Most people go to work five days a week to do a job. What makes that job fulfilling is the momentum and desire to make a difference and succeed. I have been blessed to work with a wonderful group of leaders in my organization. We strongly believe that MOMENTUM IS THE KEY TO A SUSTAINABLE GROWTH and share in the passion to build MOMENTUM among our teams. We have built one of the largest sales organizations in the country, through consistency focused on two primary areas.

1. Creating a strong environment rich in growth for everyone on the team.
2. Building and sustaining a momentum driven environment throughout the organization.

Start now and ask yourself, “How do we build momentum? Here are my eight steps to Sustainable Growth.

It takes:

1. A Leader to create the Momentum (Leadership)
2. Vision to build the momentum (Direction)
3. Effective Communication (Connect)
4. Achievable Goals (Laser Focus)
5. Small Wins or Victories along the way (Recognitions)
6. Consistency (Discipline and Build Trust)
7. Passion and Compassion (Love)
8. Integrity to sustain the momentum (Core Values)

“Connect and remember that you must touch the heart before you ask for the hand.” 

I feel that Momentum is the key to building and sustaining success – it’s what makes the difference between winning and losing. Position your team to experience winning! The right attitude is everything!

“The BIG push means being able to develop and sustain MOMENTUM toward your goal; it is the process of actively replacing excuses with winning habits, the ultimate excuses blockers. Moreover, it is being willing to go to the wall for what you want or believe in, to push beyond your previous mental and physical limits, no matter what it takes.” ― Lorii Myers

It’s important to ask yourself these two very important questions:

1. How can you build and then sustain momentum?

Whether you’re an entrepreneur or work for someone else, identify what you can do to create and sustain your momentum. Momentum Builders are critical to positioning your success.

2. Identify what are the Momentum ‘Killers’?

Lack of motion or inertia. Newton’s Law of Motion states, matter remains in its state of motion and direction unless acted upon by a force.  This law is important in defining how things behave around us giving momentum or inertia.

According to Newton’s first law, an object at rest will remain at rest unless acted on by an unbalanced force. An object in motion continues in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. This law is often called “The Law of Inertia”.

John Maxwell says it best in his book, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, in the chapter, “The Law of the BIG MO: Momentum is a Leader’s Best Friend”.

Here are the ‘Seven Truths’ about Momentum that I feel every leader needs to know:

1. Momentum is the great exaggerator. Often success is exaggerated by momentum and things will look bigger than they really are. When you have momentum, don’t worry about small problems, while larger challenges tend to work themselves out.
2. Momentum makes leaders look better than they are. Effective Leaders demonstrating momentum, have the appearance of being a genius.
3. Momentum helps followers perform beyond their actual abilities. When there is momentum, people are motivated to perform at higher levels.
4. Momentum is easier to steer than to start. Getting started can be a struggle, but once you’re moving forward, you can really start to do some amazing things.
5. Momentum is the most powerful agent of change. Given enough momentum, nearly any kind of change is possible, because people like to get on the winning bandwagon.
6. Momentum is the leader’s responsibility. Creating momentum requires someone who has vision, can assemble a good team and motivate them.
7. Momentum begins inside the leader. It starts with vision, passion, enthusiasm, and spreads from there.

To apply the Law of the Big Mo, practice these three steps:

Step #1 – Model the attitude and work ethic that you would like to see in others. Take responsibility for the momentum in your area of leadership. Be passionate about your vision and display enthusiasm at all times.

Step #2 – Build motivation to develop momentum. Remove any obstacles that cause people to lose their passion and enthusiasm. Identify and put into action the specific elements that will motivate your team.

Step #3 – Help people celebrate their accomplishments. Make it a regular practice to honor people who move the ball forward. Take the time to acknowledge and praise effort, never forgetting to reward their success.

You know when you have momentum, you’re on top, hitting your stride, positive, focused, alive and heading toward your objective and true success.

In summary, work with the ‘eight steps to Sustainable Growth’, avoid ‘Momentum Killers’ and apply the “Law of the Big MO”. Finally, lead your team with the three steps that Model, Build and Help bring everyone to their fullest potential.

I am LinkedIn:http://www.linkedin.com/in/farshadasl

And more…

A year ago, I experienced the most remarkable week in my life! This is what happened. . .

It began when I joined a team of coaches who are the most genuine and wonderful people I could hope to be a part of and we traveled to Guatemala. Most of us did not know where Guatemala was or speak the language. We just knew that John Maxwell had invited us to go with him to a country that wanted to make a change.

I did have a moment or two when I questioned, why am I going? I’m only one person – how can I make a difference? At the threshold of going, my wife and daughters gave me the assurance that this was the right thing to do and that I should go.

That’s when I put my trust in God and knew he would take me where I was supposed to go. I promised myself “I would give my very best every day and let God do his part”. That’s when my transformation began.

