Holiday Traditions | Sanitizer Packs | Cisco GLC-T | 7 Leadership Steps to Keep Your Promises | News to Start Your Day
Happy Tuesday!
(December 1st is National Christmas Lights Day…so if you haven’t put up your Christmas lights yet, today might be a good day to do so!)
December 2020. Can you believe it is here? What a wild ride this year has been.
I have to admit that I am actually feeling more relaxed than usual at the holidays this year. Usually I feel a ton of pressure to go to all the events, do all the extra Christmassy things, buy all the gifts, and decorate like we live in a Hallmark movie… all with a big smile and cup full of holiday cheer in my hand. But this year simplicity is in the air, and I cannot wait to sit by the fire in a room lit by twinkling lights and enjoy my family.
Craig and I try to take the last week of the year off, and it is one of my favorite weeks. The kids are entertained with new this or that (and we actually have time to play with them for as long as we want), we sleep in, we play games together and eat Christmas leftovers (and sometimes do some fun baking). On New Year’s Eve we have appetizers for dinner and on New Year’s Day I make a traditional southern New Year’s meal. My favorite part about the week is that we’re all home together, there’s not as much pressure to go and do anything (unless we want to), and there’s a sense of excitement just around the corner about the plans we’ve made for the new year.
I would love to hear about some of your end of year, Christmas, or New Year’s traditions. What is your favorite one? Will it look the same or different for you this year?
Welcome, December. I am glad to see you, old friend.
Christin
Today’s Product Updates:
Happy Tuesday! I don’t know about you, but I am hitting that point where I’m starting to run out of hand sanitizer! I stocked up earlier in the year (call me a hoarder if you want, but I didn’t want to be without it!) so now I’m restocking to get through the winter months! If you’re in the same boat, remember that we have some AWESOME deals going for hand sanitizer! I’ve been looking every time I go to the store and I haven’t found any better deals than what we are offering here at CK! Stock up now, and be sure to pass the word along to friends, family, coworkers, or anyone you know who is looking to restock!
3.38 oz Gel Hand Sanitizer (24 Pack) – There is no time like the present to STOCK UP on hand sanitizer! We have our 3.38 oz packages of sanitizer on sale for an incredible deal! We are selling them in packs of 24 and they come packaged ready for retail sale!
8 oz Gel Hand Sanitizer (24 Pack) – These convenient 8oz bottles of gel hand sanitizer feature a push top and are perfect for keeping in your purse, car, desk… really anywhere! Made from 70% ethyl alcohol, these are a great purchase for anyone looking to stay safe and sanitized!
Reminder: Get free shipping on your PPE orders by using coupon code PPESHIP at checkout!
Main Safety Supplies Landing Page: https://www.cablesandkits.com/c/safety-supplies
The Cisco GLC-T is a convenient and economical solution to achieve Gigabit Ethernet speeds using your existing infrastructure as this SFP provides full-duplex Gigabit Ethernet over Cat5e copper wire! Additionally, these 1000Base-T transceivers are hot-swappable and utilize an RJ45 interface. GLC-T modules are IEEE 802.3:2000 compliant and can operate at lengths up to 100m (328 ft)! Check out our options of New In Box, Refurbished, or CK Branded!
As always, I encourage you to check out awesome reviews from our awesome customers!
7 Leadership Steps to Keep Your Promises (or Fail Fast) – By Lee Ellis, Author & USAF Colonel (Ret.)
I had already broken three promises, and the day wasn’t over yet! I was participating in an event specifically on the topic of self-governance and reliable follow-through, and in the heat of the moment I made some commitments that I couldn’t keep. While they were small things that others may not have remembered, they still had the potential to undermine my credibility and dependability with this group. I realized that I needed to be more self-aware of what I was saying to others. I like to help people, look good, and to be liked, so it’s easy for me to say that I’ll do something.
To this day, it was a learning opportunity that I haven’t forgotten. If you’re like me over the last few weeks and months, the increased pace and pressure of virtual work and activity makes keeping promises even more critical.
Simple But Not Easy
When the Honor Code was created, Article 3 was a foundational requirement to lead with honor –
“KEEP YOUR WORD AND YOUR COMMITMENTS. ASK FOR RELIEF SOONER THAN NECESSARY.”
