Listening Leaders Archived Edition

May 16, 2007

LISTENING LEADERS MARK MOTHER’S MEMORABLE MESSAGES

Listening Leaders® mark their Mother’s memorable messages.

With the recent annual celebration of another Mother’s Day, most Listening Leaders® recognize, value, and honor their Mother’s who listened to their goals, challenges, and successes which helped shape their ultimate destiny.

Smart Listening Leaders® move beyond the one-day celebration by refreshing and marking their memory of their mother’s memorable messages. Wisdom and power lies in the small, but potent, messages that mothers dispense on a daily basis. In their own way, mothers across the universe offer meaningful and thoughtful direction for the benefit of their children. The key to everyone’s success resides in the manner in which children of all ages listen to the beneficial and memorable messages.

Consider the following quiz, for therein lays the Listening Leaders® secret. What positive advice does (did) your mother provide on a repeated basis? What memorable messages do you remember to this day? What memorable messages serve (served) you well? What memorable messages would have served you better had you followed your mother’s advice? Finally, what memorable messages have you marked and passed to the next generations?

Listening Leaders® pave the path for those who follow.

LISTENING LEADER KNOWLEDGE NUGGET: Listening Leaders® mark memorable messages.

Listening Leaders® value the quality of meaningful persistence to fulfill significant goals and promises.

Although many mistakenly believe Mother’s Day was created by present-day florists, greeting card creators and restaurants, the tradition of honoring mother’s dates back to ancient times. Early celebrations were observed in the festivities of the ancient Greeks who honored Rhea, and the ancient Romans who celebrated Cybele, as the Great Mother of Gods. Christians chose the fourth Sunday of Lent to honor Mary, mother of Christ. By the 1600’s in England, Mothering Sunday was created to include and honor all mothers. In 1872 Julia Ward Howe first called for Mother’s Day in the United States.

Fast forward to 1905 when another American, Anna Jarvis, swore at her mother’s gravesite that she would dedicate her life to her mother’s project of establishing a “Mother’s Day to honor mothers, living and dead.” As she persisted, others listened.

In 1907 Anna Jarvis distributed 500 white carnations one for each mother in the congregation of her mother’s church in West Virginia. By 1908, leaders at St. Andrew's in Grafton, West Virginia, listened and responded to her request for a Sunday service honoring mothers. Shortly thereafter, John Wanamaker, a Philadelphia merchant, joined the campaign for Mother's Day, and in 1908: the first bill officially proposing the establishment of Mother's Day was presented in the U.S. Senate. Although it failed, Anna Jarvis persisted and enlisted the assistance of clergymen, businessmen, politicians, and anyone who would listen, to support her promise to her mother. By 1909, Mother's Day services were held in 46 states plus Canada and Mexico.

Anna Jarvis was able to enlist the World's Sunday School Association in the lobbying campaign, a key success factor in convincing legislators in states and in the U.S. Congress to support the proposed holiday.

By 1912, West Virginia became the first state to adopt an official Mother's Day. Anna Jarvis persisted and in 1914 the U.S. Congress passed a Joint Resolution, and President Woodrow Wilson signed it, officially establishing Mother's Day.

One hundred years later, Mother's Day is celebrated in countries around the world, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Australia, Mexico, Canada, China, Japan and Belgium. It is indeed a day to honor mothers and grandmothers for all that they do in raising children.

Although Anna Jarvis ultimately became disillusioned with the commercialization of Mother’s day, she remains a symbol of what can happen when enough leaders listen to a great idea and take meaningful action. Perhaps the greatest irony of Mother’s Day lies in the fact that Anna Jarvis never had children of her own. Nevertheless, she is the mother of our modern Mother’s Day, because she made sure sons and daughters everywhere listened.

LISTENING LEADER TIP OF THE WEEK: Listen to your mother’s sound advice.

GOLDEN CIRCLE LISTENING LEADERS QUOTES OF THE WEEK:

Ideas shape the course of history ~ John Maynard Keynes
The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world ~ Proverb
As is the mother, so is the daughter ~ Ezekiel 16:45
No man is responsible for his father. That is entirely his mother’s affair ~ Margaret Turnbull
Parents are the bones on which children sharpen their teeth ~ Peter Ustinov
My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it ~ Mark Twain

A LISTENING LEADER GIGGLE:

Many mothers throughout the world are concerned about the dangerous obesity of their spouses. A variety of diets exist as evidenced in a recent email that is making the rounds. It is called the “Irish Diet” but could work for any and every nationality.