In early 2013, when the President of Guatemala contacted John Maxwell to come to his country and bring the skills he is so well known for – ‘leadership and values’, he agreed to find out what was needed. John Maxwell spent time with the President, top people in government, businesses and the 8 families that controlled 83% of the wealth in Guatemala, and then made the commitment to return. His plan was to raise the values in the country and begin a life-changing event for many who comprised the 7 streams of influence, which included: government, business, education, arts media, family and religion. The task was massive, the time to start urgent, and the objective crystal clear – to raise the values for thousands of people in Guatemala.

Guatemala is a beautiful country with amazing, big-hearted people, located in Central America. The population is nearing 16 million with the majority of people living outside the city in extreme poverty, malnourished and without human rights. The average age in the country is 20.

So the team of coaches traveled from all over the world, for some, it took more than 24 hours to get there. Upon arrival, we met with John Maxwell and received guidance for the week. We then met with the President and Congress who then gave us their commitment and blessing to support our efforts.

Every day began early at 6:00 a.m., meeting in the lobby so we could travel to one of the many locations in the city or countryside.  I was assigned to Bantrab Bank, one of the largest banks in Central America, which employees 3500 people. I met with the highest-level managers and knew how important it would be to connect with everyone. I asked my interpreter to help me and not only translate my words but ‘hop’ if I ‘hopped’ and express my emotions to the group to extend past the language barrier. She was incredible. I realized we were connecting when 2 hours into our training, the Vice President of Bantrab Bank took the microphone.  When he spoke on behalf of the group, I was incredibly moved that in order to make a difference for Guatemala, the managers of the bank would continue this training for the next 30 weeks in round table training. It was an incredible experience. I could see the commitment, ownership and the willingness to CHANGE.

After the first day’s training, the coaches returned around 6:00 p.m. for dinner. We were so excited to share our experiences. During dinner a message was received that the Bank was requesting the same “guy” back to continue training the group for the rest of the week. I was so honored.

We continued training the next day and while I was going through some of the leadership values, I felt something unusual happening in the room. I was sharing stories that I had great passion for, not noticing it had become quiet. My translator had stopped speaking and had been moved to tears. I continued to express myself in English, gesturing and enthusiastically talking for about 3 minutes until I realized it had gotten quiet and some people were sniffing. Suddenly people began to giggle and I caught on that they had no idea what I had been saying! There was so much love and a great connection! It was wonderful!

The week concluded with the John Maxwell team being honored in the stadium followed by dinner in one of the most beautiful old palaces in Guatemala. We were honored by some of the Guatemalan leaders and thanked for our partnership in shifting the paradigm and bringing Transformational Leadership to Guatemala.

I reflect back on the amazing experiences that I shared with just a few people who then shared their experience with a few more people until an amazing 19,000 Guatemalans were trained that week. Today thousands of leaders have been trained in the round table program. News of the success has spread and additional interest has developed in 9 other South American countries looking for the same opportunity

“La Transformación Está en Mí”….“Transformation Begins With Me” and only me.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/farshadasl

I’d like to share “My Rule of 5” and the importance of Mentoring. These are some of the things I incorporate into my daily habits. The first is that I believe in the importance of being mentored. It’s invaluable to have someone to talk with and receive their guidance as you journey along your path. I feel so blessed to have been coached and mentored by a few people from my company, Bankers Life and the John Maxwell Team. The other part of the equation is my “Rule of 5”. These are concepts I’d like to share with you to embody in your journey to become the best version of you!

#1 VISION

Crystal clear “Vision” is to know exactly where you are going. It’s something you can’t wait to share with others daily. The excitement is infectious and others will want to be a part of your vision. Sharing my vision has given me a sense of purpose and direction as I leverage building a successful team around me. To stay focused, I use a vision board. I love to hear people describe theirs, often with objectives that focus on getting a dream car, home, vacation, or maybe some form of monetary gain.   There’s nothing wrong with that. My vision board was like that until I received coaching and identified that the objective changed. It shifted from measuring success with possessions to who I wanted to become. I learned that what I thought was important was no longer the case. It’s an amazing journey and I recommend that you take your vision to a whole new level. Review your perspective and challenge yourself to project 5 to 10 years out with your vision board. What an incredible shift you gain in your outlook. I believe the #1 reason for my success to this point is that I challenge myself to be the person I want to become.

“Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” ― C.G. Jung

#2 BRAND/MARKETING

What is your “Brand”, your purpose? In the past, it was common to “market” or advertise your products. The goal was to get more customers through this method. Today, marketing is important, but branding is even more so for your success. The consumer will buy you before they buy the product or service. So try to develop a brand and market yourself. It will take you to a whole new level whether it’s an entrepreneurial business, leadership, being a sales person, business owner, teacher, doctor or any business you may have. The key to your success is not advertising products, but about developing your brand. What are you known for?

