Orrin Woodward Press

Orrin Woodward Blog Getting Big Attention

Orrin Woodward’s leadership blog (“Orrin Woodward Leadership Team”) was recently ranked at #20 on the Leadership Blogs Top 50 in blogRank. http://www.invesp.com/blog-rank/Leadership

BlogRank tracks nearly 20,000 blogs and evaluates them based on several different factors, some of which include: RSS membership, incoming links, monthly visitors, Compete Alexa and Technorati ranking, and social sites popularity; these factors are then ranked using a unique formula.

Orrin’s highly popular leadership blog has also received international acclaim and has been recognized in the following:

HR’s Top 100 Blogs for Management and Leadership

Top 10 Blogs for Team Building

Alltop Leadership Selection Universities Online

Top 100 Leadership Blog

Be sure to check out Orrin’s leadership blog today at http://orrinwoodward.blogharbor.com/blog/

Orrin Woodward MonaVie Teaching

Do you want to learn more about best selling author Orrin Woodward? Check out his bio here!

Orrin Woodward: Servant Leader

What are some of the industry experts saying about Orrin Woodward? Click here to find out!

Orrin Woodward honored as one of the Top 250 people to follow on Twitter!

Well, the honors keep flowing in for Orrin Woodward. Just this week, Orrin was honored as one of the top 250 most influential people to follow on Twitter.com. For those of you who do not know what this service is you can follow this link to learn more. Twitter.com has become one of the fastest and most influential web 2.0 websites. Within the last year it has gone viral as now all major news media outlets, reporters, politician, industry experts, business leaders, Hollywood stars are all using this mechanism to reach out and stay in touch with their fans and customers while continuing to build their community. For Orrin to register over 30k active loyal followers in just a few months is incredible. It is amazing to think the community he is growing and the influence he has in the world of business and leadership. He and co-author Chris Brady are launching a new book together that is the follow up to their best seller Launching A Leadership Revolution. The sky is the limit for these two leaders as people continue to see the value they offer and follow them for their leadership and insight on a wide range of topics.

Hunger: The ‘X’ Factor in the attainment of your New Year’s Resolutions

‘Tis the season for New Year’s resolutions! I heard bestselling author Orrin Woodward say one time that, “All change begins with a hunger to change.” For the past month all of us have begun putting our resolutions to the test so we can make 2009 the best year yet. It is now February 11th and by this time people have fallen into three categories:

1. “Right on Schedule”

2. “Up and Down”

3. “Don’t ask”!

Are you passing the test? No matter which category you reside in we still have 11 months to make this year the best ever! If you are struggling on your journey or if you completely fallen off the tracks it is time to adjust your perspective, stop spinning your tires, and get back on your track. This is your year!

John Maxwell said, “You will not change your life until you change something you do on a daily basis.” That quote was very profound in my life because it allowed me to focus on what the gift of today represents; not tomorrow, not a week from today, not a year from now, but TODAY! The phrase “New Year’s resolution”, in my mind sets too many people up for disappointments in the attainment of their goals because it puts the emphasis on the word YEAR. I am sure you all remember the old saying that says, "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time."  In the spirit of that saying, I say we change the slogan to “New Day’s resolution!” Why? Because if you don’t take care of today, it doesn’t matter what you ultimately want to accomplish later this year. Too many people focus their efforts on the word year, instead of the very things that make up a year: 365 DAYS!

Think back to a year that might not have been your greatest. I know I have had plenty! You see, your or my bad year didn’t just show up on December 31st, it was the compounding effect of not staying disciplined on the previous 364 days. Neglecting too many days leads to a regretful year! It sounds simple, but to turn the tide it takes discipline and hunger.

Orrin Woodward said, “I would rather teach a hungry person how to be sharp, than a sharp person how to be hungry.” That quote has been critically important to me on my leadership journey because hunger is what has pulled me through many tough times. It has been said that “the bookends of success are starting and finishing.” The fuel in the middle of those bookends is what allows a person to finish. Motivation gets you started, but hunger pulls you through to the end! All of us have the motivation to make 2009 our best year ever, but very few people will follow through on the motivation. Why does this happen? Because too many people don’t apply hunger to their daily agenda.

How to make 2009 your best year?

1.Start with today! – Legendary coach John Wooden said, “Make each day your masterpiece.” A yearly puzzle is comprised of 365 Daily Masterpieces. When you lose a puzzle piece you can’t complete the puzzle.

2.Formulate daily disciplines that support your year-end desired result - For example, many people have weight loss goals. If you want to lose weight then what do you have to do today that will assist with that goal? Probably working out, watching what you eat, get a training partner…etc. Those are daily actions to implement so you can have the desired result of weight loss.

