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Good morning and Happy Friday! It’s going to be another beautiful Fall day here in West Virginia, and I will get to enjoy the colors of the changing leaves as I drive to Huntington to help some people work through a communication conflict. I was fortunate to be able to spend some time with these folks a few weeks ago, on a “fact finding” missing of sorts, and I’m confident we will work through the issues and develop some new guidelines for working together moving forward.

It’s really been a great week, filled with opportunities to share the gifts I’ve been given and add value to others in many ways. I spent a few hours with a small group of emerging leaders in the banking industry on Wednesday, teaching a couple of Laws of Growth (awareness and intentionality — my favorites, and truly the foundation for success in my humble opinion!) and a couple of Laws of Leadership (influence and connection). I learned vicariously from a couple of my coaching clients this week, as they discovered some personal truths. I watched John Maxwell’s book launch web cast. And I will soon be teaching Leadership Fundamentals to a couple of new supervisors.  I love what I do…

As I look ahead to the weekend, I have some bookkeeping to catch up on, some writing to do, and yoga, yoga, yoga! I will help my mother-in-law prepare to move into her new home. And I have a great new book to read, John C. Maxwell’s latest — Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Learn — about learning through adverse times.

What are you up to this weekend?

What do you need to do to take care of yourself?

What attention do the others in your life need from you?

What exciting things do you have coming up next week or in the coming weeks that you need to spend some time preparing for?

How will you feel when you get to and through some significant upcoming event, knowing you thoughtfully and intentionally prepared for it?

Looking forward to “seeing” you Monday.

It’s time to take inventory of our assets.

What are the two greatest assets in your organization?

Why are the they greatest assets — what do they enable your organization to do that you wouldn’t be able to if you didn’t have them?

How can you more fully employ them?

When you look at your assets, what gaps are there?

What can you do to fill the gaps?

Be sure to spend some time looking at this from both a short-term and a long-term perspective.

As we have done on numerous occasions, today we are going to seek some outside perspective on our strategies. I suggest enlisting the help of a trusted friend or colleague from outside your team or organization, this will allow you the benefit of an objective perspective.

Set up some time with this person, share one of your big strategies and ask for their candid feedback and insight on what you have planned. Ask how they might approach it differently.

Prepare for your meeting as you would prepare for a meeting with a mentor. Take some time to develop questions that will help you truly see your strategy in a new light.

When you meet, be sure to ask for ideas on how you can better leverage your assets, as well. Make sure to take good notes, and follow up with this person — let them know what you did with their feedback and show your appreciation for their taking the time to spend with you.

Good luck!