It’s easy to assume that we keep our word, but in reality it’s not that easy to keep promises consistently—especially to remember and keep the ones that aren’t as personally important to us. We have good intentions and a desire to help and fulfill our word with a particular person, but the truth is that some of us hastily agree to do things that get forgotten and drop off the radar. Even worse, we just decided it was a bad commitment that we should’ve never agreed to do, and now we want to ignore it instead of respectfully declining or asking for relief.
On a national scale, have you noticed the continued cynicism toward politics and the media? For the last few years, Gallup’s research indicates that the majority of the population has “very little” or only “some” confidence in the institutions of Congress, television news, and internet news. There appears to be widespread skepticism, even contempt for institutions that consistently fail to keep their promises and their value statements to the public. This mentality is collectively and individually dangerous if it becomes an accepted practice to break promises.
Why Is It Important?
Others are counting on you to keep your word. They’re planning their work, their schedule, their expectations, their hopes, even their lives based on what you’ve promised. Their trust for you is founded on your reliability to follow through.
TRUST IS THE HINGE POINT OF LEADERSHIP—WHEN IT GOES UP, YOUR CREDIBILITY GOES UP; WHEN IT GOES DOWN, YOUR INFLUENCE DROPS LIKE A ROCK.
There will be consequences if you fail. When you don’t deliver, it can be a minor problem or even disastrous. What happens when a child is told that you will pick them up after practice and you don’t show? What about when you tell your teammates you will have your next milestone done by a certain date and then don’t come through?
In the military and other time-sensitive occupations, keeping your commitments can be life or death. Entire operations are coordinated around timely execution of the tactical plan. In day-to- day life, seemingly small, unfulfilled promises can become critical to your credibility and your honor.
Ultimately, it undermines the trust of others, and trust is the foundation for leadership, influence, execution, and healthy relationships. My point is not to create feelings of guilt but awareness that we all have some room to grow on this one.
7 Steps to Keeping Your Promises
How can you guard against broken promises and commitments? Learn and apply this list of helpful, proven steps –
- Be Intentional. If keeping your word is important to you, recommit to it as one of your key values. Test yourself for a couple of days and track how well you currently keep your promises.
- Become More Self-Aware. Monitor your words and be fully aware of what you are promising.
- Don’t Make Promises You Can’t Keep. Resist committing unless you’re sure you want to do it and can do it. Learn to say “no,” or say, “I’ll have to check with my team to see if we can do that.”
- Write Commitments Down Immediately. Assign them a realistic completion date on your to-do list or calendar.
- Be Courageous. Use the Courage Challenge engagement card to engage rather than withdraw.
- Ask Your Support Team to Help You be Accountable. Get over your independence and pride. Ask for help.
- Fail Fast. If you can’t keep commitments, ask for relief immediately versus ignoring it.
Today’s News to Start Your Day:
- As of this morning, since February, worldwide there have been about 63,729,200 cases, 44,126,000 have recovered, and there have been 1,476,909 deaths. In the US, there have been about 13,921,500 cases, 8,228,500 have recovered, and 274,355 deaths.
- A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory panel is set to meet today to develop advice on who should be prioritized to receive coronavirus vaccines. Biotechnology company Moderna has requested emergency authorization of its experimental vaccine, which means the U.S. government potentially could start distributing two vaccines in the next few weeks.
- Private gatherings between members of different households are now banned in Los Angeles County. In New York, officials are weighing the prospects of another shutdown.
- Amazon said this year’s holiday shopping season has been the biggest in its history. Amazon is widely expected to be one of the biggest winners this holiday season, with one Wall Street firm estimating it could capture 42 cents of every dollar spent during the busy shopping period.
- Sephora will open hundreds of beauty shops inside Kohl’s stores in the coming years in a deal that rivals Target’s recent partnership with Ulta Beauty. Some 200 Sephora at Kohl’s locations will open by next fall, rising to at least 850 sites by 2023, the companies announced Tuesday. Sephora will also launch on Kohl’s website next year, offering more than 100 beauty brands, some of which are exclusive to Sephora.
- On Etsy, searches for “personalized gifts” are even more popular than queries for face masks in 2020, CEO Josh Silverman told CNBC on Monday. Sales on the e-commerce site have surged in general this year during the coronavirus pandemic. “I think what people are discovering is there’s just a better way to shop,” Silverman added.