11.25.2008

Teaching PLI: The PLI Curriculum Is Here!

Click here.

Our Personal Leadership Insight curriculum is tailor made for leadership classes or personal leadership study.

The curriculum includes:

The Locator - The leadership guidebook designed to improve your understanding of how to positively influence people and situations to create value and growth. Basically, it helps you become a leadership ninja warrior.

The Navigator - Every great leader had help getting there. This is the instructor's guide to not only teaching the student material, but it includes more bells and whistles than Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. It features facilitation tips, one day to one month long project ideas, over 50 of our best leadership classroom exercises and provides you access to online resources that will enrich the students' learning experience and make teaching PLI a barrel full of fun for you.

The Primer - An abbreviated version of The Locator, this element is great for just dipping your feet in the PLI pond. You won't learn to swim, but you won't be left behind either.

Find out more information, download a preview copy of the materials, get pricing and buy online by clicking here.

11.13.2008

Innovative: The Magic of SNL

Weekend Edition is an ongoing skit on Saturday Night Live. The process that the writers go through to create the jokes that make it on the short bit teaches a quick lesson on finding creative ideas and solutions.

1. Each week, the three main SNL writers create 800 jokes for Weekend Edition. 800.

2. The head writer (Seth Meyers) for SNL then whittles that list down to 200ish that he thinks are W.E. Worthy.

3. Lorne Michaels, the head guy at SNL, then chops that down to 18-20 jokes that actually make the cut.

To get to 20 working lines, they have to come up with 40 times that many. So, next time you either think you can't find an answer or need a more creative idea, look a little harder.


11.10.2008

Skill Assessment: The New Three Giant Jumps




I had the ultra-cool experience of keynoting the Oklahoma Association of Student Councils State Conference this morning in the beautiful Performing Arts Center on campus in Jenks, Oklahoma. PDC Productions out of Norman, Oklahoma provided the Audio/Visual support and did a great job. The 1,500 student council officers and members provided the energy and we had a powerful 45-minutes.


I put together a new "3 Giant Jumps" message for the program and here they are...


[Programming Note - The 3 Giant Jumps speaks to three big moves good student leaders need to make to become great student leaders.]


Jump #1 - Go from Concerned to Consumed


Good leaders are concerned with being a leader and everything that goes along with it. Great leaders are absolutely consumed with it. They constantly think about how they can serve others, make things better, create greatness, etc. This consumed attitude allows great leaders to create amazing things that lead to remarkable results.


Jump #2 - Go from "I am" to "I create"


Good leaders know who they are. They are very self-aware. They have a ton of language for how they are built. Great leaders not only know who they are, they also intimately know what they create. Not only do they know what they create, they also place a good amount of their identity on what they create. They are consumed with creating value, making things happen and leaving a legacy.


Jump #3 - Go from an Obligation to a Privilege


Good leaders feel obligated to lead. They take responsibility for not only the conditions of their own life, but for the conditions of those around them. Great leaders don't just see their leadership duties as an obligation (something they have to do), they see them as a privilege (something they get to do). This mindset creates a greater enthusiasm and a stronger commitment towards the responsibility of leadership. Great leaders view their work as a joy, not as a job.