Leadership

The Gift of Mr. Lee Kuan Yew

March 27, 2015 by sycreed

On Sunday March 29, 2015, Singapore and the world will pay their respects to Lee Kuan Yew who passed away at the age of 91 this week. While he is now physically gone, his spirit and legacy will endure for generations to come.

He was the founding father of Singapore and responsible for taking a small city with no natural resources and lots of instability all around, and creating the second wealthiest economy in the world.

As an American, I have traveled to and worked extensively in Singapore over the last 20 years. I have worked with tens of thousands of amazing people and companies there. As a student and teacher of leadership, team and cultural development, I found him to be a model of vision, commitment, and passion. Controversial and determined, but a strong leader nonetheless.

Charged originally with the task of unifying and holding Malaysia together, he failed. Yet as any great leader, he used his setback to springboard ahead with a bigger game which was to create a new country Singapore.

Many criticized him for his heavy hand and for his restrictive domestic policies. But through it, he created an economic miracle. Why was he so successful?

He faced a complete mixed bag of multiple religions, nationalities, and cultures, each group with their own rituals, habits, strong views, etc. Views that in fact in neighboring countries caused major upset, conflict and strife. His vision was a Singapore were ALL people of ALL cultures would work together for the betterment of one society.

In all of his dealings, there was never one ethnic or religious group that was shown extra favor or slighted. Malay, Chinese, Indian, Buddhist, Christian, Islamic were all treated equally. This was a tremendously difficult task but one that made Singapore great. Tough laws, tough rules, tough consequences led to a standard of living for ALL Singaporeans that resulted in one of the safest, cleanest, best educated, wealthiest, most productive, tolerant, corruption-free and peaceful countries in the world.

His success… it was never at the expense of any group. He was a tough guy, but with a heart bigger than the city itself with an unwavering belief in the resiliency and strength of the human spirit. He never doubted that this rag-tag city-state on a marshy island could be transformed into a crown jewel based upon no other resource than that of its small population.

While I never met him personally, I felt that I knew him well. Whether I agreed with all of his politics was not the issue. I admired his vision, strength, commitment and ability to honestly move an entire team together for a cause that benefited them all without blame, excuses or favorites. He has repeatedly made me a better leader, teacher and citizen of the world.

His legacy lives on in the spectacular buildings, cultural centers and businesses that rise from the sea.

I feel however, his legacy is best described by an excerpt from one of his famous National Day speech in 1989. He was talking about the subject of emigration of Singaporean citizens. In the speech he recalls his conversation with a young Singaporean whom he interviewed on the subject.

I will read you an abstract from one of them, but let me tell you that this KIND of Singaporean is going to make Singapore succeed. First he said to me, Please make sure that the government says it does care about keeping Singaporeans here. The recruitment of foreign talent is an on-going exercise to propel the country to greater heights. But it is not a solution to the problem of emigration. A different one all together to him.

Explain to Singaporeans that the new-comers are not getting a free ride on what Singapore citizens have built up all these years. That’s him…he served his national service, two and a half years. Yes, he was a scholar abroad in Cambridge… but he points out, Singapore is not a hotel where people come and go! Then he says, All reasons given by the ministers for staying, are materialistic, rational calculations. That might be a realistic reflection of the situation

But speaking for myself, the single most important reason, is that Singapore is MY place! It is something that I call mine! Never mind the many constraints.

I never expected this quiet very prosaic, scholarly type with glasses had PASSION. But to build a country, you need passion. If you just do your sums: plus – minuses, credit – debit you are a washout. When we fought in 1962-63 against the Communists. When we went through hell in 1963 to 65, many people thought we were crazy.

We could lead peaceful, quiet lives. Why were we doing this? It was an act of CONVICTION! This is my country! This is my life! This is my people! You will trample over us over our dead bodies! We dug our toes in we built a nation.

Yes, Mr. Lee, you built a nation, but you also taught us all the power of the human spirit of what a group of committed people from all races, colors and religions can create for themselves and their generations to come with inspired honest leadership.

