HAVE YOU
SAID THIS
IN THE PAST
SIX-MONTHS?
“I’m tired of doing my best as a leader and I’m still not able to grow as I thought we should. I’ve read a lot of leadership books, I’ve watched the hell out of YouTube, and yet I’m still stuck in the tactical weeds. I should be a general, leading the army; instead, I’m a soldier in the trenches with everyone else.”
THINK
. “Learn how to break down your business into its essential elements – elements that EVERYONE understands and can’t act upon. Learn how to strategize, to identify what is important and what to you should be focusing on.”
COMMUNICATE
“Learn how to sell your STRENGTHS, as a leader and/or a business owner. Gain the knowledge to overcome objections, to win arguments and ultimately earn the resources you need to support you and your team.”
PLAN
“Learn how to create strategies and roadmaps that EVERYONE can follow – without your help or support. Ensure continuity of effort when you’re not personally there.”
EXECUTE
“Learn how to manage the one constant in business that freaks people out and trips ups the best of leaders: ‘the fog of war.’ Learn how to manage this natural negative force, along with the chaos that follows it. Gain access to tools to help you and your people accomplish your mission in the most constructive means, practical.”
“Hi, I’m Kevin Black, we haven’t met. The reason is that chances are, you’re not a Fortune 500 executive. Rather, you’re probably an emerging leader in Corporate America, or you’re a small biz owner or an entrepreneur. If you’re any of these things, or even closely related to them, then you’ve come to the right place.”
I’m doing something different. I’m offering my knowledge, experience, and expertise to you. I want to help you overcome the natural obstacles to building your company.
This your opportunity to gain a leadership education usually exclusively for billion-dollar companies. I can not only help you grow as a leader, but you can gain an education that will help you excel in your field, in your business, and even in your life. My mantra is simple: everything comes down to execution. I can help you gain a competitive edge over other leaders or companies.
Learn how
top math, science, and engineering students ace their exams and crush their courses, without the stress, frustration, and long hours we’re all accustomed to.
Learn how
to drive results, plan and strategize better than your boss.
Learn how
to think, communicate, plan and lead your team to drive results, without reading thousands of books, listening to talking-heads or waiting for years of experiences to come
Let’s get serious about leadership, for a second. Anyone working with another person needs it, especially when money or reputations are on the line. Depending on where you are in life, your needs and responsibilities differ:
- AS A SMALL BUSINESS LEADER OR OWNER, you need leaders who can think and act on their own, who can be counted on to do what needs to be done, without you being there.
- AS AN ENTREPRENEUR, you need to learn how to be effective and at the lowest cost. Then, you must develop your team to do the same thing. (Definitely not an easy task)
- AS AN EMEGERING LEADER IN CORPORATE AMERICA, you must build your brand as a leader. You must exceed expectations and demonstrate your independence – and you must do it while competing against others who are doing the same, fairly or unfairly. One more thing about you all working in Corporate America – you must be able to make your boss a success while being able to take some credit.
Unfortunately, there are many challenges to developing into one. Take the feel-good stuff out of it, for a second. You’re an adult that is responsible for driving results. This doesn’t mean you have to an asshole, but it does mean you meet your obligations by achieving results and not destroying the team on the way.
These are real challenges, and unfortunately today, the leadership development industry is not helping you.
- So much leadership literature and resources are advocacy platforms, pushing a religious or political viewpoint. TRY ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE – IT’S ABOUT DRIVING VALUE. This means growing your business, your people, and of course, YOU.
- So much leadership literature is one-off subjects. YOU NEED A SYSTEMATIC APPROACH to be successful – one that ties thinking, communication, planning, and execution altogether.
- So much leadership literature is predominantly ethics focused. YOU. AND YOUR PEOPLE, NEED TO UNDERSTAND THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN: ACCOMPLISHING THE MISSION! Leaders exist to get a job done. Become a priest or social worker if you think your job is to be a shepherd.
- So many leadership authors and experts are selling rebranded ideas and slogans that seem to appear new and fresh to you. GET A THOROUGH EDUCATION. Learn to develop your mind in seeing what is essential, and not become distracted by non-essentials. We do that by introducing other sides of leadership, spanning the public sector to the private sector. Save your time and money – and preserve your patience – by learning to differentiate people, personalities, systems, and processes.
