Author: Garth Beyer

What To Do About Bad Leaders

Garth Beyer

I’ve had to work with my fair share of bad leaders. Like most, I started out by complaining about it. I was too nervous to speak up. In fact, I had no clue who to speak up to. It’s sort of stupid to go up to a leader and say they’re doing a bad job. Ignorant, actually.

There is a way to work with bad leaders, though. (Because in this world, some bad leaders, stay leaders. It’s up to you to make the most of it.)

The best way I have found is to ask them if they’ve done the things you would do if you were in the their position.

  • “Hey, I was wondering if you’ve scheduled that appointment yet.”
  • “Just curious, did you call the VC about product X and tell them we’re ready to ship on the third Friday of this month?”

These are positive examples. What you’re doing is making the task more salient to the bad leader. I’ll tell you why this is a good thing after I mention a few don’ts.

What not to do:

  • Specifically point out what they are doing wrong
  • Say they are doing a bad job and that you expect them to get their head in the game
  • Tell them you could do it better
  • And, as much as I hate to write this one: Don’t ask them if they want help

Most bad leaders don’t want help, most bad leaders hog their positions, most bad leaders just don’t care enough to take you up on your offer. They will, however, be happy to dish something out to you if you handle it right, say, maybe, by asking them if they’ve done something that you think they should have already.

When a bad leader faces more and more tasks they simply can’t put off, they’re more likely to either delegate those tasks (especially to the person who “reminded” them of the tasks in the first place) or they’ll be more prone to step off their throne and give up.

Poor leadership is something we all have to prepare for and know how to deal with it.

You may be an expert in leadership, but, trust me, a lot of people aren’t. And sadly, don’t care to be.

 

Stay Positive & It’s Not Your Job To Help Them

(It’s your job to help the company, the business’s clients, your team and your self)

There Are More Than You Know

Garth Beyer

I went to a poetry slam tonight. If I had to guess, I would guess few who attended the slam have actually written any poetry. They were all there “to check it out.”

So it goes with poetry slams, the audience judges the poetry using their own perceptions of what’s good and what isn’t. The diverse poetry and diverse audience (along with the fact that few were expert analysts of poetry) made the rating of each slam poem to be fairly objective.

The rating results for all the contestants? Exceptional.

The few low scores the audience gave to the slam poets got boo’d.

It just goes to show, there are more people out there that love your work more than you know.
Stay Positive & Sometimes The More Different You Are, The More People Will Come To Snap Their Fingers

Those Goals, In Short

Garth Beyer

Life is more fun without goals. You get to go with the flow and live in the moment, breathe, enjoy, relax. Your planner is clear, in fact, you might not even have a planner.

I titled this post “Those Goals, In Short” for two reasons. One, I’m keeping this short for you. Two, not having goals is nice in the short run.

In the long run, though, those goals are vitally important to your purpose, to grand enjoyment, to living a full life.

I’m not one for saving memories, but I can’t help but carry all of them with me. Nor can you. Or your friend. Or your parents. And what makes up memories?

If you think about it, it’s goals. Because without goals, you’re only ever living in the moment, not leaving any room for the past or the future.

Going without goals is an easy thing to do. But never would I call it fun. Never would I say it’s worth it.

 

Stay Positive & Set A Goal, See How It Changes Things

It’s Not The Bullies

Garth Beyer

It’s often not the bullies that get the most attention.

It’s the people who see and extend a hand out to those being bullied.

Sometimes it’s not about fighting fire with fire, it’s about befriending whoever is getting burnt.

 

Stay Positive & Bullying Today Doesn’t Just Happen At School

“What’s Your New Book About?”

Garth Beyer

It might not work, but my new book is out and ready to be read.

Not to call it out, but a lot of people have asked me the wrong question. “What’s your new book about?”

Really? You don’t care what the book is about, what you really care about is the value of it.

I can tell you it’s about a garbage man who is fed up with the way his life is going and who decides to transform it. That doesn’t hold much value to you unless you’re a garbage man fed up with the way your life is going.

The value really lies in four corners:

1) The most successful people attend seminars on success, on business, on self-growth. I’ve written this book to give you a temporary shortcut; for you to gather insight into the way seminars are ran and the unique lessons you can learn from them. (Learn for $4.99, what most will charge you $100, $300, $900 dollars to learn.)

2) So often we read stories to escape the real world. Nothing wrong with that. I’ve written this book so you can escape the real world, but also return having learned about fear, about taking chances, about finding and following your passion. It’s a book that you’ll be happy to return to the real world at the end of.

3) In the end, you’re the hero, you’re the protagonist, you’re the one who has grown, not Alex (the main character in my novel).

4) You’ll get to say you’ve tried something new. I know how hard it is to go out of your comfort zone, to buy something that coincides with uncertainty, to try something new. This book was written to ease you into a new habit of expanding your comfort zone and confronting the barriers holding you back from adventure, from a life fully lived.

If all of this doesn’t seem to be valuable enough for you, perhaps my next book might be for you. Alas, I still encourage you to give this one a shot.

 

Stay Positive & My Gratitude Is Endless

 

Building A Winning Team

Garth Beyer

I was ignorant when I began building teams. I didn’t necessarily make a big mistake, I simply wasn’t as efficient in my gathering of team members as I could have been. Early on I thought the best team members were the ones who were extroverted, spoke up in classes, sought extra work out and openly challenged things often. (Yes, basically people like myself.)

Doing so left out two extremely important categories of team members.

1) People who are extroverted and speak up, but only when called upon.

2) People who are introverted in the environment you see them in, but who are extroverted when on their own turf.

I don’t believe there are people who are introverted 24/7. I don’t buy into the idea that those who are extremely intelligent and passionate about something can do so quietly. They may put on a decent illusion, but if you get to the heart of what they love, there’s no stillness, quietness or introveredtness.

There’s talent all around you. What makes you a good leader (and gets you a winning team) is when you’re willing to actively call on people to join you as well as meet them on their own turf.

There’s a regularly held belief that if manager’s employees don’t see their managers doing tasks that they (the employees) are set to do, then the manager misses out on important respect. For example, a store manager needs to stock, run the register and reorganize the decor section (it’s one of the worst kept sections) in order to earn the trust of their employees as well as inspire them.

The same goes for those wanting to build a winning team. You’ve got to meet people on their level, ask to learn from them and show them what you already know. You’ve got to connect.

You might be able to gain a following sitting behind a computer screen, but you’ll never build a winning team.

 

Stay Positive & Go Build A Winning Team

What You Put Into It

Garth Beyer

Put energy into it

“I put love in it!”

It’s a bit difficult to explain, but when you create something, you also put emotion into it. It’s not that you can choose to make something with love or make it with nothing at all. Nothing isn’t an option.

Everything you do, everything you create has emotion transferred into it.

A noteworthy quote from anyone who views remarkable art: “I can just feel the stress he must have felt creating this piece.”

This is why we must not do the things which make us incredibly frustrated. In the end, that’s the vibe of what you create gives off. Similarly, it’s important we always take a moment to actively seek out how we feel while we do things. Emotion carries energy with it and all things are made of energy.

 

Stay Positive & Careful What You Create

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