Digital Dealer - March 2018 - 7

loud mouth; her silence;
his firm handshake; his
flimsy handshake; he
didn't even shake hands
with me; referring to the
former Bruce Jenner by
the wrong pronoun; and
I'm sure that for some
readers now scurrying
off to their safe space to
speed-dial momma and
their therapist and report
they have been offended-this article in general
up to this point.
Am I saying you should
be a doormat and just put
up with anything without
addressing it or mentioning it in some way? Of
course not. But I am suggesting you become far
more concerned with what
you invite into your life
and evaluate the following
to determine the negative
daily impact it has on your
effort, energy, enthusiasm,
passion, attitude, focus,
and overall productivity:
1. Just how easy are
you to offend, and how
many times does that
break your focus and
cause you to spend time
out of your zone during
the day saying and doing
less than what's optimally
productive?
 Examples: getting
worked up over what another department, coworker or customer said or did
to you; fretting because
you didn't get the credit,
or because someone else
got more than you believe
they deserve; and the like.
2. How often do you
share what offends you

with others, and what
impact does that have on
their attitude, focus, and
productivity?
 By spreading the
misery you've invited into
your life with others, you
also take them out of their
zone, and can diminish
their efforts, energy,
enthusiasm, passion,
attitude, focus and productivity.
3. How much longer
are you willing to invite
into your life what really
doesn't matter when con-

 Blaming, making excuses and investing your
energy into what you can't
control all combine to create an anti-focus that can
turn you into a pathetic,
powerless, whiney victim
unfit to lead a lemonade
stand, much less a more
substantial enterprise.
5. When was the last
time choosing to be
offended by something
helped you stay focused,
motivated, and achieve
your goals?
 If it's not moving you

...YOU DON'T HAVE
TIME TO SET EVERYONE
STRAIGHT, ENTER
EVERY DEBATE, AND BE
MORE CONSUMED WITH
BEING 'RIGHT,' THAN
REMAINING EFFECTIVE."
sidering the big picture of
fulfilling your potential as a
human being?
 Maturity is about
gaining discernment,
knowing which battles
are worth fighting, and
understanding that to
maximize your results
daily you don't have time
to set everyone straight,
enter every debate, and
be more consumed with
being "right," than remaining effective.
4. How much of your
limited time and energy
are you willing to invest in
things you cannot control,
and render yourself a
powerless victim as you
complain about it?

toward becoming a better
person, making a great
contribution to your team
or family, or elevating
results in some way, how
much time do you want to
waste on it?
6. Would you recommend whining and
complaining to your team
members or kids as viable
strategies for reaching
their goals?
 If this is what they
see you do, they're
learning from your example. Everyone leads by
example, that's not the
question. The questions
are: what example are
you leading by, and how
does that impact those

following you?
7. Is what you're offended by worth your loss
of peace, focus, attitude,
time, energy, enthusiasm,
passion, and productivity?
If it is, do more of it. If it's
not, grow up, give it up,
and go up.
 Samuel Johnson
said, "The art of being
wise is knowing what to
overlook." The stakes are
too high for you to choose
to be easily offended. Effort, energy, enthusiasm,
passion, attitude and
focus misspent and lost is
gone forever.
The question many
leaders must look into the
mirror to face and fix so
they can grow up and go
up is not how offended
they are by what has
happened, but this:
How did they get
so mentally soft and
emotionally weak in the
first place? That is what
should offend you.
DAVE ANDERSON is
President of LearnToLead,
which provides in-person
and virtual training to
many of the world's best
dealerships. Dave speaks
to dealer groups over
125 times each year and
has given seminars in 15
countries. He's written
the leadership column
for Dealer Magazine
for the past 15 years.
Dave's 13th book, "It's Not
Rocket Science: 4 Simple
Strategies for Mastering
the Art of Execution" is
now available worldwide.
For leadership tips
follow Dave on Twitter @
DaveAnderson100. EMAIL:
dave@learntolead.com

D I G I TA L D E A L E R . C O M

MARCH 2018

7
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Digital Dealer - March 2018