My Brand I would like to say is “Leadership with Passion”.

#3 BE SELECTIVE

As a successful individual, you are best served to “Be Selective”. Pay attention to who you surround yourself with at all times. Are the people you’re with adding or subtracting value? I made the choice a long time ago to surround myself with winners. People who bring out the best in me and I in them. It’s exhilarating to interact with people who get you out of your comfort zone and challenge you to do something that helps you develop. If you’re the smartest person in the group, you’re in the wrong place and need to switch groups.

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” ― Jim Rohn

#4 FOLLOW UP

The concept to “Follow Up” is very important to your success. This should become second nature in everything you do. Human nature is to procrastinate. Most people don’t follow up, they assume that others will do it or that it isn’t necessary. Assumption is a leader’s biggest enemy. To meet your expectations, follow up!

What kind of follow up system do you have?

#5 FOLLOW THROUGH

“Follow Through” is a key factor to your integrity and credibility. Doing what you say you’ll do is crucial. If you promise to deliver something, no matter how big or little, and do not follow through, you create distrust and lose all credibility with your team. Lead by example and build a team of successful people to have around you.

“You have to have confidence in your ability, and then be tough enough to follow through.” – Rosalynn Carter

Remember these important qualities and be successful!

My Rule of 5

#1      Vision – Crystal Clear

#2      Brand/Marketing

#3      Be Selective

#4      Follow Up

#5      Follow Through

In everything you do, life or business related, remember these 5 concepts. They will impact your journey positively. It’s simple yet significant, how it will affect you. Learn them and live them!

Live with passion!

Farshad Asl

I am LinkedIn:http://www.linkedin.com/in/farshadasl

With over 60 Million copies sold worldwide, “Think & Grow Rich” By Napoleon Hill is one of the most profound books read in many successful peoples lives and also the blueprint for success. This book is a collection of principles for the attainment of wealth and financial independence.

Hill interviewed 504 people, including such luminaries as Ford, Wrigley, Wanamaker, Eastman, Rockefeller, Thomas Edison, Woolworth, Darrow, Burbank, Morgan, Firestone, and three United States Presidents.

About The Book:
13 Proven Steps to Riches
Inspired By Andrew Carnegie
Organized through 25 years of research, in collaboration with more than 500 distinguished men of great wealth, who proved with their own achievements that this philosophy of this is practical.

1. Burning Desire:
Desire is the starting point of all achievement.

2. Faith:
Think you can win, and you will win.

3. Auto-Suggestion:
Man has absolute control over what reaches his subconscious mind through his five senses.

4. Specialized Knowledge:
Knowledge only becomes true power if and when organized into definite plans of action.

5. Imagination:
Synthetic Imagination & Creative Imagination

6. Organized Planning:
The Crystallization of Desire into Action

7. Decision:
Lack of decision is near the head of the major causes of failure.
Procrastination, the opposite of decision, is an enemy every man must conquer.

8. Persistence:
The basis of persistence is the power of will. If willpower and desire are properly combined, they make an irresistible pair.

9. The Mastermind:
Organized effort is produced through the combined and harmonious efforts of two or more people.

10. The Mystery of Sex Transmutation

11. Subconscious Mind:
The Connecting Link

12. The Brain:
Every human brain is both a broadcasting and receiving station for the vibration of thought.
Every human brain is capable of picking up vibrations of thought that are being released by other brains.

13. The Sixth Sense:
Through the aid of the sixth sense, you will be warned of impending dangers in time to avoid them.
You will also be notified of opportunities in time to embrace them.

Six Ghosts of Fear; Fear of Poverty, Fear of Criticism, Fear of ill health, Fear of Loss of love of someone, The fear of old age, The fear of death

“All success begins with something
definite that you fully intend to do.
Success is a function of definiteness of purpose.” – Napoleon Hill

This is an amazing book that has been revised many times and has always been a Best-Seller. I highly recommend it for people of all ages that are interested in learning the qualities that need to be developed in order to be successful. I also strongly recommend attending a Mastermind Group to study this wonderful book. It’s a life-changer!

Here I have selected some of the top “Think & Grow Rich” quotes for your review:

“Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success”

“Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed on an equal or greater benefit.”

“Self-discipline begins with the mastery of your thoughts. If you don’t control what you think, you can’t control what you do. Simply, self-discipline enables you to think first and act afterward.”

“The world has the habit of making room for the man whose actions show that he knows where he is going.”

“Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness.”

