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Something happened the other day that really bothered me. At first it made me extremely angry, so I let it stew for a couple of days, simmering in my mind. This gave me some time to absorb the lesson before just coming out and writing an angry post. So here goes…

I work for an exceptional company, Algonquin Studios. Every day is full of lessons on leadership and what being a real leader means. My CEO is a man to look up to, to view as a mentor. And the other people around him are also to be looked up to. So when I see people in the business community doing very crappy things, I take notice. They become my anti-mentors.

The other day my wife had to go to a funeral for a co-worker, an unfortunate victim of cancer. It has been an extremely rough time for this persons friends and family.

Now here’s where I get mad. The direct supervisor of the person who passed away and the CEO of my wifes organization could not be bothered to show up to the funeral. The supervisor even gave a lame excuse that she does not believe in stepping into any church other than a Catholic one. Ridiculous. Unacceptable. Shame on you. I don’t care what your belief system, you should show compassion for people in pain. You should be there for them. Anything less is pitiful.

And people within the organization who know damn well this is wrong, refuse to call them out on it.

Real leaders are there for their people when they need them. They don’t even think twice about reaching out to help.

How do organizations like this, that clearly have a lack of leadership, continue to survive? These people run in the same circles as some real leaders in Buffalo. Why aren’t those leaders of business calling them out on the carpet for their indiscretions? And mentoring them on why they need to care about their people.

It is a shame that some people just don’t understand how to run a winning organization; that they don’t understand having a core set of values, and holding everyone in the organization to them, is essential to create a vibrate, thriving community around you.

And this issue I have highlighted here is just one of many such examples in my wife’s company. And it’s always the same few people at the top. These anti-mentors are creating tremendous lessons for those paying attention and being critical of them. Because of this I have strongly recommended to my wife that she find a new job, and to be very critical when asking questions in interviews

Leadership matters; caring about your people matters. Are you a leader? Or are you my anti-mentor?

Here we are in the new year. Happy New Year to everyone.

We started out our new year a bit rough. Shaun seems to have caught another bug and has thrown up twice this morning. Mostly flem and juice since he is not eating food well. So far little Teagan doesn’t seem to have caught it, but the last time this happened it went through everyone in the family. So, I’m bracing myself for the inevitable. But while I wait for that I’ll just have to keep comforting a sick little boy. He even went down for his nap without a fuss. That NEVER happens.

With the new year Teagan has really taken to standing, a lot. I’ll give it no more than a couple of months before she is running around this house. She is just absolutely determined to catch up with Shaun. And getting her fair share of bumps and bruises to prove it. She’s also improving her dad’s eyesight. I getting much better at spotting all the things she’s going to put in her mouth before she does.

Like many people I set some pretty lofty goals for last year, and failed to meet most of them. Primarily due to a new family member. But, even though I hadn’t listed it as a goal, my wife and I managed to raise a very happy, very healthy little girl. That was hands down the biggest priority for 2007.

Going forward for 2008 we have some new and old goals to accomplish. The kids obviously continue to be a priority. But my wife and I have become determined to work harder toward financial freedom. This year we are both starting new business ventures and I am learning a great deal about real estate. We already have one rental unit and I hope to find a couple of new duplexes before the years end. I have begun a network marketing business with Bookwise and started up a blog to follow my first experience with network marketing. I’ll give you my honest opinion on how it proceeds, good and bad. And I’m also going to try and bring back the Grape Soda Records business I wanted to start a couple of years ago. I’m going to start with a couple of local bands and branch out from there. Eventually I’ll probably start a blog for this as well. All in all, I expect this building of businesses to take at least 2-3 years before it improves our cashflow. The bottom line for us is that we can’t keep doing 9-5 for someone else. We need more flexibility with our new family.

And, while I’m not sure where I’m going to find the time I am also hoping to resurrect Radio.Speljamr this year. We’ll see how it goes. It takes a good deal of time.

We end our 1^st day of the new year by watching the NHL’s Winter Classic hockey game between the Sabres and the Penguins. The Sabres lost in the final shootout, but it was still a very exciting hockey game. The players were like a bunch of kids on a frozen pond in the first period, and the aerial shots were one of a kind. I hope they try to do this next year.

Well, it wasn’t a perfect day, but I still think we’re heading down the right path. 2008, here we come!