3.Get momentum on your side – each day you conquer creates a momentum that gets carried over into the next day. Doing anything new will seem weird at first. However, overtime the awkwardness will fade and conquering the next day will prove to get easier and easier because you have momentum on your side.

4.Don’t look at tomorrow – You have already identified your goals for the year and now it is time to focus on today and give it all you got. Your tomorrows will get better when you have taken care of enough todays.

Create a hunger for growth and daily results so your 2009 will be your best year. Remember that motivation gets you started, but hunger pulls you through. You can have all the talent in the world, but unless you have hunger it won’t matter what goals you have set for yourself. Hunger will always beat talent, when talent doesn’t possess hunger. Make it a great year!!

God Bless,

Matt Franks

The Leadership Challenge

The Leadership Challenge - Kouzes and Posner - Are you a Transformational Leader?

Written by:Orrin Woodward 1/26/2009 8:37 PM

The Leadership Challenge is a must read in the leadership field. Both Chris Brady and I had read the book before writing our NYT and WSJ best seller Launching a Leadership Revolution. I highly recommend Kouzes and Posner's book to any aspiring leader on their journey up life’s mountain. I will share their five points for transformational leadership from the book. Study these and see if you are exhibiting the five points for transforming your team’s results.

God Bless, Orrin Woodward

Transformational Leaders – Five Principles

1. Change the Process – Leaders drive change by working on the process. If the process is not changing and improving, then the leaders are not leading.

2. Inspire a Shared Vision – You as a leader have to provide direction and inspire them to reach it. Everyone should know and be inspired to hit 1 million people.

3. Enabling Others to Act – Provide the team methods that allow people to move forward. Help remove obstacles that hinder people from accomplishing the team’s goals. The Team PC is constantly asking what can we do to help people grow faster.

4. Encourage the Heart – Reach out and touch people’s hearts the same way we would use logic to help them make decisions. The Smile/Validate video is a perfect example of encouraging the heart.

5. Model the Way – Lead by Example. The Team PC is in the hunt with the rest of the Team leaders to reach our goals and dreams together!

HRWorld ranks Orrin Woodward in Top 100 best blogs to follow!

Well the recognition keeps rolling in for NY Times best selling author Orrin Woodward as we close out 2008. Just a few days ago I mentioned that Alltop ranks Orrin's blog as a "Top 10" leadership blog to follow. Just yesterday I learned that HRWorld put together a list of the top 100 blogs and websites for business leaders to read. Orrin Woodward's leadership blog once again made this list and was ranked 17th overall! Within a short time span Orrin has created an international fan following for his eclectic daily posts that consist of everything economics, politics, special interest, motivation, and community building tips and insights. I certainly do not think there is any site out there right now that covers the breadth and depth of what Orrin covers on his blog. In my opinion, this is a must read for all leaders and anyone interested in the above mentioned topics. I have yet to find anyone in the blogosphere talking candidly about Austrian economic principles and breaking down this science into simple to understand laymen’s terms and applying it to our current economic situation. If you have not read these posts you can check them all out by going to Orrin Woodward Leadership Team and reading all the articles in the economic section that is highlighted on the right side of the page.

Orrin Woodward Leadership Blog Honored!

Prolific best selling author and international leadership coach and community building guru, Orrin Woodward, recently had his personal leadership blog recognized as one of the top ten leadership blogs on the internet. He ranks in Alltops's top ten with best selling author Seth Godin and numerous other noteworthy leaders in the world today. This is a fantastic achievement for Orrin for only having started his personal blogging mission a little over a year ago. He has already built a large international following that spans Europe, Asia, and South America. You can follow his daily insights and teaching at http://orrinwoodward.blogharbor.com/ and his Twitter updates at http://twitter.com/Orrin_Woodward. Congratulations Orrin for reaching yet another milestone in your journey to help others grow in their leadership abilities.

5 LEVELS OF GOALS

This post is going to be the first of a five part series on the importance of goals. As leaders and performers all of use goals to make sure that we are progressing in our desired profession or field of talent. I have and will continue to always be a very goal driven person, but I am constantly following the PDCA cycle to make sure that I have my sights set on the correct goals. The reason why is because I know too many people that are goal oriented and for some reason view success as an event to stop growing instead of a process for continued growth.

National Bestselling Author Orrin Woodward commented, “If leaders do not continue to grow and learn they will fallback mentally and in influence. There is no staying the same in leadership - you are either growing or shrinking. I despise the term expert because and expert has all the answers and we are really all students attempting to learn every day.”The achievement of goals are not a means to an end, but a reason for continued growth.

