Self-Action Leadership TRAINING for Business Professionals

Leadership Training on a Personal Level

Today's blog post explicates the practical functions of Self-Action Leadership TRAINING and consulting in organizations, especially business, corporate, and other professional or work entities.

We begin by elucidating...

The Five C's of Organizational Success

The long-term success of any business or organization is contingent on FIVE (5) fundamental ingredients: Character, Competence, Consequences, Connections, and Consistency.

Character

Competence
Consequences

Connections

Consistency

1). CHARACTER refers to who you are in terms of honesty and integrity.

2). COMPETENCE refers to your ability to think, speak, and do.  It is your capacity to efficiently and effectively complete tasks and objectives in a timely manner.

3). CONSEQUENCES refer to expectations and systems of discipline (including punitive measures) and accountability that maintain order and standards.

4). CONNECTIONS refer to who you know and work with, and how you relate with, regard, and respect them, as well as the relationships you have with human beings in general.

5). CONSISTENCY refers to the ability to endure tests of time and the adversity that accompanies it.

Any combination of these ingredients may (and often will) bring about short-term successes.  But without ALL five working synergistically together, your organization will eventually meld into the median, molder into mediocrity, or atrophy away into oblivion.

Ingredients for Sucesss

SAL Training = Corporate Recipe Gold

One of my hobbies is making chocolate chip cookies.  In the world of cooking and baking, using the correct ingredients is absolutely essential to a successful outcome.  Moreover, the quality of the ingredients, as well as the way and order in which you apply them can be as important as the ingredients themselves.  Such it is with the five C's of organizational success.

According to the SAL Model, CHARACTER must always precede everything you do.  Without good character rooted in correct principles, you'll lack a strong foundation and find yourself "building mansions upon the sand" (Ella Wheeler Wilcox) in everything you endeavor to construct—physically or metaphysically.

Without COMPETENCE, you will never accomplish anything—at least not efficiently or effectively.  Without CONSEQUENCES, there will be no accountability.  Without quality CONNECTIONS and healthy relationships, whatever CONSISTENCY you may apply will prove to be little more than the "foolish ... hobgoblin of little minds" (Emerson).  If any ingredient is missing, or improperly mixed, your final product will exit the oven soggy and distasteful—a failed exercise in culinary artistry, construction, and palatability.  

The two incontrovertible KEYS to ensuring that your own batch of corporate cookies are properly made, mixed, and baked, are LEADERSHIP and EDUCATION.  You must have leaders and managers who both exemplify and execute the five C's and other SAL principles THEMSELVES and then in-turn teach, coach, and mentor their subordinates to do likewise through the pedagogical practice of... 

Rote and Reiteration

There is no complete substitute for
old fashioned rote learning

However postmodernists may spin it, if the teaching and learning of correct principles is to authentically occur, there must be a degree of rote instruction and reiterative review.  In layman's terms, this means you must both implicitly model and explicitly state exactly what you desire and expect of your subordinates and then REPEAT it over and over and over and over and over and over again (5-7 times minimum before it will stick).  And even after that, indefinite reminders never hurt anybody.

There is no other way!

Click HERE to read more about postmodernism and postmodernists, and how Freedom Focused is working to put an end to this lost bygone era and replace it with an Age of Authenticism.

This may sound simple, and in theory it is.  But in actual practice, it can be very challenging.  This is because leaders must not only exemplify the standard themselves, but they must be constantly shepherding their flocks.  There is no room for letup or laziness—two inclinations to which all humans fall prey, and both of which exacerbate organizational entropy and invite further atrophy of individual character and capacity.

To illustrate how rote and reiterative leadership and education works, consider the following example from a Fortune 100 Company... 

ExxonMobil's Sterling Safety Record

Giant oil tanker, similar to the Exxon Valdez vessel

On March 24, 1989, the infamous Exxon Valdez oil tanker crashed into a reef off of the coast of Alaska, spilling tens of millions of gallons of crude oil into the ocean.  Aside from the billions of dollars of cleanup cost, Exxon's reputation was marred for many years by the incident.

Fortunately, the organization learned from its mistake.  Today, partly as a result of this terrible accident over a quarter of a century ago, ExxonMobil has a sterling safety record that is envied throughout the oil and gas industry and corporate world.

Why?

