Isn’t it like our current world that what you plan often times doesn’t work and what you don’t plan takes off?

That is what happened to me this past week.

Being a huge Oklahoma City Thunder fan I simply tweeted a picture I had received from Ben Ambuehl to a friend, Kevin Deshazo. The picture is of OKC Thunder player, James Harden. The rest is history.

The cake picture went viral after CNBC sports Darren Rovell tweeted it. The influence of the cake pic then spread to Yahoo Sports, the Spurs Nation, Albany Union Gazette, UCLA sports network and so on. One picture of a cake with my name, title and company name next to it.

Over the past years I have worked hard to strategically share our humility-based leadership message through our events, Chick-fil-A Leadercast, Catalyst, etc. I have even worked hard to share our message through my book, Leadership is Dead, this past year.

What I learned this week is that a timely, creative tweet can have as much splash as a well thought out launch. I just learned a lesson in leadership.

And so I will have my cake and eat it too. : )

Influence is leadership and leadership is influence.

The two go hand in hand.

Learning how to expand our influence is what most of us seek and hopefully we’re seeking it for righteous, authentic reasons. Reasons that better those around us and contribute to the collective good.

I see it every day. Business people with a revolutionary idea, pastors with a vision, authors and speakers with a message, or simply those with a passion for a cause… people who want to reach other people to make an impact or bring about change.

The dilemma many face is knowing HOW.

How do you expand your influence?

How do reach people and expose them to what you have to say (or in some cases sell)?

The answer, I believe, has been shared in Michael Hyatt’s new book Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World.

If you don’t know who Michael is, let me tell you about him. Michael is a friend of mine, a friend of Catalyst  and GiANT Impact. He a leader in the marketplace and at home. He is a man of trust and integrity. Someone who I admire and respect. Professionally, Michael is the Chairman and former CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers (one of the largest publishers in the U.S.). Michael also has a wildly popular blog and hosts a top 10 business podcast on iTunes.

What excites me about Michael’s book though is that he breaks down a step-by-step process for us to create a platform. Consider it like a stage that helps us amplify our message or product visibility so that it can be seen and heard by more (i.e. increase our influence).

If expanding your reach is important to you then I suggest you pick up a copy of Platform today. You might even want to pick up several copies for those who you lead or serve. It’s worth it.

I’d also suggest that you visit my friend Dan Cathy’s blog (President and COO of Chick-fil-A) where Dan share’s a few tips from Michael Hyatt with “6 Ways to Make WOW Happen.”

*Note: To celebrate the release of Platform, Michael also has an outstanding gift offer for those who purchase the book this week. See details here.

Can you honestly say that you have nothing to prove?

What are you afraid of losing?

What is it that you are trying to hide?

I believe these three questions are healing questions, if addressed properly in the right context of the season of life and leadership you are in. The negative is true, I believe these three areas are what keeps current leaders shackled and bound into being people they don’t want to be.

Let’s take a deeper look:

1. What are you trying to prove and to whom are you trying to prove it?

Some of you are still trying to prove yourselves to your fathers and for some, your dads are passed away. Others are trying to prove that they deserve the salary or want to show your peers that you are what you said you were.

Answering this question is huge. For once you address it you can deal with it. Imagine the peace in your life if you could get to the place where you don’t care or it is irrelevant to what you do by being clear from the pursuit of proving your worth or your status or your pedigree.

2. What are you afraid of losing?

None of us want to lose our homes or retirement. I am suggesting something more relevant however. How many of us are afraid of losing our perceived reputation? “Everything he touches turns to gold.” That was something I was afraid to lose. I had multiple say those words to me. Then a downturn occurred and I realize my “golden” reputation was going to be affected. I confused my identity with perception.

What are you afraid of losing, really? Name it. Is it perks, benefits, perceived reputation, access, money itself? When you can admit what you are afraid to lose you will also begin to see how much hold that fear has on your life. The next natural step is to see how much that fear is actually limiting you and your career.

3. What are you trying to hide?

I have worked with leaders who are trying to hide the fact that they don’t hold the actual degrees or certifications that they believe their co-workers think they have. So, they keep a façade and don’t get too close all because of this fear. Their co-workers then say things like, “Steve is not very personal. He likes to keep his distance. I am not sure I trust him.” Things like that.

What are you trying to hide? Realize it. Admit it.

