Ordinary Greatness

How to leverage ordinary greatness to create a competitive advantage for any organization

Enabling readers to maximize leadership skills, no matter the venue, Ordinary Greatness helps those who are in leadership positions to optimize their organizational results by improving their ability to recognize and create greatness in those who they lead. Featuring real-world stories, this practical guide helps readers relate to both famous and everyday heroes and shows leaders how to improve their immediate environment. In addition, actionable tips and insights are included to equip business leaders to remove the blinders that keep them from seeing their organization's ordinary greatness.

Pamela Bilbrey and Brian Jones are organizational consultants, executive coaches, and international speakers and workshop facilitators

Foreword ix

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xv

Chapter 1 What is Ordinary Greatness? 1

Chapter 2 Ordinary Greatness Observed 9

Chapter 3 Why People Do Not See Ordinary Greatness 23

Chapter 4 How Leaders Open Their Eyes to Ordinary Greatness 39

Chapter 5 Characteristics of Ordinary Greatness 55

Chapter 6 Creating the Context for Ordinary Greatness 75

Chapter 7 Promoting Ordinary Greatness 95

Chapter 8 Cultivating the Potential for Ordinary Greatness 109

Chapter 9 Changing the Way You View the World 123

Chapter 10 Ordinary Greatness in Challenging Times 143

Closing Comments 157

Appendix A Assessments 159

Appendix B Questions and Answers 166

Notes 180

For More Information 188

About the Authors 189

Index 190

"In their book…Pamela Bilbrey and Brian Jones flip the script on how we should recognize and reward greatness in both our professional and personal lives. They remind us to set aside our beliefs that great people must be well-known celebrities or larger-than-life figures, and consider the people around us who practice greatness every day while no one is looking." (Pensacola News Journal, August 18, 2009)

"Attaining greatness in and out of the workplace may seem like a lofty aspiration-to say the least-but according to Pam Bilbrey and Brian Jones, the prerequisite steps are surprisingly pedestrian in nature." (Sales Marketing Management Monitor, July 21, 2009)

PAMELA BILBREY helps organizations maximize their current strengths and bring out their ordinary greatness to achieve extraordinary results. A sought-after consultant, coach, and international speaker, she has authored three books and over fifty articles on employee engagement, leadership and team development, and organizational change. She was senior vice president of corporate development at Baptist Health Care, a Fortune 100 Best Places to Work organization and a Baldrige National Quality Program recipient. She also founded the Baptist Health Care Leadership Institute.

BRIAN JONES has been described by his clients as "a breath of fresh air" and "the most effective consultant we've ever hired." He travels the country helping teams and organizations achieve real results with ordinary, yet great tools and advice. As the former director of people development for Baptist Health Care, he was instrumental in the organization's recognition as Training magazine's Top 100 Training Organizations in America for five consecutive years. He is the author of several articles on leadership development and employee engagement.

ORDINARY GREATNESS

Ordinary people do great things in the business environment, but these individuals and their deeds go largely unnoticed. Greatness gets overlooked on a daily basis due, mostly, to how it's packaged. Leaders simply fail to grasp what is right there in front of them. Does this describe you as a leader?

Revealing how you can maximize your leadership skills, no matter the venue, Ordinary Greatness helps you to optimize organizational results by improving your ability to recognize and create ordinary greatness in those you lead. This practical guide features real-world stories relating to both famous and everyday heroes with tips to identify the blinders that keep you from seeing the greatness within your organization.

Starting with a Foreword by renowned leadership thinker Patrick Lencioni, this groundbreaking book includes a personal template for achieving ordinary greatness in your own life and those you lead so you can:

• Discover why people don't see greatness
• Find out what defines greatness
• Learn how leaders open their eyes to greatness
• Create the systems and processes that support extraordinary performance
• Elevate the energy, enthusiasm, and commitment of the workforce
• Cultivate the potential for greatness in everyone
• Maximize your organizational results

A timely wake-up call for people in all walks of life, but especially for those in leadership positions who struggle every day to keep employees engaged and passionate about their work, Ordinary Greatness will transform the way you see—and lead—within your business.