Because their leaders committed themselves to exemplifying stellar safety standards, and then religiously taught those principles and expectations to their subordinates via continual rote and reiterative pedagogical practices.  

My wife got a job with ExxonMobil in 2009—twenty years after the Exxon Valdez disaster.  But ExxonMobil has not forgotten.  To this day, they still drill safety standards and practices into the minds and hearts of everyone in the organization with a fervor and regularity that I would describe as religious.  Indeed, they talk about and train on the subject of safety all the time.  They also hold regular meetings—referred to as "Safety Moments"—whereby each individual (regardless of their position) receives opportunities to further herald the rules and expectations by teaching the subject themselves to their colleagues and supervisors.  This is a brilliant pedagogical strategy on ExxonMobil's part because it is widely accepted that teaching something is the best way to learn it.

Simply stated, safety has become a sacred cow at ExxonMobil—and not just on their oil tankers and offshore rigs.  They also carefully regulate safety standards at their white collar corporate campuses, including strict speed limits in and around their parking garages and other on-campus areas.

In addition, consequences are set up for those who disregard the standards.  For example, if you break the speed limit, your license plate will be photographed and you will be issued an official warning (I know, because I accidentally got photographed going 5 miles over the limit while visiting campus to lunch with my wife one day, and my wife got an email about the incident).  If you break it again, your supervisor will receive an e-mail notifying him or her of your infraction.  If you break it a third time, your Vice President will receive an e-mail.  Now how many e-mails do you think ExxonMobil Vice Presidents receive because their subordinates are speeding?  The number is probably very close to zero.

Safety is so sacrosanct at ExxonMobil that they even expect their employees to hold onto handrails when going up and down stairs.  And to encourage any OCD-type personalities like me, they ensured that their handrails were hewn out of germ-resistant material—to further encourage everyone to take their safety caveats seriously.

Self-Action Leadership Training

In order to ensure the health and SAFETY of your organization's body, mind, heart, and soul, and thereby ensure the long-term viability and prosperity of your bottom line, your company, team, and group needs comprehensive Self-Action Leadership TRAINING.  SAL Training is the key to developing WHOLE executives, managers, employees, and contractors of solid character who are competent, emotionally intelligent, team players who get results.  

Our MISSION at Freedom Focused is to herald the FIVE (5) C's and other principles and practices of Self-Action Leadership with the same kind of passion and persistence that ExxonMobil heralds safety standards.  And our VISION is to see that every organization on the planet who desires this training, actually receives it.

It ALL begins with the ONE

Virtually everyone agrees—at least implicitly—that CHARACTER, COMPETENCE, CONSEQUENCES, CONNECTIONS, and CONSISTENCY are absolutely key to the long-term success of any organization or venture.

The great irony, however, is that most organizations don't end up devoting much time, effort, or capital to ensuring that everyone in their organization actually receives explicit SAL-oriented training that is regular, repeated, and rote in nature.

Doing so would require that you engage deeply in one of those pesky Quadrant 2 activities (Covey) that nearly everyone agrees is incredibly important (in theory), but almost never urgent (in actual practice) until the median has slipped into mediocrity, or the mediocre has digressed into disintegration and it is too late.

A generation ago, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People became a household name because organizations around the nation and world recognized the essential need of holistic, personal leadership training.  Freedom Focused is positioning itself to become the FranklinCovey of the 21st Century through the development of a brand new, cutting-edge self-leadership Theory & Model called Self-Action Leadership.

Click HERE to learn about how Freedom Focused is positioning itself as the FranklinCovey of the 21st Century, and how Self-Action Leadership serves as a new age analogue to The 7 Habits.

Click HERE to learn more about the SAL Theory & Model.

Click HERE to read about the Vision & Mission of Freedom Focused.

One of the greatest misnomers about achieving long-term success is that its recipe is enigmatic, and that if you could only decode its inscrutable formula, achieving it would be relatively simple.  In reality, the exact opposite is the case.  The recipe for success is really quite simple and basic.  The trouble is that applying it is tremendously difficult because it takes a LOT of time and energy and effort.  But in the end, there is no other way, and that is precisely why relatively few individuals or organizations are able to unearth large quantities of success.

SUCCESS!

The recipe to lasting success is simple because authentic success in any life arena ultimately boils down to an effective application of the FIVE C's and other SAL principles and practices.  Now I am not going to lie to you... actually achieving success is quite difficult because it requires Leaders and Followers who actually exemplify and then reiteratively teach the rote fundamentals without ever giving up on the simple disciplines of the basic formula.