Thank you for your gift of believing in us all.

Sailing through an Amazing Ocean

August 16, 2014 by sycreed

If ever a person wanted to touch the majesty of the universe and planet we live on, these three shots display that majesty from a perspective few get to see.

From high up on Mt. Kilimanjaro, these precious moments allowed those of us there to transcend humanity and become witness and part of an incredible existence.

Sunrise from atop Mt Kilimanjaro — What an amazing planet… early sun-sighting (sunrise) on summit day at 18K feet seeing and feeling the curve and rotation of the earth. Photographer: David Pergolini.

Sunset from atop Mt Kilimanjaro - Blair Singer — A stunning sun-clipse (sunset) a few nights before the summit. Photographer: David Pergolini.

On our ship sailing the Universe — Being in the midst of an eternal universe and truly feeling a part of it. It’s an amazing ocean we are sailing through. The stars are almost like the sea spray against your skin and senses. Photographer: David Pergolini

We could literally feel the earth as a spaceship (as Buckminster Fuller called it) spinning and hurtling through the universe.

For me, it was not an intellectual experience… but a true feeling of being part of this whole existence.

I am thankful that I have been blessed with the ability to experience something so common but so profound.

I hope these pictures are able to move you in some small fraction of the way we were moved… experiencing and enjoying our place in this world from a different perspective high atop Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Be Awesome!

Blair

Business Leadership Facilitator – Building a Championship Team

August 11, 2014 by sycreed

“I’ve learned that business is really simple. But the really hard part is dealing with the people.”

That’s what a little 10-year-old boy in my son’s 5th grade class said to me. Several years ago, I put his class in some business scenarios to teach them a little bit about entrepreneurship. In the middle of the class, this brilliant response came from him, and is a pretty good introduction to what I’m about to discuss with you right now.

By now, if you’ve watched by Business Success Formula video, or read that blog, you know the importance of the selling, building a team and teaching as the basic formula for creating a successful business and becoming a successful business leadership facilitator? Also, you’ve learned how that nagging little voice that’s going on inside your head could be detrimental to your success if you don’t know how to manage it.

But it’s not just your little voice that matters — it is your entire team’s little voices, as well. Realizing this is part of the job as a Business Leadership Facilitator.

So, let’s take on the analogy of a coffee cup. Inside this cup, is coffee, tea, whatever you want. Let’s call this the content of your business. That could be a variety of things:

Your products/services
Your team and vendors
Your customers
Your business systems
Your cash-flow

…the list can go on.

What’s inside this cup almost doesn’t matter. You may think to yourself, I need better product, a better accountant, better vendors, but those aren’t the most critical elements.

You could have the best coffee in the world, but what if your cup cracks? Your coffee — or rather, the contents in the cup — spill out, and in business, we would call that a business failure. The cup itself is a model for the context or the environment of which your business is run. And, it doesn’t have to be your business — it also relates to your health and your family.

Let’s say you’re on a diet. It doesn’t matter what diet you’re on (as long as it means eating healthier and exercising). It doesn’t matter what the content of your cup is. But if you don’t have an appropriate environment around your diet to keep you disciplined and motivated, (the equivalent to cracks in your cup), then the whole health system falls apart.

So how do you create a stronger cup?

Setting up the best environment to run your business is one of the best tools for any entrepreneur to guarantee success in the long-run. If you remember in the first sell-team-teach model, it’s the Code of Honor that really supports the system.

And it’s the values you have that will help you create this Code of Honor, or the set of rules, in order to have that strong environment.

The difference between values and rules are simple. Let’s say traffic safety is one of your values. Now, the rules would be:

Always stop fully at a stop sign or red light
Drive at or below the speed limit
Always wear your seat belt

Creating a set of solid rules to support your values is important, particularly in times when the heat is on. While your content may reach a boiling point, it’s your cup that needs to stand strong in tough time to ensure that the business (or your family or health) do not spill out.

