My guest blogger today is a friend and someone I admire tremendously-- Todd Cherches, who is the co-founder and CEO of BigBlueGumball, a NYC-based management and leadership consulting, training, and executive coaching firm whose motto is, "We make training entertaining." Todd and his brother, Steve, are on a mission to make the world a better place by ridding the planet of bad managers -- and bad powerpoint -- through their cutting-edge, visual thinking approach.
Todd and Steve are a terrific team--and I recommend them highly! We met years ago when we were all adjunct instructors at the Dale Carnegie program and I then had the great opportunity to have Todd as one of my clients before he opened his own firm.
They are the true Leadership training gurus- and a little bit about their firm:
- BigBlueGumball is a professional development firm dedicated to helping organizations and their people turn ideas into actions…and actions into results.
- They work hand-in-hand with their clients to design and deliver powerful, impactful, practical, engaging, and often life-changing learning experiences that have been proven to transform individuals, teams, departments, and organizations.
- How do they do it? By leveraging their patented learning methodology whose foundation lies is these three key words: Educate, Engage, and Excite!TM
- Whether through their consulting, training, or coaching services, they seek to… EDUCATE by providing meaningful, relevant, and cutting-edge content; ENGAGE by delivering information in a way that is entertaining, impactful and memorable; and EXCITE by leaving people inspired to change and motivated to act.
Read what Todd has to say on The Leadership Journey--
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. And that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. And that Leadership is not a destination…but a journey.
I’m not exactly sure who “they” are, or what else they have to say (or why 90% of all quotes seem to be attributed to Confucius – did he really say all the things they say he said?), but regardless of who said what, there’s something about the power of a beautiful, colorful visual image combined with a simple yet thought-provoking metaphor such as this one.
In my leadership workshops, and the NYU graduate course I teach on “Transformational Leadership & Teambuilding,” we spend almost an hour – and pretty much an entire semester – discussing and referring back to this single, powerful image.
“An hour on one picture? How can that be?” you might be wondering.
The WINDSHIELD represents the future: Your leadership vision. The road ahead. The road not taken. The unknown just over the horizon. The obstacles, yet unseen. The journey you are on. And so much more.
The REARVIEW MIRROR represents the past: Where you’ve come from, and how you got here. Your successes and your failures. The experiences you’ve brought with you. Your core values. The competition that may be gaining on you. Or those you left behind. And a constant reminder to pull over periodically and take time for “reflection.”
The DASHBOARD represents the present: Your dials and gauges and metrics. It tells us how we are doing, and how much further we have yet to go. How fast are we going, or how slow. And do we have what it takes to get us to our next destination. Management guru Peter Drucker once famously said, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.”
And what else? What does the STEERING WHEEL symbolize, and the TIRES, and the ENGINE, and the TRUNK? Should we stay on this ROAD, or is our GPS telling us that we are speeding forward in the wrong direction? And where should the leader be: in the DRIVER’S SEAT, the passenger seat, the back seat…or not in the car at all?
OK. Now may be a good time to pull over and reflect…
To learn more about Todd and Steve Cherches-- visit their website www.bigbluegumball.com
and remember, they make training entertaining!
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