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This list shows the most widely read articles on BetterThanYourBest.com.

1. How Effectively Am I Leading/Leader-ing (Making Leaders of Others)?
   Ken Wallace
   How effectively are you leading? How effectively are you "leader-ing" (making leaders of others)? Your responses to this leadership checklist will det . . . keep reading
   
   
2. Listening is Loving
   Ken Wallace
   When you really listen to other human beings you are:

   • honoring their unique presence in the universe

   • paying tribute to their distinctive manifestation of life

   • presenting yourself as a student of their particular experiences within the world

   • expressing respect for the individual embodiment of creation with whom you are communicating

   • demonstrating your willingness to understand their current situations, filled as they might be with challenges, problems, heartbreaks, failure, opportunities, victories, successes and joys

   • purposely and purposefully subordinating yourself to them in order to be better able to serve their immediate needs for self-expression, self-validation, self-acceptance, self-understanding and gaining proper perspective on their situations to determine appropriate and beneficial next steps . . . keep reading
   
   

3. Getting People to Do What They Know
   Ken Wallace
   Remember your first job?

   Mine was in a Pizza restaurant. One of my tasks was to wipe down the stainless steel oven doors and keep them gleaming because they were in customer view. The manager told me how he wanted it done, how to mix the cleaning solution and how to clean the doors.

   After a few days of doing this, I found that I could cut down on the amount of cleaning liquid with an increase of elbow grease and still accomplish the results he wanted: gleaming oven doors with no visible streaks -- and I could save the store some money as well. I was excited! The next day he saw me doing it my way, came up to me and said, "I thought I told you how I wanted you to clean these doors." I replied, "Yes, but I thought . . ." he cut me off and said, "I'm not paying you to think, I'm paying you to do what I tell you to do!" . . . keep reading
   
   

4. The Greatest Leadership Lesson Ever: It's Not What You Think!
   Ken Wallace
   There has been much written on the topic of leadership by a lot of very smart and experienced people: what leadership is, how it's done, the skills involved in doing it well, the benefits of its effective implementation, and so forth. Mostly, all this information is good and helpful in developing good leadership knowledge, skills, attitudes and habits.

   However, there is one area that seems lacking when it comes to identifying the most critical factor in making everything you know about leadership come together into consistently effective and long-lasting results. That critical factor, by the way, has nothing to do with those who respond well to your leadership efforts.

   The greatest leadership lesson that everyone who wishes to become an effective leader absolutely needs to learn is this: . . . keep reading
   
   

5. Rush Through Life At Your Own Risk! Get It Done By Tomorrow
   Ken Wallace
   Bogged down by procrastination? Part of the problem is that you think you have to get it done today, or at least sooner than later. You've been brainwashed by the popular maxim: "Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today." . . . keep reading
   
   
6. What Are You Prepared To Do?
   Ken Wallace
   Some years ago, as a pastor, I had the God-given opportunity to get to know and love a young man named Scott. Scott had inherited a terrible gene from his parents that caused his father and two brothers to die from a painful form of cancer before they had reached the age of 30. He was given a bit more time - he lived until his thirty-second year.

   All the time I visited him in his home (he never went to the hospital because they could not help him and he wanted to die at home) I never heard him complain about the pain or the apparent injustice of his condition or situation. In fact, he would say on several occasions during our conversations, "I'm a happy camper!" This was a man who had definitely overcome his circumstances, rather than resigning himself to living "under the circumstances." . . . keep reading
   
   

7. A Totally Fun General Earth Knowledge Quiz!
   Let your mind wander to the recesses where trivia is kept! . . . keep reading
   
   
8. Characteristics of an Effective Entrepreneur
   Ken Wallace
   Before a doctor diagnoses a specific disease, his patient must undergo a series of laboratory exams and assessments. He has to know the history of his patient and how lifestyle has affected his present state of health. The results would indicate what type of treatment the physician offers and the specific drugs and therapies required. If the physician is correct in his diagnosis and selection of treatment options, this will eventually contribute to the level of optimum health for that individual. If this approach fails, the process will most probably be repeated. . . . keep reading
   
   
9. See Into Forever
   Ken Wallace
   Gazing into spatial emptiness, engulfed in the silent, sensual, sightless scenes of celestial splendor, I see formless souls of solitude and mir . . . keep reading
   
   
10. What You Will Do Today Is What You Will To Do Today
    Ken Wallace
    Think about what you're going to do today. Take only one minute, if that long, to think through everything you want to do - today. For every minute you take preparing, you gain three in productive results. This is because you are mentally sharpening your faculties and focusing your energies on specific targets. It's truly amazing how fast the things you want to do get done when you take just a single minute to think about what you really want to do. . . . keep reading
    
    
11. A Leadership Manifesto: How Effectively Am I "Leader-ing" (making leaders of others)?
    Ken Wallace
    If you can say "yes" to all of the following nineteen statements, you are a leader of others in the ways they want and need for you to be. However, you would only be a second tier leader. If you can say that you are helping others to be able to say "yes" to all of these statements, then you are the best possible leader of others that there can be. . . . keep reading
    