Once again, this basic formula is: Character x Competence x Consequences x Connections x Consistency = Long-Term Existential Growth (or Success); or written in shorthand:

C⁵ = LTEG (S).

No matter how successful you have been in the past, or how much capital or brain power or talent you possess in the present, you will eventually falter or fail if you do not put in the hard work required to consistently apply this simple formula.  To maximize your potential and success, Self-Action Leadership oriented training must be delivered in the same way that ExxonMobil consistently models, teaches, and then reiterates their rote safety training principles and practices, that is: early, often, and always.  

There is no other way.

How then have organizations in the past achieved remarkable long-term successes without Self-Action Leadership training?  After all, the SAL Theory & Model is a relatively new theoretical construct.

The answer is, they did have SAL training.  It was merely delivered in a different package (implicitly or explicitly).  With the exception of the new SAL Theory with its groundbreaking astronomical and atmospheric conceptualizations and the SAL Model with its unique construction metaphor, there is nothing new about SAL principles and practices.  SAL is simply the most creative and effective way (to date) to teach a holistic range of personal leadership knowledge and competencies.  Imagine how much better those same successful organizations might have been if they had received explicit training on this invaluable material!

Dr. Jordan Jensen
Master Facilitator

The opportunity is now here to bring explicit SAL training to YOUR organization.  This opportunity includes the possibility of revolutionizing, or at least evolutionizing, your workforce into pathways of holistic personal growth and progress that will produce quantum leaps in the long-term prosperity of your bottom line.

SAL Training is the training of the future.  It is training for the organizational soul.  It is the silver bullet to long-term success.

To read about one leader, Joe Jensen's, successful, implicit use of SAL principles and practices in leading his team to extraordinary, even outlying, results, click HERE.

If you are an organizational leader or manager thinking about brining SAL training to your company, where do you start?

Simple... just call us at 832-618-5451, or e-mail us at jordan.jensen@freedomfocused.com, and we will provide you with a free consultation to discover which SAL training would be right for you.

SAL trainings are deliverable in five different time frames.  Additional consulting services and a variety of related soft skills training options are also available upon request.

2-hour     ~   Introduction to SAL*

Half-day  ~  Abridged SAL training*

Full-day  ~   Abridged SAL training*

Two-day  ~  Abridged SAL training*   

Four-day  ~  Full SAL training* 

*All SAL trainings include a copy of Dr. Jensen's new book: Self-Action Leadership: The Key to Personal, Professional, & Global Freedom, seen below...

Note: This article is one of SIX articles in a special series dedicated to different AUDIENCES that Freedom Focused specifically targets with Self-Action Leadership training. We invite leaders and managers of these different audiences to click on links below to read the articles pertaining to your field or constituency.

Click HERE to access article for  BUSINESS PROFESSIONALS (Leaders, Managers, & Workers)

Click HERE to access article for  EDUCATORS  (Administrators, Teachers, & Staff)

Click HERE to access article for  STUDENTS & INDIVIDUALS

Click HERE to access article for PARENTS & FAMILIES

Click HERE to access article for ELECTED OFFICIALS, LEADERS, & ROLE MODELS

Click HERE to access article for PERSONS dealing with MENTAL ILLNESS

.........................................................................................................................................................

Self-Action Leadership  ~  The Book

SELF-ACTION LEADERSHIP is the key catalyst for initiating transformational leadership that lasts in any organization. The truth of the matter really is that simple; and the transformation of organizations through the holistic development of individuals really is that difficult—yet altogether possible for anyone willing to invest the time, effort, and sacrifice required to achieve authentic, transformational results.


Unlike any training program that has ever preceded it, Self-Action Leadership provides a single vehicle wherewith individual self-leaders can discover—and then act—upon the great truth that HOLISTIC personal development and growth spanning the mental, moral, spiritual, physical, emotional, and social elements of our individual natures is within the grasp of each one of us.

Back Cover of Self-Action Leadership, the Book

Note: Freedom Focused is a non-partisan, for-profit, educational corporation.  As such, we do not endorse or embrace political figures.  We do, however, comment from time-to-time on historical or political events that provide pedagogical backdrops to illuminating principles contained in the SAL Theory & Model.

Click HERE to learn more about the SAL Theory & Model.

