***STUDY
"I am a pupil and need to be taught."
--Inscription on a medallion that Peter the Great wore most of his life

***ACCURACY
"Father was never willing to pay a bill which he did not know to be correct in all the details. Such care in small things might seem penurious to some people, yet to him it was the working out of a life principle." --John D. Rockefeller, Jr. describing his father

***DEFINITIONS

"Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it." --Lou Holtz

***TRUE LOVE

Love me when I least deserve it, because that's when I really need it." --Swedish proverb

***COMMITMENT
"I don't order you to attack; I order you to die."
--Ataturk (Mustafa Kemal) To his troops at the battle of Gallipoli, 1915. (Ataturk went on to become President of the Turkish Republic. He is known as the Father of Modern Turkey.)

***SELF-DISCIPLINE
"The ability to turn bad habits into good habits."
--Dick Biggs, author Burn Brightly Without Burning Out

LEADERSHIP LESSONS--The Executive Coach

One thing that separates great leaders from their peers is great leaders' ability to find resources to take them to higher levels of achievement.

The resource may be a tool, such as a more powerful telescope, or a stronger microscope, or better software. The resource may be a group of advisors or friends, such as Benjamin Franklin's Junto or today's TEC (The Executive Committee) or a mastermind group. Or the resource may be an individual tutor or coach.  In fact, many of today's highest achievers use executive coaches as a key resource.

An executive coach can help you avoid politically damaging missteps.

An executive coach can enable you identify and prioritize tasks, choose what to do and what not to do.

Sometimes when I'm in an executive coaching session with a senior executive, I find that I'm "coaching" in the broadest sense of the word. I become a sounding board for new or risky ideas.

Executives have to be careful when speaking with people outside the organization. That innocent-looking stranger may be doing commercial espionage for a competitor. An acquaintance may repeat what you told them to the wrong person.

Executives have to be careful when speaking inside the organization too. It's a rare individual whom everyone wants to see succeed. Even those who truly have your best interest at heart--spouses or close friends--may not have the background or requisite information to understand your idea.

It may turn out that your wonderful idea is not all that great. Wouldn't it be wonderful if you realized that before you announced it or tried to implement it?

An executive coach can sometimes help you spot the bad idea. Sometimes I've discovered that my clients don't need anyone to tell them that a particular idea should be abandoned. They recognize it themselves by verbalizing it.

When I do executive coaching, I sometimes become a therapist and social psychologist. An executive may feel depressed and mentally tired, but not know exactly why. One president told me in a session, "There's a lot going on in my life."

I asked him to identify, one by one, the issues that were "going on." He wrote them down and identified an action plan for each one.

Getting the troubling ideas out of his head and on a sheet of paper was a big step toward feeling better about his job and himself and taking appropriate action.

LINCOLN'S LOG

***"Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way."
--The Words Lincoln Lived By, p. 68

***One of my favorite Lincoln books is Alonso Rothschild's LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN. Published in 1906, it has long been out of print. (Amazon occasionally lists used copies.)

What makes this book valuable, aside from the excellent analysis and readability, is its organization--describing how Lincoln dealt with important and often difficult people. One of those people was Edwin M. Stanton, a brilliant but arrogant lawyer.

Here is an excerpt from the chapter "The Curbing of Stanton" which describes their first meeting--a high-profile trial at which a client had hired both of them to serve on the legal team that represented him.

"Our prairie lawyer, though he ranked high at home, made a poor impression upon Stanton who described him as a 'long, lank creature from Illinois, wearing a dirty linen duster for a coat, on the back of which the perspiration had splotched wide stains that resembled a map of this continent.'"

Lincoln overheard Stanton ask, 'Where did that long-armed creature come from, and what good can he do?' "

Stanton would have nothing to do with Lincoln, never invited him to dine with him, would not even converse with him, and eventually maneuvered him off the team.

Lincoln described the experience: "I have never been so brutally treated as by that man Stanton."

Somehow Lincoln was able to overcome his resentment. When it was time to select a cabinet, he chose Stanton for his Secretary of War.

Stanton's estimate of the prairie lawyer gradually changed. When Lincoln was struck down by the assassin's bullet, Stanton exclaimed: "There lies the greatest ruler of men the world has ever seen."

TRAVEL NOTES OF A ROAD WARRIOR

***CINCINNATI
It's a grand old city on the Ohio River with a storied past.

Enjoy a magnificent view of its skyline and handsome football and baseball fields by crossing over the river to Kentucky. While on the Kentucky side, visit the Newport Aquarium which contains a fine collection of sharks plus rare creatures such as the Mandarin fish, the wolf eel, flashlight fish and the color-changing Giant Pacific Octopus.

***AMERICUS, GEORGIA

Americus isn't on the way to anywhere, but it's a great side trip. Andersonville, the notorious Civil War prison, is just out of town, as is Plains, Georgia, where Jimmy Carter still resides.

If possible, arrange to be there on a Sunday morning when the former President teaches a Sunday School class at the Maranatha Baptist Church. The morning I visited, scores of visitors from all over the world were present. It is something to see a former President of the United States teach the Bible lesson in a knowledgeable manner and afterward mingle with common ordinary folk who've come in cars, vans, and buses to see him. He takes time to pose for photographs and greet them one by one. Was there ever such a former President?

IF YOU ARE INVOLVED IN PLANNING AN UPCOMING MEETING, SALES CONFERENCE, CUSTOMER-APPRECIATION EVENT OR SEMINAR, PLEASE TYPE "YES" BESIDE THE ITEM/S BELOW AND RETURN THIS EMAIL IN ORDER TO RECEIVE MORE ABOUT THE FOLLOWING PROGRAMS:

___Lincoln-Leadership

___Personal Productivity-Time Management

___Macroforces and Trends in American Society

___Keynote Presentation LESSONS FROM LEGENDS (Powerful stories from interview with famous high achievers)

___Executive Coaching

FEEDBACK

***"The Lincoln program was superb." Julie Brinkerhoff-Jacobs, President, Lifescapes International

***"Very, very good. I learned a lot." Richard Vondrak, CEO Labor Finders International, Inc.

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BOOKS, CDS, DVDS, AND AUDIO BOOKS BY GENE GRIESSMAN, Ph.D.

___"Lincoln Live" "Lincoln The CEO" "Lincoln For Leaders"

___Personal Productivity-Time Management "How To Get More Out Of Every Day"

___Keynote Presentation ("Lessons From Legends" "Success and Failure: Nine Secrets That Make The Difference")

___How To Do Business With Americans (For overseas businesspeople and for organizations with a multi-national workforce. Let us know if you're interested.)