I love getting feedback on my speaking events, which normally happens right after the event. Two days ago I received an email which I’d like to share:

“This is a belated thank you for your presentation September 11, 2018.  I found your presentation very touching.  It also made me more mindful, your personal experience created a new “memory” of the day for me, different than than the one we civilians had of the repeated news reels.  Your openness of such tragic and heroic events was very touching. 
Your time and openness is truly appreciated, and I hope you are able to get into the high schools as you suggested.  These kids were babies and have NO memory of these recent tragic events.
Thank you for sharing.
Mary, Naperville, Illinois"

Thanks you Mary, for making my day and for reminding me that my presentations make a difference. We love visiting high schools, colleges, clubs, and organizations.

Leadership in 2019

There are many posting about Leadership in social media as we start 2019. 

What are you doing to become the leader you want and need to be? 

I can help.  Seats available at my Feb 20-22 Leadership Excellence Course in Hoffman Estates.    

Be bold. Take action. Find Excellence!

https://www.academyleadership.com/excellence/

What a great way to start 2019!

Working with great local business leaders, we completed a Leadership Excellence Course on Friday, Jan. 4, 2019. My first LEC of the New Year (with more scheduled). This LEC was different in format than others I have held before. We spread our LEC out over three engaging and interactive Fridays of focused leadership exploration, starting in December and spanning the Holidays.

While the very concise and focused 3-day LEC has great benefits, spreading out the training provided for more depth and reflection. Here’s some feedback from one of the great participants:

“The program helps leaders build a practical, actionable, effective toolset to become strong leaders in a business or as an entrepreneur.“ Maggie

Many thanks to the LEC participants - I feel we had a great experience and by sharing our challenges and successes, we are helping each other to grow and prosper. The ongoing Leadership Coaching will be fun and fulfilling as well!

How’s your leadership working for you? Invest in yourself, your career, your success. Call me.

Ryan

With gratitude for all I have worked with and helped in 2018 and before, I want to wish all my very best wishes for a great 2019.

The new year represents opportunities to learn, to grow, and to succeed. It’s a great chance to reflect and restart, and to focus on future success.

Be the very best person you can be, bring your best game to what is important to you, and be happy.

If I can be of service, please let me know. Happy New Year!

Ryan

Where do we go from here?

Far too often we see headlines in print, TV coverage, or online postings about some other aspect of our failure to support our veterans, or to meet our obligations to those who served. USA Today reported this morning:

“The VA has 133 nursing homes across the country that serve 46,000 veterans annually.

Newly released VA data show that 95 of them – about 71 percent – scored worse than private nursing homes on a majority of quality indicators, such as rates of infection, serious pain and bed sores.

Roughly the same number, 93, received only one or two stars out of five for quality in the agency’s own ratings.”

The USA Today headline: “‘Nothing short of horrifying:’ Veterans' groups demand fixes at VA nursing homes”

(https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/11/19/va-nursing-homes-veteran-groups-want-fixes-after-horrifying-reports-trump-administration-congress/2018781002/)

We are spending more and more money on a rapidly shrinking population of veterans, and apparently are not improving in many or any valid metrics of service and care. We just observed the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day, which we now use to honor our veterans.

Perhaps we would do well to really care for our veterans and really honor their service. We owe them that.

Sharing: CEOs Share Leadership Lessons From The U.S. Military

Great article on lessons learned in the military and how they translate to the business world. H/T to a great business leader who got his start in the military, Tom Deierlein.

https://chiefexecutive.net/what-we-learned-ceos-share-lessons-from-the-u-s-military/

Military Records and Honorable Service

My expertise comes from experience.

I am able to provide meaning for families about their veteran’s service and to help the veteran, if living and able/willing, to share their history. It all starts with the veteran’s Military Discharge Document - most commonly the AGO Form 53-55 or DD-214. Take a look at this form. To far too many, this form is meaningless. Blocks of dates, codes, abbreviations and confusing details. From my training and experience, combined with a strong knowledge of military history, I can decipher this one page military resume and help veterans and families find the details about their service.