To receive weekly articles from Freedom Focused & Dr. Jordan R. Jensen, sign up with your e-mail address in the white box on the right side of this page where it says "Follow by E-mail."

Click HERE to buy a copy of Dr. Jordan Jensen's new book, Self-Action Leadership: The Key to Personal, Professional, & Global Freedom.

Click HERE to read more about Dr. Jensen's book, Self-Action Leadership, and to review what experts in the leadership field are saying about this groundbreaking new personal development handbook.

Click HERE to learn more about Dr. Jordan R. Jensen.  Click HERE to visit the Freedom Focused website.





  

A 21st Century 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

A 12-Year Project Completed

It is not often that one completes a 12-year project.  This month, I have had the chance to do just that by  publishing a groundbreaking new book.  It is called, Self-Action Leadership: The Key to Personal, Professional, & Global Freedom.  

The result is the much anticipated release of a 21st Century analogue to Stephen R. Covey's famous 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

This Generation Next "Personal Leadership Handbook" is as different from the original 7 Habits as it is similar.  While it's tone, format, length, and anecdotally rich content strikingly diverges from Covey's 1990s work, its commitment to teaching, modeling, and championing correct principles that promote "Powerful Lessons in Personal Change" is just as effervescent and vibrant.

I first read Covey's timeless classic in 2001 to fulfill a requirement in a college leadership course.  Simply stated, the book changed my life.  To this day, with the exception of sacred religious texts that are near and dear to my heart, it has influenced my life more than any other book.  By 2003, I had a pretty clear vision of my life's professional purpose -- to write an analogue to the 7 Habits and start a company that might serve a new generation as ably as Stephen R. Covey and Hyrum W. Smith's contributions and companies served the last.

My son, Tucker, with
my well-worn copy
of the 7 Habits

The difficulty of this ambitious and audacious undertaking has been perennially perplexing and persistently painful, yet inexplicably rewarding and profoundly fulfilling.  Fraught with seemingly endless challenges, rejections, and failure over the course of the past decade, the journey also brought countless moments of satisfaction, success, and even elation.  More importantly, it bore much fruit in my own life, and is now beginning to bear fruit in the lives of others.

I can say without any reservations that the principles Covey and Smith taught in their masterful books over the years are as veracious as they are beneficial.  I know because I have thoroughly tested them in the laboratory of my own life.  Moreover, my careful study and application of them helped pave the way to the production of Self-Action Leadership, which I earnestly desire will help those in the 21st Century as ably as Covey's 7 Habits and Smith's 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time & Life Management assisted those in the 20th Century and beyond.  As I mention in my "Special Tribute" to both FranklinCovey Co-Founders in my book, "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." (Isaac Newton).

Click HERE to read my personal tributes to Hyrum W. Smith, Stephen R. Covey, & Charles C. Manz, whose work proved foundational to my own.

Self-Action Leadership presents an original THEORY and MODEL of self-leadership.  This new scholarship has been diligently hewn out of the ore of my own life's crucibles. It is further rooted in doctoral level action research and carefully corroborated by a cornucopia of wisdom literature spanning several millennia.

This insightful guide to freedom, success, and most importantly--personal change--signals a new era in self-help literature and the science of personal development.  It also aims to usher in a whole new cultural era in the Occident, namely, an AGE of AUTHENTICISM -- marked by character, integrity, hard work, and personal reliance -- which is destined to replace the perilous, perjurious, prurient, and pernicious era of POSTMODERNISM that has increasingly dominated Western Culture in the last 50 years.

Click HERE to learn more about the Self-Action Leadership THEORY

CLICK HERE to learn more about the Self-Action Leadership MODEL

Ranging far beyond the home, classroom, schoolhouse, or corporation, SAL aims to lead a resurgence of American Greatness and Leadership on the World Stage by influencing a renaissance of character and integrity by providing an education in True Principles based on Universal Laws of Natural Acquisition.

I love my Country.  I am proud to be an American, and have been saddened to observe the salient decline of our great nation.  Despite the perplexing problems that presently persist throughout our 50 States and other territories, I remain optimistic about her future.  I wrote Self-Action Leadership -- a non-partisan, secular, educational based personal development manual for my Country.  It is my way of saying THANK YOU to this great land, as well as all those who have made it the greatest nation in the world and the "Last best hope of Earth." (Lincoln)

I am who I am, and have accomplished what I have in large part because of the liberty, hope, opportunity, and inspiration I have derived from living in this blessed and magnanimous land of promise.