Proving, Keeping, Hiding. These are all based on fear and fear kills. It maims and limits and steals and causing all sorts of drama and pain.

The solution is to name it, admit it and get real. When we name things they have less power over us. When we share with others you will notice those areas won’t have as much control over you.

However, if you don’t deal with these issues you will find yourself reeling in drama, emotional stress, insecurity and miserable relationships. I would guess that is not what you want.

Stop proving, fearing and hiding. Get real. It is a much better way to live.

Everyone of us has attitude. It can be good, bad, or indifferent. Attitudes can change hourly, daily, weekly or monthly. As we mature we are supposed to control our attitude so that we can function and be a responsible citizen. Teenagers have been branded for their “bad attitudes”. The reality is that they are learning who they are, what to do with their talents and how to handle their emotions. We should give them a break and help them reach the right attitude.

How about you, how is your attitude today? Does it need a slight adjustment or is it requiring a major overhaul? Either way I want to help you by focus on the Six Stages of Attitude Change.

1. Identify Problem Feelings

Our bodies have warning systems to tell us if something is wrong. Pain is usually the alarm. Our nerves highlight flare ups and soreness. That is helpful for us to find the problem and address it with rest or medicine.

Feelings can be helpful as well. Getting our feelings hurt is natural and we all feel it. However, if the foundation of our life is insecurity then we really can’t trust our feelings to help us find solutions.

Take out a pen and write down the feelings that creep in to your life and cause you pain. My list consisted of feelings of pressure on the business, feelings of doubt and feelings of being a bit tired after running so hard. Whatever they are write them down. Next to each one ask yourself if they are founded on insecurity or if the feelings are valid. My doubt feeling, for instance, is an actual feeling, but is not grounded in truth, so I have highlighted it as a problem feeling.

2. Look for Negative Ramifications of Your Problem Feelings

I realized that my feelings of doubt that were based in insecurity around a certain issue of mine easily spread to my attitude in the office. My team could see a personality change in me for a few weeks. I received comments like, “you doing ok?” or “what’s up? Why the sad face?” I would be a horrible poker player as my emotions show up on my face. My feelings affect my attitude and as a normally upbeat and positive guy I had to get to the core of my emotions and understand the poison I was spreading in our culture.

3. Understand both Reality and Hope

Reality then became a friend of mine. I also reacquainted myself with Hope. Reality is an equalizer when it comes to changing your attitude. If you are like me some times your attitude is based on the wrong things, whether good or bad. In my case, once I realized my insecurity and doubt I went to work on it. The very act of getting to the issue gave me hope. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was. My attitude got resurrected by hope.

4. Choose Your Attitude

The next stage to attitude change is to choose it. For me, I realized that I had allowed the weight of the world (my biz, expectations, etc.) to negatively affect my attitude and thus my personality. So, I faced reality, took up hope and chose to be me again. I am an encourager by trade with belief as an attribute. My attitude was going to be at that level, so I chose it.

5. Practice it Daily Internally and Externally

And so I realized that I was letting life squeeze me and I was not putting into myself enough firepower internally. I immediately began reading again, for me, not my business. Books, music, prayer, friendships, etc. I increased my inspiration and time with God in order to practice my attitude. Externally I simply focused on smiling, breathing, being, encouraging, and on and on.

6. Talk About the Change

Since then I have begun talking about it out loud realizing that sharing it helps validate it. When I talk about attitude change I am really accountable to continue it.

You see, I am convinced that being unintentional about things leads to the death of things. If you are unintentional about your family then you will suffer the consequences of bad relations and a poor family culture. The same is true for business as well as your attitude.

Identify, understand, choose, practice, share. Attitude change can happen, but only when you are ready to get to the core, deal with reality and decide to do something about it.

NOTE: This is a post from the Humble for President blog. Learn more at www.HumbleForPresident.com

Have you ever committed a humblebrag?

Humblebrags gained widespread popularity across Twitter when Harris Wittels, a writer on NBC’s Parks and Recreation, coined the phrase to describe a brag clumsily couched in falsely humble phraseology.

Since Wittles started the Twitter account, which he uses to post examples of humblebrags, he’s gained almost 200,000 followers (His Twitter profile photo? A woman giving herself a gratuitous pat on the back).

