When Billy has a problem with Susie AND with Bobby AND with Janie…

This week I was approached by a guy who I hadn’t seen in years.   He immediately cornered me and told me his tale of woe.  Everyone had let him down in life.  All bad for the last 25 years.

His kids are terrible and he doesn’t approve of their adult choices.

All the people in his church are hypocrites so he had to quit.  (everyone’s a hypocrite by the way; do you always act according to what you say you believe?  I don’t)

His friends don’t get him and are just bad people so he had to drop them.

His work is awful and his industry is skidding downhill.

He went on and on and on.  After about four minutes I was desperate to extricate myself from this monologue and we were now at minute eleven, but I couldn’t think of a plausible reason to leave.  Then my wife showed up and I thought I’d let her take a turn for a few minutes, so I was able to get away.  She owed me one,  I told myself.  Hey, I already told you I’m a hypocrite!

But very quickly I knew something about this guy that he didn’t know.  It’s a principle that you can remember too:

When Billy has a problem with Susie AND Bobby AND Janie… THE PROBLEM IS BILLY!

Because, a person’s view of the world is a confession of their character.

If no one can be trusted, they aren’t trustworthy.

I everyone’s a hypocrite, they’re a hypocrite.

If they have no friends, they’re a bad friend to others.

If all people do is cheat and lie, they’re cheaters and liars.

And so on.

So if this is you, have a look inside and say, “What do I own about these negative situations?  What part have I played in the circumstances in my life that I don’t like?”

Every other question you ask yourself leads to misdiagnosis and wrong conclusions.

The mature person asks, “How can I change?”

The immature person says, “It’s everybody else’s fault!”

Getting ahead is about getting started!

Trevor head shot in office 1

Trevor Throness is a speaker, consultant, and author of “The Power of People Skills.”  He is also co-founder and senior instructor at professionalleadershipinstitute.com https://professionalleadershipinstitute.com/

Find more about “The Power of People Skills” here: https://www.amazon.com/Power-People-Skills-Dramatically-Performance/dp/1632651068

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The range of topics delivered, the open dialogue, experience, and examples that PLI brought to each session were outstanding and provided a path for our Franchisees and Managers to look at leadership, coaching, and connecting with their teams in a new light. Many have implemented these strategies in their bakeries and have seen immediate results.
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COBS Bread
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We have locations around BC and Alberta, so getting people on the same page can be very difficult... Until now. Our entire management team and location managers take the same great courses and then meet monthly online with our coach to apply it to our situation. People are engaged, the courses are excellent, we love our coach, and we are all learning together!
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The result has been a transformation of our culture. 
We decided to implement PLI's strategies across the country in over 150 locations and over 3500 employees.  The result has been a transformation of our culture.  People's lives have been positively impacted - professionally and personally.  Morale is high and sales and profits are up as a result.
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I had no idea that running a business could be this fun!
In less than 18 months of working with Trevor, he has transformed my business from being average to exceptional, where mediocrity is not acceptable, where being great is standard.  Working with PLI has allowed me to realize my dream of not simply owning a job, but owning a business.
Justin Bontkes
Principal, Caliber Projects
Our culture has taken major steps forward this year
Our culture has taken major steps forward this year with Trevor’s help.  He is funny, relatable, and his tools are very very practical and have helped us focus and upgrade our teams throughout our retail network. Trevor recently spoke to an employee group, and one person remarked, “I could listen to Trevor all day.”   We would highly recommend Trevor.
Stan Pridham
Founder, KMS Tools
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At first, we resisted, “This just won’t work with a law firm.” But we persisted and the results have been remarkable: our client base and profits have steadily improved, and staff engagement and morale is the healthiest its ever been.
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Brian Antenbring
Founder, TEEMA
Provided practical ways to make positive changes
Trevor was incredibly well-received by the entire organization. He was able to articulate people issues that many of our franchisees were experiencing and provided them with practical ways to make positive changes. We have implemented the Star Chart tool across the organization and see it as vital to building happy, effective teams.
Aaron Gillespie
President, COBS Bread
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