It is PAYBACK time!

By capitalizing on the tremendous liberty my Country has afforded me, I have been able to pursue and achieve personal freedom in a wonderfully remarkable manner.  It is my earnest hope that this manual will serve my Country in coming years by helping to preserve our liberty and expand the freedoms of others to ensure that our best day's are ahead of us -- not behind us.

Click HERE to watch Dr. Jensen's vision of restoring American Greatness through Education

Self-Action Leadership is written on the premise that organizational, national, and even international change is predicated on personal change; it all starts with the individual.  As individual units of an entity develop character, capacity, and competence, organizational conglomerates improve by a factor of those individual changes, and the accompanying synergistic infusion of efficiency, effectiveness, and prosperity can be staggering.

All lasting SUCCESS begins with EDUCATION

Talk to just about anyone and they'll offer up plenty of blame and point a plethora of fingers at other people and entities as they didactically diagnose the panoply of problems we presently face.  What is unfortunately rare is to find someone willing to look in the mirror, admit the presence of one's own bag full of blemishes, and then begin the process of fixing the only thing any of us has any real control over -- our own thoughts, speech, actions, attitudes, biases, and beliefs.

Our goal at Freedom Focused, and the aim of Self-Action Leadership, is to reverse this depressing trend, and return power to the people as one-by-one, individuals embrace a lifelong commitment to personal change and excellence.

Whatever your political persuasion, sexual orientation, race, culture, gender, or personality, I believe we can all unite in a pursuit of personal purification through self-awareness, personal discipline, and an accession of Universal Laws that govern both the physical world and the metaphysical results we garner by virtue of our thoughts, speech, and actions.

We invite you to join us in this movement aimed at restoring American Greatness and promoting World Peace through a dedication to individual excellence and integrity.  There can be no greater contemporary, national quest.  The impending perils of the future demand that we prepare now to tackle the trials we inevitably face down the road.  Let us prepare now lest we be swallowed up when the fiery heat of the refining fires of the future blast forth to test our mettle and see what we are really made of.

You can begin this preparatory stage now, by reading this new groundbreaking book.

CLICK on one of the links below to buy your own copy of SELF-ACTION LEADERSHIP: The Key to Personal, Professional, & Global Freedom.

Buy a HARD COPY version of Self-Action Leadership

Buy an e-Copy version of Self-Action Leadership

Buy an e-version of SAL at AMAZON.COM

* Best Deal * Buy hard-copy and e-version copies of SAL at BARNES & NOBLE.COM  * Best Deal *

Click HERE to read what the EXPERTS are saying about Dr. Jordan R. Jensen and Self-Action Leadership

Click HERE to read about the AGE of AUTHENTICISM that Freedom Focused is Championing in an effort to prod POSTMODERNISM into the pages of history

Click HERE to read the Book's Foreword, written by Christopher P. Neck, Ph.D., University Master Teacher, Arizona State University; and the Book's Afterword, written by David G. Anthony, Ed.D., CEO of Raise Your Hand Texas

Click HERE to read the Author's Preface

Click HERE to watch Dr. Jensen's Full Speech on Restoring American Greatness through Education

Click HERE to watch Dr. Jensen's Introductory Seminar on Self-Action Leadership

SAL Book: How I Came to Develop Self-Action Leadership

The Seeds of Self-Help

This chapter tells the story of my background with self-help literature and chronicles the journey that led to the development of the SAL Theory & Model.

Hyrum W. Smith,  FranklinCovey Co-founder

In 1994, Warner Books published my Uncle Hyrum’s, The 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management, which eventually sold over a million copies. The summer of that year, I worked on Hyrum’s ranch in Southwestern Utah. I was 14 years old.


The work of a ranch hand was tedious, dusty, and physically strenuous. Summer days were dry and hot, with temperatures often exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit. For most of us, our daily commute included a ride in the back of an old, white Ford pickup truck. One week, we were scheduled to build a fence up in the mountains many miles away from our bunkhouse. Facing a long, bumpy road ahead of me on the way to work each day for a week or so, I decided to take a book along to read. The books title was, The Magic of Thinking Big, by David J. Schwartz, Ph.D.