The trouble with many "goal only" people is that once a goal is achieved they tend to become blinded by the spotlight of an achievement, thus rendering them unable to see their vision clearly. Don't let that happen to you! Goals are supposed to propel you towards your vision not prohibit you from your vision. Orrin Woodward, one of my leadership mentors has helped me to discover that there are 5 Levels of Goals. Benchmarking your performance goals with these 5 Levels will ensure continued success towards your vision.

G.O.A.L.S.

Level 1 - Growth Oriented

Level 2 - Organized Oriented

Level 3 - Action Oriented

Level 4 - Leadership Oriented

Level 5 - Servant Oriented

Over the course of the next few days we will explore each level in greater detail. In the meantime, take stock in your goals and benchmark them with the different levels. Goals are very important, but the right types of goals are critical to your success.

Enjoy the Journey!

God Bless, Matt Franks

Mentoring Today Leads to Multiplication Tomorrow

Any long term goal a leader has deals solely with the motivation of multiplying their influence.  Influence is multiplied when you are able to connect and lead other potential leaders to a place greater than they can lead themselves.  The process of leading leaders to that destination is called mentoring.  Leaders cannot be developed in massive crowds.  They are developed individually through life-on-life mentoring.  Noel Tichy, author of The Cycle of Leadership, said "A company's success is directly tied to its ability to create leaders. The companies with the most leaders are the most successful."

Having mentors in your life is critical to your success in any endeavor.  Notice I said the word mentors, not just mentor.  Too many people believe one person can lead them to the “promise land,” but that is simply not true.  Multiple mentors are what will be needed as you continue growing on your success journey.  People have their strengths and weakness, mentors are no exception.  In my life I have sought out multiple mentors that have strong qualities in the areas I am looking to develop.  I play to their strengths because they will enable my strengths. 

Mentors will be one of the most important assets in your leadership walk.  Why?  Because mentors have a natural characteristic to stretch others beyond the limits they could not do themselves.  Mentors in my leadership journey have been the missing pieces to the leadership puzzle that I am not smart enough to discover on my own.   I am constantly amazed when people try to accomplish things without benefiting from the evaluated experience of someone who is ahead of them in the journey. 

I have been very blessed to learn from many wonderful mentors in my life.  Constantly I reflect to make sure I am not taking their wisdom for granted.  One of the ways I make sure that I am not taking them for granted is making sure I invest time on the front preparing well thought out questions. The right questions set the right direction for a valuable mentoring session.  The depth of your questions proves to a mentor that you are valuing the time he/she is investing in you.  Remember, you will get the best from others when you give the best of yourself.  How does that principle apply to mentoring?  Very simple; you will get the best from your mentors when you first give them great questions.  Through interacting with my mentors, I have discovered a mentor does 6 major things for me.

Motivates change
Enables growth
Notices strengths
Teaches by example
Offers resources as learning blocks
Reviews progress

So now the question begs itself:  What are the qualities a good mentor must have?  As the saying goes, “there are 2 sure ways to fail: the first is you listen to everyone and the second is that you listen to no one.”  Bestselling author Orrin Woodward gave me tremendous insight into this very important question.  In an article he wrote on his blog, Orrin listed 5 qualities we should look for in a mentor.  Here they are:

1. Character – Anything shared in private stays private.
2. Love – Mentor must love person and want to see them grow.
3. Patience – Mentor must be patient and help student in self discovery.
4. Knowledge – Mentor must have journeyed down road to self discovery to give perspective during challenges.
5. Encouragement – Mentor must encourage student when they feel they are not making progress. 

Publilius Syrus was exactly right when he said, "Many receive advice, but only the wise profit from it."  When you get advice from the right people, listen to it and heed it.  You will not grow over night, but you will get better over time.  In addition, Orrin Woodward said, “Mentoring is the process of using invisible keys to unlock the hidden potential in another human being. It is not about a leader reproducing him or herself in another person, but about helping to maximize the best individual that lives inside the other person.” 

Remember that the mentoring process will feel very slow at first.  Anything worth doing is going to take some time and effort invested on the front end in order to reap the desired results on the back end.  Bestselling author John Maxwell said this in his book Contagious Leadership Workbook, “Mentorship is all about a movement, not a program.  Programs usually start very big, then eventually lose momentum and become very small.  Movements are just the opposite.  They usually start very small, and grow very large.” 

Put aside your ego so your mentors can help bring out your potential.  A candle loses nothing when it lights another; instead it doubles its brightness.  This is how mentoring works.  Trust me, your mentors will do their part, but you will have to do yours.  Pursue people that have the results in the areas you want out of life and render yourself teachable to what made them successful.  It won’t be comfortable at first, but press past the discomfort.  Be prepared to give up all that you are so you can receive all that you can. 

Enjoy the journey!!

God Bless,
Matt Franks