BE A MENTOR...

First off may I be the first to wish you and your family HAPPY 4TH OF JULY.

Second I have a fun job at times seeing parts of the country and meeting new people. I am a people person so I want to talk to you about your neighborhood and how to motivate on a local level. I had the great pleasure last week of having my son Connor and our dog Keewee over at my place for the whole week. I really felt whole again with the two of them and a sense of family. Now like most of you that have a dog you need to take them out to do well their business. I live in a friendly area near the airport, so much so that I have taken the responsibility of waving to all that drove by as Connor and I walked Keewee. I would like to bring the wave back to all of our neighborhoods as a sign of motivating others with a happy and friendly gesture. Honestly if you do this and at first you will feel silly but well who cares? This will make you feel good with a simple wave of your hand, and the other person will feel good receiving it. Trust me.

One of my good friends Jim L went to a Catholic college in Depere Wisconsin named ST. Norbert College. Now as freshmen you were required to say hello to everyone you walked by. This created a positive habit that would last all four years of school. I would go up there for visits and felt a sense that I needed to continue this tradition even though I was not a student. I felt great by doing this and I still catch myself to this day saying hello to passers walking by.

I have been in offices where some workers high five each other and I join in as well. So think of this as just high fiving your friends when you are waving to others in your neck of the woods. I have had no one waving just one finger at me last week at all. My wish is to bring fun and smiles to our wonderful country that we live in.

Third topic I want to discuss with you is mentoring. I was telling you that I had Connor for the week, and I again felt like a parent. What I mean by this was I had to make sure his homework was done for the week. I worked with him on studying for a test as well as reciting “Twas the Night before Christmas” that he needed to try and memorize for a school assembly. I loved every minute of getting this opportunity with helping him to learn. Normally I do not have a lot of time with him on the weekends so finally I wanted to do my very best to mentor him.

As a trainer I get to see many different management styles since our teams work very closely with the sales departments. If you know me then you understand my passion about being a trainer and creating positive learning environments. At the same time I see how corporations treat employees as far as lack of mentoring and teaching to be not only better managers but better people. I try as a parent to mentor my son by leading by example. There were times last week that he would either ride his bike or scooter while jogging along with Keewee. Now I am hopefully instilling the necessity of physical fitness and being a responsible pet owner. I do not see so called leaders with-in organizations mentoring their people to be successful not just sales people but as an employee. Including the company I work for currently there were no mentor programs to help us become better trainers. This bothers me because you would think that a company would want to mentor their people in such a way that employees would possibly want to stay for long periods. Even with the current unemployment rate of 10.2% companies to me feel that they don’t care if you are unhappy you should be grateful to have a job. That is still no way to treat people, it is vital to mentor each other in these tough times even if your manager does not have the time or resources.

It very much saddens me that when companies need to cut budgets the training is one of the first to be cut. Training people is my passion and I hope that my enthusiasm for training comes out that people want to learn in my classroom. As a matter of fact if you walk by one of my training sessions I guarantee that the students will feel that I am a pretty good mentor but I will wave to you as well.

SHOUT OUT TIME!!!!!

Shout Out to MR.ED you is back on his feet after having surgery.

Shout Out to Angie for her competitive nature and our quest to live healthy life styles.

Shout Out to Patti, you inspire me to be a better trainer and write this blog.

Shout Out to The Nelson/Foos family A.K.A The Miller’s for their ability to let me back into their life.

*********QUESTION*********

What book can you read over and over again to inspire you??