    
12. A Reliable Process to Define and Implement Your Vision for the Future
    Ever struggle with trying to clearly discern and define a realistic and viable vision for the future of your organization? Many leaders lead "by-the-seat-of-their-pants." They're actively engaged in the daily duties of managing, directing and supervising but often perform these responsibilities without any clear understanding of how they are shaped by the organization's vision of its future or how their successful execution will help bring about that vision. They're in a canoe (the organization) in a swiftly moving river (the competition) without a paddle (the vision) going with the flow (the economy) and hoping for the best but doing very little to effectively prepare for it. . . . keep reading
    
    
13. A Case Study on How to Work Well Together in Any Organization
    Ken Wallace
    Following is a summary report I issued to the owner of a medium-sized manufacturing plant in Illinois after having met with all individuals involved in an inter-departmental dispute. The discord arose from a lack of specificity in written job descriptions as well as "job drift" among two long-time employees, one of whom was recently reassigned to oversee this department (Purchasing) in conjunction with another department (Production) whose tasks were dependent upon the efficiency and effectiveness of the Purchasing Department's activities. . . . keep reading
    
    
14. How We Miscommunicate
    Ken Wallace
    Communication is the lubrication of relationships, be they personal or professional. Just as an engine seizes up without oil, without the conveyance of messages that are meaningful to the parties involved, a relationship will soon experience dissipation of solidity and a rupture in any sense of solidarity.

    As imperative as good communication is, it is often left out of our thinking regarding what to say, the best way in which to say it and the best time to say it. Also often omitted is any clear thinking about how we want our listeners to behave as a result of hearing our message.

    Just because we can talk doesn't mean we can communicate; just because we have the gift of language doesn't mean we're able to use it to create understanding and camaraderie. We must be intentional in our use of language and specific in the crafting of our messages. And this requires thoughtful planning. . . . keep reading
    
    

15. How to Increase Revenue by Adding Value to Your Customers' and Prospects' Businesses
    Ken Wallace
    Adding Value Requires Three Critical Elements:

    1. Identify the current important business needs of each of your customers and prospects.

    2. Develop low- or no-cost services to wrap around the products and services you currently offer that target the critical efficiency and productivity issues of your customers' and prospects' businesses.

    3. Measure:

    • for continuous improvement refinements in the ways you deliver and support your products and services

    • for proof that your customers' and prospects' businesses actually improved as a result of your "added value" . . . keep reading
    
    

16. Characteristics of the Workforce of the Future and Their Education and Training Needs
    Dr. Mary Cook-Wallace
    According to the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) in A Profile of Older Workers in Illinois, what the workforce of the future looks like will depend on many factors. One factor being the notion that Baby Boomers (U.S. citizens born between 1946 and 1964) will replicate the retirement behavior of previous generations. In other words, the Baby Boomers will retire, collect their pensions, and continue working part-time or at a more flexible job (p. 1). . . . keep reading
    
    
17. Change, Transition, and Organizational Progress: What Does It All Mean?
    Ken Wallace
    Alfred North Whitehead wrote that "the art of progress is to preserve order amidst change and to preserve change amidst order."

    1. A Basic Human Need

    Change is a fact of life! The only thing that doesn't change is change. Consequently, it is also a fact of life that human beings are always dealing with change in some form at every stage of their lives. Change, in fact, is a basic human need. Change is really nothing more than movement from one state of being to another. Without movement - physical, physiological, biological, mental, spiritual, emotional - human beings would simply stop functioning and human existence, as we experience it, would cease. Change is the natural means to both improvement and deterioration. To a large extent, human beings have a choice in what the results of change will be.

    2. There are two kinds of change: . . . keep reading
    
    

18. Making Your Work Environment Work Well: Tap Into the Synergy of the Solitary Soul
    Ken Wallace
    You may recall the scene in the film, "The Lion King," in which Simba, having been banished from his murdered father's kingdom, is floundering in the forest looking for sympathy from anyone who would listen to his sad tale of self-pity. He comes to a stream and, as he gazes into the waters, the form of his father appears and says: "Simba, you have forgotten who you are -- you are more than what you have become."

    We all are more than what we have become. . . . keep reading
    
    

19. Gratitude = GReat AtTITUDE
    Ken Wallace
    You're always leading with your attitudes. The attitude with which you greet the world each day determines what you receive throughout the day. Another way of putting this is that you get what you expect to get. If you "get up on the wrong side of the bed," then throughout the day you're going to discover all sorts of reasons why you did and go to bed that night with more of what you started out with.

    Your immediate future is shaped by your present attitudes of mind. . . . keep reading
    
    

20. Common Obstacles to Effective Listening, Signs of Poor Listening Skills and Seven Steps to Overcome Them All
    Ken Wallace
    Have you ever thought that you might not be a good listener? Even if the thought never occurred to you, the following signs are good indicators that . . . keep reading
    
    

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