Once I started reading, it was hard to stop, and not just because I enjoyed reading more than digging post holes in the desert. I enjoyed the book so much that I would sometimes read at lunchtime, and after work was over. I kept reading until I had read, marked, and annotated the entire book. The words of Schwartz’s message sunk deep into my mind and heart, spawning rich daydreams about my potential. I was motivated by the fact that I didn’t have to be a ranch hand for the rest of my life. I was further inspired by the idea that I could ultimately design my life largely according to my own desires if I was willing to pay the price over time. When I read the words, “When you believe, your mind finds ways to do,” [1] I was inspired by the personal power and capacity I possessed to accomplish difficult tasks and achieve meaningful accomplishments.
 

At this point in my life, I already had a nascent conceptualization of SAL, and took interest in other self-help books and audio and visual programs. This material included Tony Robbins’ Unlimited Power, and his world-famous audiocassettes, Personal Power. [2] There was also Norman Vincent Peale’s The Power of Positive Thinking for Young People. And I’ll always cherish reading my Dad’s personal copy of Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People. He had purchased his copy in the mid-1960s as a young missionary in England, and it had that wonderful “old book” smell. At this time, I was also introduced to material from Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy, and others.

When I was in eighth grade, my mom started collecting Gary Smalley’s relationship videos. [3] Though it would be years before I would start looking seriously at exclusive dating or marriage, I enjoyed watching these programs with my Mom, and learned a great deal about personality differences and successfully cultivating intimate relationships.

My oldest brother Paul—a successful salesman—shared my passion for personal development material and sent me a videotape of the famous business philosopher, Jim Rohn. Later, as a direct salesman, I was re-introduced to Rohn. While I ultimately failed as a direct salesman and network marketer, his address on Building Your Network Marketing Company has enormously influenced my thought processes about the price of success generally speaking.

In high school, I also attended a couple of Peter Lowe’s day-long-success seminars where I had the chance to hear high profile speakers such as President Gerald Ford, General Colin Powell, Zig Ziglar, Karl Malone, and others speak and teach on subjects related to personal development, self-improvement, and success. Shortly after graduating from high school, I also read my uncle’s book, The 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management. Through this extended process of association, the seeds of SAL were deeply implanted in my mind, heart, and soul.

“Sow a thought, reap an action; Sow an action, reap a habit;

Sow a habit, reap a character; Sow a character, reap a destiny.”

– William James (1842-1910)

 

My son, Tucker, with my 7 Habits book

Later on in college, I voraciously consumed Stephen R. Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, which planted powerful seeds of knowledge in my mind that produced deep desires to begin constructing my own model of self-leadership. I also diligently practiced and completed Og Mandino’s 45-week challenge outlined in his book, The Greatest Secret in the World. Over a long period of time, I gradually developed and refined my own thoughts on self-leadership that would eventually evolve into the SAL Theory and Model.

At age 25, I began harvesting my ideas on the subject; the construction of the SAL Theory and Model had begun. At age 26, I published my first book, I Am Sovereign: The Power of Personal Leadership, a self-leadership guide for teenagers, which contained my first version of the SAL Model. I developed the SAL Theory later on as a part of my doctoral research. This book is several iterations removed from this original work. It has been an exhilarating journey to observe its gradual evolution into the book you now hold in your hands.

Notes:

[1] Schwartz, D. J. (1995). The Magic of Thinking Big. London, UK: Pocket Books. Page 122.
[2] Years later when I moved to Georgia for the first time, I went through many of Robbins’ Unlimited Power II tapes.
[3] These programs focused on family relationships, especially between husband and wife.

SAL Seminar: Dr. Jensen & Self-Leadership

Today's post shares the next two sections of the SAL seminar video.  Section 3 provides biographical information about Dr. Jensen.  Section 4 provides an overview of self-leadership -- not to be confused with Self-Action Leadership, which will be covered later this week.  SAL has deep roots in the self-leadership field, so it is appropriate to cover self-leadership in some depth before providing more information about SAL.


Also...  I have noticed that links to the video clips don't show up in the e-mailed versions of the blog.  If you are receiving this post via e-mail and the video links do not show up, just click on the blue title link at the top of the page and you will be redirected to the actual blog post where you can access the videos.