I have business partners all over the world. I communicate with them all the time about my values and rules, because no matter where or when my business is being conducted, I know that my overall mission of improving people’s quality of life is constantly being upheld. Also, having values that we can strive for is one of the best motivators for any team.

One of my teachers, Mack Newton (highest ranking Taekwon-Do instructor in North America) once said to me: The single most defining factor of success in your life may be the people you hang around with most often. Are they playing by the same rules? Do they subscribe to the same code of honor? Do they operate with the same values?

All of this not only applies to people in business, but teachers, family members, leaders in organizations can all benefit from learning how to leverage this tool, this idea of creating a sustainable environment with solid values and rules worth striving for.

One of my bestselling books Team Code of Honor talks about it in intimate detail step by step.

Systems and Accountability are Part of Your Formula for Business Success

August 10, 2014 by sycreed

Let’s say you have a great business. You have a great product, a great service-and you’re going to kill the market. You’re making money, and your business is growing because people are loving what you’re doing. And you’re growing, and growing and growing, but the next thing you know – it’s all GONE. It’s just, gone. Why is that?

It’s a very common thing, actually. In all the focus on sales and marketing, a business easily falls into a state of chaos that spirals out of control. You see, most people who are great at selling and promoting aren’t good at accountability and systems. Yet, accountability and systems are what get your business from a state of chaos to stability and affluence, supporting successful, profitable growth.

Being a successful entrepreneur requires the ability to move from chaos to stability. And it’s not just true for business — accountability and systems work in your health and relationships, too.

Let’s look at how we can implement accountability and systems in your sales.

I believe one of the best motivational tools for salespeople is the Monday morning sales meeting. As a young, new salesperson (when I was just starting out), my company had to make sure I had a tight operating system to work within, and that I would be held accountable for my efforts. We had something we called the 5-call close, and it looked something like this:

COLD CALL: The purpose of a cold call was qualify the lead and book an appointment.

APPOINTMENT: The purpose of the appointment was to book a demonstration.

DEMONSTRATION: The demonstration was designed to get the prospect to ask for a presentation or proposal.

PRESENTATION: The presentation was designed to outline all the aspects of the service or product being offered so we could agree to move forward and ask for the sale (close).

CLOSE: The ultimate goal of getting a signed agreement for purchase.

Essentially, you can’t master the close unless you have mastered the first step, the cold call, then the appointment, then the demonstration, etc.

So, the 5-call close was the system. The accountability portion was every Monday, I had to go up there and present to everyone the results of my efforts — that made me accountable to my numbers. There is an example below:

Sales Grid Example

Cold calls	Appointments	%	Demonstrations	%	Presentations	%	Close	%
75	15	20	5	33	4	80	0	0

The meeting motivated me to want to deliver better numbers each week, because I was being held accountable in front of my entire team.

There are many benefits to having a system and being held accountable to it. For one, you know your sales cycle. Many businesses I’ve worked with don’t have one, and that’s unfortunate because the system will help you target areas of opportunity. Otherwise, you’d just hand out brochures to your sales team and say, Have at it, folks! That simply won’t work.

Looking at the sales grid (as I call it) above, it’s easy to see where the opportunities to learn and grow are. For example, I could definitely benefit from learning to improve the percent of appointments I set from my cold calls (20%). I could also improve the percent of clients I close after making presentations (0%!).

Now, please note: Accountability is NOT about saying you are a GOOD person or a BAD person. Accountability is simply taking responsibility for what you have done. If you write 0 for closes for the week on the sales grid, you are being accountable for the fact you have no closes. If you write nothing, you are not being accountable for your numbers.

When you are accountable to your numbers, the sales grid will help your Sales Manager quickly see the areas that with improvement could vastly enhance results (which means more revenue for the company and more commission in your pocket).

This grid is applicable for any kind of business. Let’s say your business doesn’t rely on cold calls. Maybe in your business, it’s customers that come through the door, inbound calls you have received, how many have registered for an event, etc. Or maybe it’s presentations you give, and the number of offers you hand out, and the number of follow-ups, etc. The point is to define your own sales system and hold your team accountable to mastering each part of it.