Evidently an Irishman was terribly overweight, so his doctor put him on a strict diet.

"I want you to eat regularly for 2 days, and then skip a day. Repeat this procedure for 2 weeks, and the next time I see you, you should have lost at least 5 pounds."

When the Irishman returned, he shocked the doctor by having lost nearly 30 pounds!

"Why, that's amazing!" the doctor said, "Did you follow my instructions?"

Weakly the Irishman nodded..."I'll tell you though, by the end of each 3rd day, I thought I was going to drop dead.”

”From hunger, you mean?"

"No,” responded the Irishman, “from skipping all day!”

LISTENING LEADERS KUDOS

Kudos to Mothers everywhere like Marcella Johnston who raise productive sons like Terry Johnston. In addition, kudos to Terry Johnston who serves as a loving supporter of Marcella, his 90 +-year-old mother. As a strong believer and practioner of the Listening Leaders® “Ten Golden Rules to Listen, Lead & Succeed,” Terry finds that listening holds the secret to respecting everyone’s elders.

For as Terry reminds everyone, “No matter the age, your mother is always with you. She's the whisper of the leaves as you walk down the street; she's the smell of bleach in your freshly laundered socks; she's the cool hand on your brow when you're not well. Your mother lives inside your laughter. She's crystallized in every teardrop, for she's the place you came from, your first home. She's the map you follow with every step you take. She's your first love and nothing on earth can separate you.

Congratulations Terry and Marcella!

BECOME CERTIFIED TO TEACH LISTENING LEADERSHIP IN YOUR ORGANIZATION.

You will become fully equipped to deliver a unique and proven Workshop that provides practical and measurable results. For certification details, go to www.ListeningLeaders.com

ORDER YOUR “LISTENING LEADERS WORKSHOP ‘IN A BOX’.

You don't have to wait for the next live Listening Leaders® Workshop! The entire workshop is in a format that you can take at your own pace in the comfort of your own office or home. For details, go to www.ListeningLeaders.com

WE ARE LISTENING and invite your action

Together, we can change the listening attitudes, skills, and knowledge of leaders throughout the world. We appreciate and invite your assistance in expanding our listening leader’s connections. Eight simple steps in advancing this important movement include:

Mark memorable messages that serve you every day.

Send us your listening leader insights, examples and stories.

Start a Listening Leaders Reading and Discussion Group. Invite your Librarian to purchase our Award winning LISTENING LEADER book.

As meeting, conference, and convention attendees spend the bulk of their time listening, please let others know of our availability to Keynote Conventions and customize Listening Leader Workshops.

Invite us to identify specific needs for listening development of leaders in your organizations.

Ask about our proven listening leader training programs and our customized in-house train-the-trainer strategies and our new Certification program.

We can help, we are committed, and we are listening.

Listen, Lead On & Make Today Count! – Manny & Rick

__________________________________________________________________

LISTENING LEADERS: THE TEN GOLDEN RULES
TO LISTEN, LEAD & SUCCEED

By Dr. Lyman K. Steil
& Dr. Richard K. Bommelje

Publisher: Beaver’s Pond Press
(ISBN 1-59298-073-2)

A pioneering book that directly connects listening with leadership.Based on more than 50 collective years of work with listening leaders throughout the world, Dr. Steil and Dr. Bommelje have created 10 practical, proven, and priceless rules to enhance everyone's listening and leadership success. Although outstanding leaders are outstanding listeners, most leaders have neglected the development of their listening attitudes, skills and knowledge.

“This is the most significant book ever written on listening and leadership and will profit leaders at all levels in all types of organizations and enterprises.” Dr. Ralph Nichols, Father of the Field of Listening

ORDER YOUR COPY at www.ListeningLeaders.com or www.amazon.com

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Dr. Lyman K. (Manny) Steil
25 Robb Farm Road
St. Paul, MN 55127
651-483-3597
LKS@ListeningLeaders.com

Dr. Richard K. (Rick) Bommelje
8530 Amber Oak Dr
Orlando, FL 32817
407-679-7280
RKB@ListeningLeaders.com

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