“I think bragging sucks, don’t get me wrong, but I get it,” Wittels told the Wall Street Journal. “What I hate about a humblebrag is that people try to come off like they aren’t bragging. It’s people not being honest about their intention. Just tell us you are at an exclusive party. Don’t hide it behind a complaint about your dress not fitting.”

Humblebrags present an interesting question: What is true humility? Is it genuinely thinking less of yourself? Is it trying to sound less prideful than you actually are? Or is it something else—something deeper?

True humility isn’t about lowering yourself for the sake of keeping up appearances simply because it’s impolite to brag—but to do so for the sake of serving others. “Humility isn’t about thinking less of yourself,” as the British writer C.S. Lewis once put it, “but thinking of yourself less.”

Humblebrag underscore the idea that our pride has a way of leaking out, despite our efforts to disguise it in seemingly humble language. It also illustrates the chasm between authentic humility, and faux humility.

The dictionary defines humility as having a “low view of one’s own importance.” But humilitas, the Latin root of the word, means “to lower yourself,” as Macquarie University Professor John Dickson notes in his excellent book Humilitas: A Lost Key to Life, Love and Leadership. As he explores the origins of humility—which he says was first used in Roman culture during the second and fifth centuries AD—he defines it as “the noble choice to forgo your status, deploy your resources or use your influence for the good of others before yourself.” Dickson’s definition of humility goes miles deeper than our culture’s comparatively crude use of the world.

True humility isn’t thinking less of yourself. It’s not being outwardly humble, while harboring pride. And it’s not being weak. True humility is service to others, service to a cause greater than your own personal ambition.

Question: How would you define humility? What does it look like in your everyday life, or the lives of others? Leave a comment below.

Can you imagine a world where the people were unintentional with their lives? A world where you didn’t aspire to grow or learn or dream? Can you imagine living in a place where your time was dictated by television schedules and your dreams were inspired by ads showing a fake world of fantasy?

Yes, I actually can.

It sounds ludicrous, but it is true – we are trained to live uninspired, unintentional lives dictated by messages to become some person around an infinity we may aspire to.

This world creates unintended outcomes because there is not intentional living.

Don’t believe me? Here is an example. What is the outcome of receiving random messages to eat certain “fun” foods like sodas, desserts, juices, candy, etc.? The answer, diabetes. The unintentional over consumption of sugars produces large amounts of diabetes in our country. Whereas an intentional plan to eat in moderation dramatically lowers the chances of the disease.

Case after case and story after story reveal unintended consequences and the pain that goes with it.

Maybe unintentional living is actually intentional when you stop to think about it. People have a tendency to replace pain with medication, boredom with activity and distress with distraction. Maybe we intend to live unintentional after all.

King Solomon told us to look at Ants to get a proper perspective of life. Now that sounds funny doesn’t it? And yet he was the wisest man to have lived. The ant works with other ants, towards a goal of provision for the colony. I don’t remember seeing fat ants by the way (I am sure there are).

It is time to reverse unintentional living. It is time to stop and think about the outcomes of living unintentionally. The outcomes are uninspired lives, useless affairs, poorly raised children, untrained employees and boring companies.

When you live intentionally, you will lead intentionally. You will begin leading your employees correctly and your family with excitement. The outcomes will show up in your organizations fruitfulness and in your family dynamics.

Some of us need wake up calls. A reprimand from our doctor or dentist to change our ways. Perhaps in a small way this blog will do that. Maybe, just maybe, you will stop and ponder over the holiday’s as to ways you can live intentionally towards a purpose that is bigger than a television series.

To live intentionally is to lead intentionally. It is the best way to lead and the best way to live.

What percentage are you operating at today? 50%, 80%, maybe even 95%?

If you kept track of this for an entire week (and I think each of us should), what would your average be?

Monday = 75%
Tuesday = 80%
Wednesday = 60%
Thursday = 45%
Friday = 85%
Saturday = 90%
Sunday = 90%

While I know everyone’s ranking will be different, it really doesn’t matter. It is your personal ranking and your percentages that do.

What keeps you below 100%. It is idealistic to consistently rank your days at 100%, I know. However, I am convinced that we choose certain things that keep us from our best.

If I were trying to lose weight or feel better about myself and yet had 1-2 donuts or candy bars a day, do you think I would be at 100%? Obviously not. Those two ventures into junk food land would bring my health % down by whatever percent I believe for me.

