The Joshua Group

06/06/2013

“IT ALL BEGINS WITH A DREAM

If you live your dream and successfully share it, others will buy into it. People have a desire to follow a leader with a great dream. Now more than ever, people are looking for heroes. Unfortunately, many are looking in places that are likely to leave them disappointed: sports, music, movies, and television. But real heroes are leaders who can help others achieve success, people who take others with them. And it all begins with a dream. As Winifred Newman said, “Vision is the world’s most desperate need. There are no hopeless situations, only people who think hopelessly.”

—Your Road Map for Success

SHARE YOUR VISION WITH SOMEONE TODAY”

Excerpt From: Maxwell, John

05/16/2013

“DEPENDABILITY

Are your teammates able to depend on you? Can they trust your motives? Do you make good decisions that others can rely on? And do you perform consistently, even when you don’t feel like it? Are you a go-to player, or do your teammates work around you when crunch time comes?

To improve your dependability . . .

Check your motives. If you haven’t committed goals to paper before, stop and do it before reading any farther. Now, look at those goals. How many of them benefit the teams you’re part of—your family, the organization you work for, your fellow volunteers, the other players on your ball team? How many benefit only you personally? Spend some time working to align your personal priorities with those of your team.

Discover what your word is worth. Approach five teammates with this question: “When I say that I intend to do something, how reliable am I? Rate me on a scale of one to ten.” Include a superior and a subordinate in your survey, if possible. If the answers you get don’t match your expectations, don’t defend yourself. Simply ask for examples in a nonthreaten-ing way. If the average answer is “lower than a nine or ten, then start writing down your commitments as you make them from that day forward, and track your follow-through for one month.

Find someone to hold you accountable. You are more likely to follow through and develop dependability if you have a partner to help you. Find someone you respect to help you keep your commitments.

—The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player

TAKE STEPS TO IMPROVE YOUR DEPENDABILITY TODAY,
AND FIND SOMEONE TO HELP HOLD YOU ACCOUNTABLE.”

Excerpt From: Maxwell, John

But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath; but your yes is to be yes, and your no, no, so that you may not fall under judgment. James 5:12

05/13/2013

“DEVELOPING COMPETENCY

A competent person does what he does well, continually persevering and distilling what’s best—and he stops doing what he doesn’t do well. Does that describe you? Do you focus your energy on what you can do well so that you become highly competent at it? Can your teammates depend on you to deliver in such a way that it brings the entire team success? If not, you may need to get better focused and develop the skills you need so that you can do your job and do it well.

To improve your competence . . .

Focus yourself professionally. It’s hard to develop competence if you’re trying to do everything. Pick an area in which to specialize. What is the one thing that brings together your skills, interests, and opportunities? Whatever it is, seize it.

Sweat the small stuff. Too many people don’t take their work as far as they can. To do that, you need to develop an ability to get all the details right. That doesn’t mean becoming a micromanager or control freak. It means doing the last 10 percent of whatever job you’re doing. Try doing that on the next project or big task that is your responsibility.

Give more attention to implementation. Since implementation is often the most difficult part of any job, give it greater attention. How can you improve the gap between coming up with ideas and putting them into practice? Get your teammates together and discuss how you can improve the process.

—The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player

BRING EXCEPTIONAL FOCUS TO YOUR WORK TODAY.”

Excerpt From: Maxwell, John

05/10/2013

“IT’S ALL ABOUT THE TEAM

Some sports teams seem to embrace an “everyone-for-himself” mind-set. Others weave the attitude of subordination and teamwork into the fabric of everything they do. For example, football teams such as Notre Dame and Penn State don’t put the names of the players on their jerseys. Lou Holtz, former coach of the Fighting Irish, once explained why. He said, “At Notre Dame, we believed the interlocking ND was all the identification you needed. Whenever anyone complained, I told them they were lucky we allowed numbers on the uniforms. Given my druthers, I would have nothing more than initials indicating what position the wearer played. If your priority is the team rather than yourself, what else do you need?”

Winning teams have players who put the good of the team ahead of themselves. They want to play in their area of strength, but they’re willing to do what it takes to take care of the team. They are willing to sacrifice their role for the greater goal.

—The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork

ARE YOU WILLING TO DO WHAT IT TAKES
TODAY FOR THE GOOD OF THE TEAM?”

Excerpt From: Maxwell, John

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; Philippians 2:3 NASB

05/09/2013

“PROBLEM SOLVING

Author George Matthew Adams stated, “What you think means more than anything else in your life. More than what you earn, more than where you live, more than your social position, and more than what anyone else may think about you.” Every problem introduces you to yourself. It shows you how you think and what you’re made of.

When you come face-to-face with a problem, how do you react? Do you ignore it and hope it will go away? Do you feel powerless to solve it? Have you had such bad experiences trying to solve problems in the past that you’ve just given up? Or do you tackle them willingly? The ability to solve problems effectively comes from experience facing and overcoming obstacles. Each time you solve another problem, you get a little better at the process. But if you never try, fail, and try again, you’ll never be good at it.

—The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader

BE WILLING TO TACKLE A DIFFICULT PROBLEM TODAY—
EVEN IF IT MEANS YOU ARE LIKELY TO FAIL.”

Excerpt From: Maxwell, John.

05/08/2013

GIVE PEOPLE HOPE

A reporter asked Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who led Britain during the dark moments of the Second World War, what was the greatest weapon his country possessed against the N**i regime of Hi**er. Without pausing for even a moment, Churchill said, “It was what England’s greatest weapon has always been—hope.”

Hope is one of the most powerful and energizing words in the English language. It is something that gives us power to keep going in the toughest of times. And its power energizes us with excitement and anticipation as we look toward the future.

It’s been said that a person can live forty days without food, four days without water, four minutes without air, but only four seconds without hope. If you want to help people win, then become a purveyor of hope”

“—25 Ways to Win with People

BE THE BRINGER OF HOPE TO YOUR TEAM TODAY.”

Excerpt From: Maxwell, John

05/06/2013

TJG Winning beyond the Game

COMPETENCE

We all admire people who display high competence, whether they are precision craftsmen, world-class athletes, or successful business leaders. If you want to cultivate that quality, here’s what you need to do.

1. Show Up Every Day. Responsible people show up when they’re expected. But highly competent people take it a step farther. They come ready to play every day—no matter how they feel, what kind of circumstances they face, or how difficult they expect the game to be.

2. Keep Improving. All highly competent people continually search for ways to keep learning, growing, and improving. They do that by asking why. After all, the person who knows how will always have a job, but the person who knows why will always be the boss.

3. Follow Through with Excellence. I’ve never met a person I considered competent who didn’t follow through. As leaders, we expect our people to follow through when we hand them the ball. They expect that and a whole lot more from us as their leaders.

4. Accomplish More than Expected. Highly competent people always go the extra mile. For them, good enough is never good enough. Leaders cannot afford to just “make it through the day. They need to do the job, and then some, day in and day out.

5. Inspire Others. Highly competent leaders do more than perform at a high level. They inspire and motivate their people to do the same. While some people rely on relational skills alone to survive, effective leaders combine these skills with high competence to take their organizations to new levels of excellence and influence.”

“—The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader

ARE YOU INSPIRING YOUR TEAMMATES
WITH A HIGH LEVEL OF COMPETENCE?”

Excerpt From: Maxwell, John.

07/30/2012

07/05/2012

Congratulations Ryan!
Ryan made the USA Paralympic team and will be representing all of us in England. Your character and heart sets the standard for all of us to follow

07/04/2012

Congratulations to Ryan Chalmers for making the 2014 ParaOlympic Team! http://bit.ly/P8i1Iz