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...
by Greg Kozera | May 8, 2016 | Blog
Living 250 miles away I couldn’t visit my mother every weekend but we talked by phone every Sunday night. My mother read 2 books a month and her mind was sharp. Our discussions were fun. In addition to family stuff, we covered a wide range of topics from current events, religion, politics, sports and technology to name just a few. When we got into these topics talking to her was more like talking to a colleague. She had lived through the depression, World War II, the loss of her husband (my Dad) and a son (my brother). She was tough and had a very strong set of values. She knew what she wanted, especially when it came to her life. At 91 she developed a brain tumor and opted against chemo or other evasive procedures deciding instead to keep her quality of life for the time she had left. She made it very clear that she wasn’t going to a hospital or a Hospice House. Mom told us that she wanted to die at in the house she had raised us six boys in and had lived in for over 50 years. A couple of years after the “Shale Revolution” had started, during one of our Sunday evening phone calls my mother said, “Greg, my gas bill budget is down $100 a month.” Natural gas prices had fallen due to increased supply thanks to horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. To an 89 year old woman on a fixed income a $100 per month saving is huge. My mother didn’t want any freebies. If I bought even a gallon of...
by Greg Kozera | May 2, 2016 | Blog
This weekend I had the privilege to pick up National Speakers Association (NSA) President, Ruby Newell- Legner (on the right) from the airport in Columbus to speak at our Ohio Chapter meeting. Ruby is an incredible woman. In additional to being the National Speakers Association (NSA) President this year she also runs a very successful training organization that works with some of the top sports teams in the country from Major League Baseball, the NBA, the NFL including the Steelers and the NHL including the Pens and Lightning. Ruby’s firm has even been involved in the Olympics. Ruby is a true leader. NSA has several thousand members. Other than a handful of staff people in Tempe, Arizona the NSA is an all- volunteer organization. Ruby can’t give raises or bonuses. She can’t use fear, threats or intimidation to get things done or the volunteers would quit. The NSA is also a very successful organization. They are financially strong and growing. Some of the top business, sports and media people in the United States are members as well as many of the thought leaders you see on TV. Ruby leads by influence. She has a vision for the organization and has earned the respect of the members and staff. If she needs something done people are happy to do whatever they can. Ruby starts everything by truly caring about people. During our trip from the airport to the hotel we discussed the oil and gas business as well as fracking. We also talked about the high school soccer team I coach. Ruby started these conversations because she cared enough to...