Conversely the same things happen in our every day life. For instance,

*When we choose to worry instead of trust.
*When we choose to harbor resentment versus reconciliation.
*When our confidence is found in peoples perception of us versus who we know God has made us to be.
*When we allow the junk of the world to enter in and affect our soul and mindset.

There are thousands of distractions and negatives that can enter in and take our 100% hostage in any given day. Yet when we highlight those percentage stealers it makes it a bit easier to turn things around. It is normally what we choose to do that steals our joy and peace.

Make a list of your daily percentages. At the end of your day right your percentage for that day. Then list why your percentage was lower than 100%. If is over 100%, by all means, right it down.

Where are your margin points and what took you off of 100%?

When you recognize the trends you can make adjustments and enjoy better days.

I’m extremely excited about a brand new initiative we have just launched. It’s called HUMBLE for PRESIDENT.

It’s a campaign of the American people asking for Humble leaders in every president, including the President.

A lot of ideas exist about how to bridge our nation’s political chasm, and fill our leadership vacuum—vote out one party, vote in another, change the leadership in Washington. But what we need most are changed leaders in Washington and changed leaders on Main Street as well. Leaders who are humble rather than prideful. Leaders that unite rather than ignite. Leaders who care more about the cause than the applause.

Are you with me?

Humble for President is a non-partisan, grassroots movement calling on this nation’s next president—and all leaders and citizens—to adopt a new spirit of humility: an unvarnished virtue that has the potential to transform not only our politics, but our everyday lives and leadership. We need secure, confident, humble leaders.

From the corridors of our nation’s Capitol to the corporate boardrooms of Wall Street, our leadership landscape is littered with fallen leaders: once-promising men and women whose sense of power became detached from humility. Their actions along with other instances of corruption and scandal in our nation’s political leadership, have led to historically low-levels of faith in the American government.

Our political system is largely a reflection of ourselves. In short, Washington is broken because we are: A corrosive pride pervades our pursuits—in our personal lives, our businesses and our politics. In Ancient Greek mythology, hubris kept heroes like Achilles and Icarus from achieving true greatness.

And so it is with leaders in our world today.

But personal and political humility can change that.

Humility unites; pride divides.

Will you join us by supporting HUMBLE for PRESIDENT?

Here’s how:

1. Go to http://humbleforpresident.com/vote/ to cast your virtual vote (entering in your email) in show of support for Humble for President.
2. Consider volunteering or donating to help the campaign spread the message of humility from coast to coast.
3. Go and tell others about the campaign. Share via Facebook, Twitter, etc.
4. LIKE our Humble for President Facebook page and follow us on Twitter.

The title of this post is the theme to this year’s Chick-fil-A Leadercast which is taking place this Friday, May 4. The event is simulcast from a live site here in Atlanta to over 125,000 people around the globe.

I am excited for our team, amazed by the amount of passion and effort that they put in to making this event world-class, and I’m encourage by the fact that we’ll be collectively impacting the lives and leadership potential of many.

The point of this post isn’t just to talk about Leadercast, although this year’s theme is the point.

You see, the choices you make define the leader you become. And the choices you make are not just about you. They’re about the positive impact you can have on your organization, your community, and beyond. Our world needs everyday leaders who will choose to make it a better place.

Every decision you make matters.

Be intentional.

Be proactive.

Think things through and make the choice that makes a positive difference.

You can.

I can.

We can, together.

Is your belief relevant to your world?

Belief leads to action. You act on what you believe.

Belief is a conviction. It is having confidence in something.

If I believe in God and his plans for the kingdom then that belief will spur me on to do things consistent with that belief.

If you believe that leaders can be built and trained you will act on that belief. Conversely, if you believe that leaders are born and you can’t affect people then your belief will most likely cause you not to invest much into others.

It is easy to find out what people believe. There actions will show it.

If a colleague is so focused on themselves first you know they believe they are something special and thus focus on taking care of themselves over others. Conversely, if a leader is focused on hiring the best people and investing in leader development then that leader most likely believes in their people and their mission.

Belief is relevant. What are you confident in? What do you believe?

The famous NPR show, This I Believe, asks a variety of people to record what they believe. It is fascinating. If I were to record you today, what would we hear? If you don’t know, simply look at your actions. Your beliefs should be clear then.

I want to convict you to have convictions. Know what you believe. Be clear. Everyone else can see what you believe, make sure you know.

Belief is relevant in marketplace. Actions prove that to be true.