life will cause true motives to surface and human relationship failure will replace short-term success. ~ Dr. Stephen R. Covey
Today, I now value representing myself at a high level. I do what I do because it's what I should be doing for me and those that I help train and develop.
I made a conscious decision to live what I teach. I chose to become one person to everyone. Most of us are one person with our co-workers, another with our employees, another with our boss, another around our customers, another around our spouse, another around our children, another around our parents, another around our friends, another at church, and yet another while we're alone. I'm sure you get the picture.
What this means is that we are truly none of these people we are pretending to be. We're just playing a game.
Into the hands of every individual is given a marvelous power for good or evil - the silent, unconscious, unseen influence of his life. This is simply the constant radiation of what man really is, not what he pretends to be. ~ William George Jordan
We are just pretending to be who we think others want us to be. That's a sad way to live life. It causes us a lot of trouble, and we tend to always think someone else is at fault when things don't work out. I know because I lived that way for nearly 40 years until I started studying leadership and learned what character actually meant and why character counts. I chose to begin intentionally working on my character to become one person to all people. It's a never ending process. Every day, we either build up or tear down our character with every choice we make.
I can tell you the most important lesson I learned during my personal growth process:
If we're not the same person 24/7/365 no matter who we're around, the person we are fooling the most is our self. ~ Mack Story
Below is a short 3 min video with the late Dr. Stephen R. Covey talking about the impact of choice. I hope you choose to invest 3 more minutes of your time and listen to the brief but profound lesson. It was the first thing I learned from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. This simple principle allowed me to literally transform myself, my results, and my life.
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Click here to access Chapter 11 “Get Out of the Way and Lead” from my book, Defining Influence.
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My passion is to help you live with abundance, achieve success, choose significance, and leave a legacy. In other words, I want to help you make a High Impact !
Popular posts by Mack:
- The #1 Reason People Don't Reach Their True Potential
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- 5 Levels of High Impact Delegation
- 7 Signs It’s Time to Fire Your Boss
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- 7 Ways High Impact Leaders Use Conflict
Mack’s story is an amazing journey of personal and professional growth. He began his career in manufacturing on the front lines of a machine shop. He grew himself into upper management and found his niche in lean manufacturing and along with it, developed his passion for leadership. He understands that everything rises and falls on leadership.
Mack is the author of Blue-Collar Leadership Series, Defining Influence, & 10 Values of High Impact Leaders. He's an inspiration for people everywhere as an example of achievement, growth, and personal development. His passion inspires people all over the world! Order signed copies here.
Mack’s experience as a John Maxwell Certified Leadership Coach, Trainer, and Speaker includes an international training event in Guatemala with John as part of the Cultural Transformation in Guatemala where more than 20,000 Guatemalan leaders were trained.
Contact Mack at 334-728-4143 or [email protected] for Keynote Speaking, Corporate Training, Professional Leadership Development, Cultural Enhancement/Transformation, and Process Improvement.
Technical Sales & Business Development
8 年I think it important to behave the same in work as out of work. Somehow I find it harder to trust those with an in work personality and an outside of work personality. It is nice to know where you stand with people. In saying that, I might be the same myself to an extent, it is hard to really look at yourself subjectively.
Helper, Sid Joynson Partnership
8 年I have spent many hundreds of hours studying and applying Stephen’s ideas. He was a great man. -- "We are not products of our past. We are products of our chosen attitudes to our past and present circumstances." Stephen Covey -- "We all have four councillors to help us. 1) Self-awareness - what is? 2) Imagination - what can be. 3) Conscience – the reminder of your value system... 4) Independent will - the choice to act upon them." Stephen Covey. -- To develop the character of an organisation, we must first teach our people how to develop their own character and personality; this must start with the leadership team. Stephen Covey described the balance between character & personality in his book, 'The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. - restoring the character ethic'. These seven habits also belong to highly effective organisations. -- The first three habits are internal & form character (your relationship with yourself). 1) Be proactive. – 2) Begin with the end in mind. – 3) Put first things first. -- The second three are external & form personality (your relationship with other people). 4) Create win-win relationships with people. – 5) Seek first to understand & then to be understood. – 6) Synergise, creative cooperation. -- The 7th is Sharpen the saw, this is to keep ourselves capable physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally for doing the first 6. -- You must also move through Stephen's maturity continuum. This goes from dependence, I rely on others. To independence, I rely on myself. To interdepedence,we rely on each other-- When we combine the seven habits and work through the maturity continuum, we can realise the true potential of ourselves, our people and our organisations. -- A final comment from one of my favourite historic figures. When he was once accused of being two faced during a debate in the Senate, he replied, "If I had two faces, do you think I would wear this one." Abraham Lincoln
Quality Control Manager
9 年Excellent article, well worth the read to gain knowledge and reaffirm what the priorities are while staying on course with who you are/ character. Thanks for sharing.
Helping Leaders Engage the Frontline to Improve the Bottom Line.? │ Author of 15 Books │ Leadership Speaker │ Cultural Transformation
9 年Thanks everyone!