Once you have your sales cycle is systematized, it is easy to hold sales people accountable so you can see where you are leaving money on the table. By identifying where they can improve and potentially by how much (improve a close rate from 0% to 10%), you can predict what the incremental revenue will be as they improve their mastery of the sales process.

Want to track your sales process on your own Sales Grid so you can master your sales system and hold your sales people accountable Click here to access a free Sales Grid template with built in formulas to help you track your teams results and hold them accountable.

You can also Download my free Income Calculator to help determine how to achieve your specific sales revenues goals. This is a great tool once you have used the Sales Grid to track your current success ratios for each step of your sales system.

Need some guidance on how to make this work for your specific business? Click here to schedule a free 45-Minute Consultation with a Blair Singer Certified Coach.

Discover the formula for business success

July 26, 2014 by sycreed

The difference between where you are today and where you want to go is not nearly as far as you think. It’s not years, it’s not even months– it could be an instance away.

The fact is, almost 95% of the people who set out to reach for their dreams don’t get them, especially in business. It’s not that they don’t work hard or that they’re bad people necessarily. That 5% is something else. That missing percentage can be bridged with an easy formula that I have been developing for 25-30 years of working in my own business, and other companies around the world.

The first component is sales. It’s the number one most important skill you could ever have in life and business. Why? Because sales equals income.

Of the many business owners who have a problem with cash-flow, their problem lies within sales. Either they don’t know how to sell, don’t like to sell or don’t think it’s important for their business. If you can’t sell, you can’t generate income.

The next component is building a team. If you want massive or passive income, then you’ve got to have a great team. No matter what anyone tells you, business is a team sport. And your team doesn’t have to be just your employees or sales people, but it also includes your customers, vendors, advisers, lenders all of these people are a part of your team.

Your ability to put together a champion team to leverage you and your dreams is critical for success.

Keep in mind that developing a team needs to happen before your success in order to help you succeed. Many people believe that once they have become successful, then they can build out a team, but it is actually opposite. Put together a great team right now to help you create massive income.

Teamwork is also critical. Cooperation within your company comes from you teaching your team how to work together for the common goal of growing your business.

Teaching is the third component. You’ve got to learn how to teach people in your team to sell. By teaching a team of people to sell, you’re creating a better path to massive and passive income.

Systems. You have got to build solid and reliable systems in your business so that your business can still run even without your presence. Meaning, if you were to go away for just a few days or weeks, your business can still generate income. Marketing systems, training systems, accounting systems, referral systems — being able to automate all of it so that you can concentrate on growing your business.

Accountability. People would always ask me, whats the best sales motivation tool? I recall a time when I was at my first sales job, our manager would have us post up our numbers at every Monday morning sales meeting. This forced all of us to be held accountable to our numbers — what we said we were going to produce and what we produced.

It doesn’t only work in business, but in other areas of your life as well, like your health or your finances. If you truly want something bad enough, you have got to hold yourself accountable to your goals, or get someone else to hold you accountable. Without self-discipline, accountability is the distance between you what you want to achieve.

Code of Honor. When my air freight trucking business was about to die, I told all of my employees that I was going to cut them loose, that we had reached the end. But they wouldn’t let me do that.

That’s because one thing I learned from my mentors is that the glue that holds the business together, is the same thing that holds a family together. The same thing goes for a religion, a sports team, a civilization — is that we had a Code of Honor.

A Code of Honor is essentially a set of rules that a team operates by, like the Ten Commandments or The Constitution. It’s where people operate as a team, with high levels of accountability, with systems to hold it’s shape.

But it’s more than just rules — there’s a certain spiritual bond that holds people together for a higher purpose to accomplish something. Rules like never abandoning a teammate in need, treating each other with respect, taking personal responsibility and never passing blame — all of this is part of your Code of Honor.

