by Greg Kozera | Jun 28, 2016 | Blog
Our little church in Pinch, WV has provided lodging to church youth groups who come to our area in the summer to do repair work on the homes of needy or elderly people for over 15 years. The youth groups usually stay for a week. We typically host 4-5 groups in a summer. These young people and their adult helpers have done some incredible work for the people of our community over the years. They have been a true blessing for our area. A lot of work has to happen before these groups arrive. All the projects need located and evaluated which is extensive when there are 4-5 groups coming. We have one lady, Ellen, who has been setting up the projects and coordinating with the incoming church groups since we started. Ellen after her many years of service decided to retire to a less active role. At our Parish Council meeting in January we had a lively discussion and some tough decisions to make. We have few young people in our church since most of our members have grown children and our area hasn’t had a lot of growth. We needed to find a replacement or replacements for Ellen and that would be difficult. We had several members that were worried about things getting broken by the groups. We have had very few problems with this over the years. When that many people are in a building there is always some normal wear and tear. Most of our council members felt this is a small price to pay for the work that these groups do for our community....
by Greg Kozera | Jun 12, 2016 | Blog
We all know the person. They tell you about all the great things they have done and all they will do for you and your organization. When it is time to show up and work they are nowhere to be found. They always have an excuse. Talk is cheap. It is actions that count. I teach the leaders on my high school soccer team, “When it comes to leadership, example isn’t the main thing, it is the only thing. If you want your people to be on time you need to be on time. If you want your people to work hard you need to work hard.” We can never expect our people to work any harder than we work. We need to watch our attitude because our people will reflect our attitude whether it is positive or negative. One thing that all great leaders have in common is they won’t ask their people to do anything they haven’t done or wouldn’t do. We respect this kind of person. At work they are not a boss they are a leader and we will not only do what they ask, we will do a little extra because we respect them personally, not just their title or position. We should apply this same principal to politics and our potential leaders. They all have a great story to tell about what they will do for us. We have all seen how quickly some politicians forget the promises they made after they are elected. This shouldn’t be a big surprise. They most likely have a history of big talk and no action. If...
by Greg Kozera | Jun 5, 2016 | Blog
A couple of weeks ago we were visiting our youngest son and his family in Maryland. They were having a team party for the girls lacrosse team my son coaches. The party was at an area dairy farm. They have a little store on the property that sells incredible homemade ice cream and other products made on their farm. We all had a great time. I couldn’t help but notice the solar panels in the parking lot and on the roof of the store. I checked with the owner and when the sun is shining the solar panels can actually provide electricity for the entire building including the freezers. That is pretty impressive. He also has solar panels on his barns that run the lights and equipment inside. I did not see any power lines so I assume that his farm is completely off the power grid. Does this mean that solar power can replace fossil fuels? Well not exactly. Because the sun doesn’t shine at night or on cloudy days and battery power is expensive and undependable. Without electricity for a period of time this farmer would lose everything. He couldn’t milk his cows and everything in the freezers would melt or spoil. To back up his solar power he uses a natural gas generator. As soon as his solar power goes off the generator comes on and provides electricity for everything. The two forms of energy work well together. We continue to hear politicians especially Hillary and Bernie and the anti- fossil fuel crowd set targets for the year when renewables will replace fossil fuels. This makes...
by Greg Kozera | May 27, 2016 | Blog
When we attended Caring for Our Common Home at the John XXIII Pastoral Center at Charleston in April the focus was taking care of the environment. We were surprised to see a breakout session on healthy life styles. The concept is simple. If we are to do God’s work we need to have energy. Having energy starts with eating the right food. That is what the breakout session was about. The www.trythiswv.com web site is a good place to start. But there are so many things to do on the website that it is easy to get overwhelmed. We choose to start with healthy eating at our church. The key to making a change was the small group session where, with the assistance of Joshua the leader, we developed an action plan to do something to change things. I have been to many meetings where people felt good when they left and had good intentions but nothing ever happened. The key difference here was that we left with written goals. I teach leadership to adults in corporate America as well as to high school and college students. Written goals are a key to success. As a high school soccer coach my seniors have the courage to dream high and then write it down. This process alone has helped us to win 5 Boys State Soccer Championships. Could we get what has worked in large companies and with high school and college students to work for adults with ingrained habits in a church setting? My players dream big and I love it. But in this case we knew that we...
by Greg Kozera | May 18, 2016 | Blog
When I first began leading as a teenager in the Boy Scouts I realized very quickly that there was a lot I didn’t know and skills that I didn’t have. I knew that for us to survive in the wild it would take everyone’s talents. Later, in business as a Regional Manager I knew that I didn’t want to surround myself with people just like me. I knew that I was weak in some areas and needed to have people on my team that would have the skills I lacked. It would have been easy to surround myself with people just like me. We would have had few disagreements but we wouldn’t have been successful because we would have missed a lot of great ideas and we wouldn’t have all of the skill sets we needed. Any great sports team has diversity. There are those players that are strong on defense others are best at offence. There are also specialty players like the field goal kicker or in soccer the goalie. Diversity isn’t something to be feared and avoided it is the key to success. There are a lot of types of diversity like gender, race, age, education, skills and history or background to name just a few. As a new regional manager my leadership team was made up of all white males. I was the young college educated guy. The rest of my team was older and came up through the field. I stirred things up when I promoted an incredible lady from administrative assistant to office manager and put her on the leadership team. This was controversial...
