Trust. It's even profitable.

Trust is to success as influence is to leadership. You can't have one without the other. Stephen M. R. Covey, in his book Speed of Trust, tells us that we'll get deals done faster as our trust increases; us trusting others and others trusting us.

Covey outlines trust as Character and Competence.

Character is made up of Integrity and Intent.

Competence is about Capabilities and Results.

As he further breaks each of these down he identifies Integrity, Intent, Capabilities, and Results as the four cores of credibility.  Increase each of these and "deals" will get done faster. Increase the speed of getting business done and expenses go down. We know that as expenses go down, profits will go up.


The more you're trusted, the more you'll profit.

Simple. Huh?

The 3 C's of Success

Working with a client this week and discussing the qualities they were looking for in a new hire, the "3 C's" came up in the discussion. I was reminded of two men I highly respect - Bill Hybels and Dan Cathy. Both have built incredible organizations and use the qualities of Character, Competence and Chemistry in their selection process for new hires, associates and in Mr. Cathy's case, owner/operators of Chick-Fil-A stores.

Margins are the space needed to stay sane.

Margins are the space needed to stay sane.

-        Someone

The unbridled-driven person keeps adding things to their plate. Yet, rarely does he leave room for problems and confusion sets in. Confusion can lead to frustration, and frustration to a sincere desire to quit.

Does this describe or you? Or are you the recipient of a driven’s drive?

A good leader will leave margins in his schedule to handle the problems. Then, when problems come up, and they will, when confusion sets in, and it will, it isn’t compounded by not having enough time. 

Seriously…why would anyone care about growth?

Who cares about growth? Seriously…why would anyone care about growth?

For one………growth can be painfully slow.

Who wants to think about growth?

That can be so agonizing. Maybe I'm just thinking about it in relationship to how fast things seem to be happening these days.....that might be an age thing (?!)

Looking in, out and up: made for stewardship

Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear

fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can

you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

- John 15:4

Attending a mastermind group focused on John Maxwell's book The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth, John Griffin, a Maxwell certified coach and trainer, gave us assignments to bring 2 questions about the next Law to the next meeting. While these 7 weeks together doesn't give us time to do more than hit the top-of-the-waves, the book and Griffin's poking caused me to dig, as I was hoping. Yet, I wasn't necessarily expecting the digging to be in regards to work.

How much are you rationalizing your own failures?

I've been thinking. LOL. I know the joke, "That's a bit scary!"

My brother Randy says I think too much. What he probably means is I over-think things. And he's probably right except what I'm probably doing is……….what I'm probably doing is……

I'm trying to rationalize. I think.

Transparency. Stephen M.R. Covey, in his book Speed of Trust, defines transparency as "telling the truth in ways it can be verified." That's transparency!

Just write. Whatever pops up, just write.

I try to journal every morning and yesterday I found myself writing about values. Like most of my journaling, with pen in hand I start off giving thanks, stating my purpose for journaling and will ask myself a few questions. Ideally, the words start coming to my mind and I write.

Just write. Whatever pops up, I write.

Yesterday was one of those really good days. I'd started off as usual and after probably 15 minutes I realized I'd been writing about values. Looking back I realized I'd asked myself "what do I value?" and had at first answered the normal stuff like honesty, integrity, family, God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, friends…

But then, and this is where authentic journaling really kicks in, I wrote about what I was thinking about, where I was spending my time, my goals, my dreams, my fears, my thoughts, my ideas. I was writing about what I really valued.

When realized what I had been writing about I thought "Huh? What's this?" And I looked back and realized…….

It’s a great day, Danny Smith

If you call me, you'll notice that's the how I answer my phone.........It's a great day, Danny Smith. It's also part of my voicemail greeting.

It’s not just on my voicemail, it’s a new voicemail I record every morning, weekdays at least!

Why do I do that?