So, do you have an area of interest that you feel you need to work on? Perhaps it’s learning how to sell, or learning how to teach your team how to sell? What area or areas will make the most difference right now? Click on the corresponding links to find more information tailored for your needs.

Click here to schedule a free 45-Minute Consultation with a Blair Singer Certified Coach.

Click here to learn what your selling style is with the fun Sales Dog Diagnostic. Then receive a free report to help you make the most of your unique strengths!

Click here to discover if your team is helping you or hurting you it is quick and will give you valuable information!

Click here for my book Team Code of Honor and learn how to create your own Championship team!

Why is all of this important? Because you have a dream. And the only thing stopping you is lack of knowledge. If you’re here reading this, then it’s not because of the lack of will or indifference to your goals. It’s only lack of knowledge, and together, we can handle that quickly.

Be Awesome!

Leadership at New Heights!

July 16, 2014 by sycreed

On July 3, 2013 at 11:43AM, I experienced a level of achievement, exhilaration and humility that changed my life. It was the moment that my son and I touched the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro. In that rarefied atmosphere so far above the rest of humanity, I felt that I had stepped into Gods living room.

I have decided to go back in 2014 to climb Kili again. This time, I am taking a group of friends and business associates with me who want to experience this amazing journey. people who share the desire to experience the best of themselves and that have the ability and desire to translate that experience into all areas of their businesses, families and lives. I am calling this adventure the Mountain Leadership Experience.

The plan is to turn the trek into a true learning experience in which we climb, we learn, we share, we debrief and together we uncover the leadership secrets and art of 100% presence, alignment and achievement that can only be experienced at 19,341 feet.

When I climbed Kili in 2013, it was a moment of great achievement. However, it was much more than that. It was one of the only times in my life when I truly felt that my body, my mind, my emotions, the mountain and my spirit were all intimately connected in the same instant. In short, it was AMAZING! From the moment we started the climb, I had never been so present for such an extended period of time in my life. It was bliss in a strange but powerful way.

There were so many lessons learned in the months and days leading up to the climb and so many more on the climb itself. Lessons about being a father, leadership, team, personal strength, connection to the planet, contribution and the majesty of nature were just a few of the things that I learned and that this team will experience.

The Mountain Leadership Experience is about achievement and contribution. Part of the trip is working for 2 days in Moshi Tanzania at a school for the blind, albinos and orphans. There, myself and our team will be supporting young children who have much bigger mountains to climb to simply stay alive. The fees for this trip include a generous contribution to the school. In addition, two of our participants, Ben Eastman and Randy Zimnoch, put together a campaign called Raise the Roof to get even more funding for the Mwereni school. That campaign has already raised over $6,000. If you wish to help make a difference in the lives of these children, donations can be made through July 31^stat: www.raisetheroof2014.com. Our money and our time will give them education, healthcare and support to have a chance in the world.

The experience at the school is life-changing. Helping them to help themselves, seeing the amazing gratitude on the faces of children who have almost nothing, gives you a deeper appreciation of what you can do to make a difference.

Each day of the trip at each camp, I will debrief, learn, share and discuss leadership mastery secrets that will show participants how to take any team to heights they never dreamed of. There will be countless stories to tell, stomach splitting laughter and connections that will live with them forever. Breakthroughs will become daily, if not hourly, experiences.

It will also probably be the most challenging thing they have taken on in their lives.physically and mentally. However, with our guides from K2, they will be in the best hands on the mountain. K2s leadership and expertise is part of the learning process.

Kevin Cherilla (our lead guide) says that Kili always has a special test and lesson for each person that takes her on. They will find strength, grit and character that they never knew they had.

They will experience the intimacy and power of a real team in one of the most amazing contexts and environments they can ever imagine.

No matter what they encounter going forward, their experience on Kili will give them the strength, conviction and power that no one around them will have.

We will be videotaping this entire experience. I look forward to sharing with you some of the outstanding lessons that are sure to be had on this journey. In the interim, please check out the video to see how K2 and all the contributors have made a real difference: http://youtu.be/ZhYcIA7QzA0.

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