by Greg Kozera | Aug 30, 2016 | Blog
When I was in college and asked a young lady out to a concert I didn’t realize it at the time but “No” was actually a good answer because it was truthful. I knew that I needed to ask someone else. “Yes” was a better answer, IF it was truthful. Occasionally after a “yes” when I went to pick the young lady up for the concert her roommate said, “She left here 30 minutes ago with another guy.” It was only then that I realized that “yes” wasn’t exactly truthful. It really meant that I was the back-up plan. We are now in the midst of election season. We will hear a lot of words and some of them will sound pretty good. How can we tell if they are truthful? One thing we can do is look at the past actions of the individuals. Do their words match up with their past actions? A politician’s words are important but talk is cheap. What have their actions been? Do they have integrity? If they or their ads will lie to us during the campaign how can we trust them if they get elected? The leadership and soft skills class at Pierpont Community College that I’m teaching this fall just spent most of the first week talking about integrity. These are second year students. Based on the quiz I gave, they get it. They know that our reputation precedes us. Integrity is about honesty but it is also about doing what we say we will do. It is about being a person that is trustworthy, dependable and true to our...
by Greg Kozera | Aug 14, 2016 | Blog
Recently I did a live radio interview for a Nashville, TN station. We talked about gasoline prices and that led us to a discussion on fracking. The host understood but her co- host slowly said, “I hear what you are saying Mr. Kozera but I still think we should all be driving electric cars.” I responded, “That’s fine. There is nothing wrong with electric cars. But the electricity they run on comes primarily from fossil fuels like coal and natural gas. Electric cars require a lot of plastic so that they can be lightweight. Plastic comes from petrochemicals that come from oil and gas wells that have all been fracked. Electric cars can’t exist without fracking.” That was not the first time I have had the electric cars comment. Many people never think about where electricity or the products we use every day come from. Things like cell phones, TVs, athletic shoes and even medical equipment require plastic from petrochemicals from oil and gas from wells that have been fracked. Sadly there are many people who actually believe that we don’t need fossil fuels. Horses and buggies are our transportation of the future if the anti- fossil fuel crowd is successful. Note that the wagon has wooden wheels. Tires would require oil. Even wind mills and solar panels require fossil fuels for their construction and to transport them to where they need to be. Fossil fuels and petrochemicals are the basis for our modern society including modern medicine, our ability to feed millions of people and provide sanitation for everyone. It is important for everyone to understand the basics...
by Greg Kozera | Jul 19, 2016 | Blog
It isn’t what a leader says. It is what they do that matters. Actions speak louder than words. We saw this in action when our high school soccer team went to help the flood victims in the Clendenin, WV area a couple of weeks ago. When I had a chance to stop and look around I was surprised that there were really only two people actually running the relief center. One was Mallow, the WV State Police officer and the other was a man running around with an orange vest, a cell phone and a two way radio who was coordinating where workers and aid were needed. There were easily 100 or more volunteers. People assumed leadership positions for segments of the project work as necessary. One lady explained to us how we needed to organize the supplies. She worked with my group for a little while and then disappeared. When new volunteers showed up and jumped in to help I trained them and when we had to move to another area they took over and became the leaders. I was surprised how smoothly everything went and how much was accomplished. How did this happen? Is there a truth we can apply to other projects and organizations? I believe that one key is a leader with a vision. The police woman, Mallow, was experienced and knew how everything needed to be organized. She knew how to communicate her vision. She then personally trained the first set of leaders and they trained their replacements. Mallow clearly was able to influence people and develop people. The second thing I saw was...
by Greg Kozera | Jul 12, 2016 | Blog
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by Greg Kozera | Jul 12, 2016 | Blog
Last week our high school soccer team went to help the flood victims in the Clendenin, WV area. The devastation was incredible. When we got there the State Police woman, Mallow, who was in charge said, “Park your cars and come back here, just tell someone you are ready to work.” It didn’t take long until everyone was loading and unloading vehicles or stacking the many donations they had received on pallets under tents we set up so they wouldn’t be destroyed if it rained. When I had a chance to stop and look around I was surprised that there were really only two people actually running the relief center. One was Mallow and the other was a man running around with an orange vest, a cell phone and a two way radio who was coordinating where workers and aid were needed. There were easily 100 or more volunteers. People assumed leadership positions for segments of the project work as necessary. One lady explained to us how we needed to organize the supplies. She worked with my group for a little while and then disappeared. When new volunteers showed up and jumped in to help I trained them and when we had to move to another area they took over and became the leaders. I was surprised how smoothly everything went and how much we accomplished. How did this happen? Is there a truth we can apply to other projects and organizations? I believe that the key is a leader with a vision. The police woman, Mallow, was experienced and knew how everything needed to be organized. She knew...
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...