Live with passion!
~Farshad Asl

Lesson 1: Pray first, and pray like you mean it
Lesson 2: Be a Servant Leader and not a Positional Leader
Lesson 3: Every team needs a leader
Lesson 4: The leader picks the team
Lesson 5: Big teams need a smaller team within the team
Lesson 6: Diversified teams are the best teams
Lesson 7: You can only provide an opportunity to succeed
Lesson 8: Train the called, don’t call the trained
Lesson 9: Under authority before in authority
Lesson 10: Persevere to the end
Lesson 11: It takes SACRIFICE to achieve VICTORY
Lesson 12: Always BE PREPARED
Lesson 13: After the Darkness comes Light.
Lesson 14: Pay the PRICE today and expect to receive the best tomorrow
Lesson 15: Have Faith and ALWAYS trust in the Lord

He Is Risen!

Are you concern about the performance of your people? Looking for ways to increase productivity? If yes, then you are in the right place at the right time. I’m going to share with you why “CULTURE” is so important. Are you ready?
Here we go:

1. If you see a man without a smile, give him one of yours. 🙂 it’s FREE…by the way, you look much better when you SMILE. People rarely succeed at ANYTHING unless they ENJOY it. If you are responsible as a leader, walk around, shake hands, and call people by their first name- every single of them.

2. Communicate openly, let your people know what’s going on, it’s sometimes very uncomfortable BUT the IT IS the only way you can build a great CULTURE.

3. Treating people with dignity, trust and confidence in people as well as providing them with an opportunity to make decisions and become PARTNERS rather than just participants (workers). The “sense of belonging” is so crucial to build a great culture. Let me give you an example of a successful business through people…Hewlett-Packard (HP) and their corporate philosophy: “the achievements of an organization are result of combined efforts of each individual….” And a few sentences later HP reinforces it’s commitment to innovative people, a philosophy that has been a driving force in the organization’s success. “FIRST, should be highly capable, innovative people throughout the organization…SECOND, the organization should have objectives and LEADERSHIP who generates enthusiasm at all levels.

4. Successful organizations with good leadership [should not] have a tight! military-type organization, but rather…give people the freedom to work toward the VISION in ways they determine BEST for their own areas of responsibility.

5. I like to give you another example of a successful organization; Bankers Life and Casualty Co.
I’ve the honor to work with this great company for the past 15 years. The most extraordinary trait at Bankers Life has been the uniformity of commitment, the consistency of approach and attitude. Bankers people at all levels show positive energy and enthusiasm. With more than 300 locations everyone feels like a winner. The opportunity to serve others has been given to the team members.

The key ingredient is productivity through people and Bankers has done that pretty well.
Leadership believes that your success is only possible if you provide a great training system to your people and give them opportunity for development so they can improve their skills, expand their career opportunities or simply further their general education.

(Bankers Life; Established in 1879 in Chicago, Bankers Life and Casualty Company focuses on the insurance needs of the retirement market. The nationwide company, a subsidiary of CNO Financial group, Inc. (NYSE: CNO), offers a broad portfolio of health and life insurance and annuities designed especially for retirees.)

6. Language; the language in people oriented organizations has a common flavor. Once they start talking the philosophy, they may start living it, even if, initially, the words have no meaning. For example, “Living a Life of Significance with Bankers Life”, “The HP Way” or so many other examples…. But I doubt they meant very much to anyone when the language was first introduced. As time went by, the phrase took a deeper and richer meanings in ways that no one would have suspected.

7. Leadership; everything starts right here, right now.
“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others” ~JACK WELCH

Build a solid culture, communicate your vision and start leading by EXAMPLE…AND don’t forget to SMILE at every turn 🙂

Cheers!

Managers make sure the work gets done; leaders make sure the work gets done differently and effectively. Managers make sure the system is in place. Leaders catch people doing things right.
Managers improve systems, leaders develop people. Both activities are valuable and necessary, but they differ significantly.

“Each of us can look back upon someone who made a great difference in our lives, someone whose wisdom or simple acts of caring made an impression upon us. In all likelihood it was someone who sought no recognition for their deed other than the joy of knowing that, by their hand, another’s life had been made better.” ~ Stephen M. Wolf

Leadership today is either “positional” or “influential”
The biggest challenge today is that 90% of the leaders are “positional” leaders and only 10% are “influential” leaders.

How can we develop true leaders rather than just promoting them to the position? Here are seven characteristics of Influential Leaders:

1. Influential Leaders focus on people and not the profit only

2. Influential Leaders promote creativity and not the corporate traditional ways of doing things only

3. Influential Leaders get people to “willing” to achieve and not to “have to” achieve

4. Influential Leaders help people to feel as partners and not participants

5. Influential Leaders are not about “charismatic command and control persuasion” anymore; it is increasingly about the collaborative and horizontal skills of trust and influence.

6. Influential Leaders are intentional and not accidental

7. Influential Leaders lead from humility and NOT pride

“Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less. How do you gain influence from people? You invest in them. How do you invest in them? It starts with giving them time.” ~ John C. Maxwell

Live with passion!
Farshad Asl
2014