- So much leadership literature is about leadership ONLY. YOU CAN’T DIVORCE LEADERSHIP FROM STRATEGY. Learn both, especially strategy – the art and science of combining means and ends. And, we won’t focus on making Fortune 500 strategies – we’ll discuss it at the small business level so you get real value and lessons and templates to implement immediately. /strong>
ESTABLISH
THE CONNECTION
THE DEMAND
Leadership and learning have dramatically increased in importance… companies see an accelerating demand for leadership at all levels, especially among [new hires]. [Bersin by Deloitte]
STATS
If you are 25 years old and below, and work in Corporate America, there is roughly a five percent chance of you getting a leadership training or an education in it. If you are 30 years old and below, then the probability is nine percent!
42. this is the average age of a manager in Corporate America first receiving leadership training or development! Think of the opportunities lost just because of a simple lack of knowledge of people, strategy and processes…
Leadership and learning have dramatically increased in importance… companies see an accelerating demand for leadership at all levels, especially among [new hires]. [Bersin by Deloitte]
AN EMEGRING LEADER IN CORPORATE AMERICAN:
“How in the hell is my boss in his position? Does he know something about the boss that can’t get him fired? I’m so much smarter than him, and I’m more effective. What the hell do I need to do to get forward?”
“I’m extremely good at what I do, yet [fill in the name] is getting promoted ahead of me. What the hell? What do I need to do to get the position – and the paycheck – I deserve?”
A SMALL BUSINESS OWNER:
“My company is doing awesome. I’m making a great paycheck, but I have no time. Instead of being a general, I’m acting like a sergeant in the trenches. I want to grow the company but there is no way I can do it like this.”
“I’ve been playing it by ear for so long. I think I know what to do to lead my organization, but I don’t know what I don’t know. Is there some formula I need to follow, or something special I need to do?
AN ENTREPRENEUR:
“I’m tired of studying my ass off with nothing to show for it”: You can practically hear a frustrated student coming back to their dorm room after a particularly brutal test and saying this exact thing to their roommate.
Situation – paint the picture – or video it!
“I’m tired of studying my ass off with nothing to show for it”: You can practically hear a frustrated student coming back to their dorm room after a particularly brutal test and saying this exact thing to their roommate.
Solution: “What if there is another way?”
The FREE COURSE, “The Fog of War”
(informational video. Here are some ideas to contemplate and to use in your business and even in your professional development)
Option #1
Course with accompanying learning materials. They are made for your immediate application to your role and to team, organization and business.
Option #2.
Course, plus access to two webinars (with one year)
Option #3.
Annual membership (Access to all courses and four webinars).
“My team at LifeLock expanded quickly to match the company growth and demand for results. Without Kevin showing us the importance of proper organizational alignment, we wouldn’t have been able to meet our overall goals. I had a highly-effective team at LifeLock and working with Kevin fine-tuned our performance. The team became more efficient, turning a 3X ROI into a 5X ROI.”
SUPPORT
If you’re not interested in taking part, then I’ll gladly provide you with some points to support your growth. For free.
Books. One-off books have good tactics to use. BUT, if you’re interested in thinking and acting for the long-term, you’ll need to adopt a systematic approach: First, start with philosophy. (Please avoid Deepak Chopra and other magicians). Look for work in epistemology and metaphysics to help you better think and, specifically, to reduce your challenges down to their essentials. (Look up Occam’s Razor as an example of connecting philosophy to business). Next, you must go to ethics. This is REALLY tricky considering so much ethical material is, by its nature, ANTI-BUSINESS (Ever heard of rational self-interest? Chances are you haven’t if you follow memes and insider quotes on LinkedIn. What a shame!!!) Here’s one caveat though: Learn to quantify the qualitative. This requires a major paradigm-shift (another buzzword regarding mental models). This objective approach to thinking about “soft” sciences will greatly help you.
Going back on track, now: once you’ve established a correct pattern of ‘why’ to act, then you should enter the field of leadership. This is a little more difficult, as there are over 100,000 books on the subject. The trick here is to find an expert or “authority” on the subject who effectively balances people AND mission. (This is HARD AS HELL.) Establish the right mode of thinking, the correct ethics (one that you can gain without guilt). Once you’ve done that, try to avoid leadership books in general. Read biographies and discern the lessons versus having someone explain them to you.
Courses. Look for three things: education, experience, and realism.
Experience. This is where you must be conscious of your ideas and look to do two things: confirm your ideas or refine them. EVERY EVENT OR INTERACTION is a learning opportunity.
My boss will take care of me.
Strengths identified.