About Dr. Jordan R. Jensen

Self-Leadership: the precursor to SAL

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Speakers and Presenters

 

My son, Tucker, with Stephen Covey's
best-selling personal leadership handbook

The ability to express yourself clearly and confidently in front of a group of people is one of the single greatest skills you can develop.  Eloquent elocution and confident communication immediately establishes good rapport and credibility with others.  In this post, I share 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PUBLIC SPEAKERS that have helped me to garner tremendously positive feedback:

“Jordan was the best instructor I have had – honest – realistic – stayed on topic – not pretentious.  His presentation style was relaxed yet informative and professional.”  

"Jordan kept the seminar running smoothly while fielding all questions and open dialogue.  Jordan's recall of "Quotes" is phenomenal and very applicable to the topics he presents."  

“One of the Best Seminars I’ve ever attended.  The time went like lightning.”

HABIT 1:  Don't announce your weaknesses.  

One of the biggest mistakes I observe amateur speakers make is pre-calling their own perceived shortcomings by telling their audience things like: "I am not very prepared," or "I am soooooo nervous," or "I really hate speaking in public."  To make matters worse, such comments are often the first thing they say upon clutching the microphone.  Announcing your weaknesses will only make them unnecessarily evident to your audience, and adds nothing to your message.  

 

Successful speakers understand that the
speech/presentation is NOT about them.

HABIT 2:  Be Audience Focused

Being audience focused involves more than just knowing your audience.  It means to understand that giving a speech is not about you and your needs; it is about the audience and their needs.  A successful presenter empowers audience members with new, relevant, and meaningful information that inspires action.  Ask yourself: Is this something my audience will benefit from or just something I want to say?  

HABIT 3:  Use Stories

With few exceptions, my audience members both enjoy and remember stories more than data, facts, or quotes.  While it is possible to have too much of a good thing, stories -- personal and tales of others -- serve as the seasonings of any palatable speech or presentation.  They humanize sterile material and strengthen the relationship you have with your audience.    

“Jordan was excellent!!!  Thank you for delivering the materials in such a clear, concise manner coupled with great stories.” 

 “Jordan told us a great deal about his own journey of self-leadership, which was very authentic and credible” 

“Enjoyed the seminar leader very much, especially his stories.”

 

HABIT 4:  Stand up, Speak up, Shut Up

People appreciate presenters that start on time (Stand Up), are credible, confident, and engaging (Speak Up), avoid rambling, and end on time (Shut Up).

HABIT 5:   Practice Makes Progress

Practice doesn't always make perfection, but it does produce progress.  Like anything else, you will get better at public speaking the more you do it.  If you want to become truly refined and polished, there is no magic bullet outside of doing a LOT of speaking.  Each time you take the podium or grab the microphone, you have an opportunity to get better.  Seize those opportunities.  

HABIT 6:  Accept Responsibility for Your Audience

It is not the job of the audience to ensure that your presentation goes well and is well accepted.  It is yours!  Many amateur speaker's fail to realize this and are quick to blame their audience when things go wrong.  

Your audience always knows how you feel about them, whether you want to be there or not, and how knowledgeable and passionate you are about your topic.  If you want your audience to like you, then you must work at liking them.  If you want your audience to be interested and engaged, then you must be interesting and engaging.  If you want your audience to learn and be inspired by your message, then you must be prepared, sincere, and have something meaningful to communicate. 
  

HABIT 7:  Be Yourself  

While you can learn from and be inspired by other speakers, your greatest successes will never come from copying another's mode, style, or pace of delivery.  You must find your own unique voice, and the more you speak, the closer you will come to finding it.  

Do you have any other tips or habits for speaking and presenting that I have left out? Leave a comment and share your thoughts!

Dr. Jordan R. Jensen has presented over 600 speeches and/or seminars in 3 Countries, 44 States, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, 5 Provinces of Canada, and 9 Counties throughout the United Kingdom.  He has taught 35 different all-day courses on a variety of topics.  He has trained for major corporations including ConocoPhillips, British Petroleum (BP), U.S. Steel, Terex Cranes, Olympus, and DuPont.  He has also trained for all five branches of the U.S. Military.  He is the author of Self-Action Leadership: The Key to Personal, Professional, & Global Freedom.  He lives in Conroe (Houston) Texas with his wife and son.  For more information about booking Jordan to speak/present at your organization, visit his website at www.freedomfocused.com.

Subscribe by email or Follow us on Twitter or Facebook for updates. Check out our website for more info.