Bosses are not Leaders but leaders can be Bosses

We’ve all had jobs where we have felt like there was no point in being there and our job wasn’t essential.  The boss would sit in their office all day, maybe sending an email or two about projects that need to be finished but other than that the boss mainly stayed in their office.  You hardly heard anything from them, and when you did it’s wasn’t clear what they wanted.

Just because someone is, a boss does not mean they are a leader.  There are qualities leaders have that most bosses don’t.

What does a supervisor need to do to be a true leader?

First and foremost, leaders have to be teachers.  A teacher's job is to educate and bring out the best in their students.  Good teachers don’t sit at the desk telling the kids what to do, they show examples, walk around the class helping students with what they need.  Occasionally being stern when they need to be.  Teachers communicate making sure they comprehend the concepts or projects they’re working on.  Once someone is done with their work or project, they grade their work.  When they’re grading they don’t insult the kids or give up on them, they hand constructive criticism and help them get better.

Leaders should always live by the saying “We are only as strong as our weakest link.”  What does this saying really mean?  It means your team, group, office or company is only as strong as its weakest team member is.  Leaders are able to be humble when they know that they screwed up or someone on the team made a mistake.  Leaders do not blame other people because they are the teachers; it’s their job to make sure that everyone understands what needs to be done.  Then the leader checks everyone’s work to make sure it was done properly.  If someone did something, wrong they do not yell, condemn, or chastise they explain where they made the mistake and how to fix it.  This is should be done in private, never in a group or peers.  Morale of the everyone is extremely important; no one should ever feel degraded.  People should be inspired.  They should want to work and to have pride in what they do.  They must be committed to give people everything they need to succeed.

We’ve all heard the word Integrity before, I remember in high school integrity was always stressed.  I never thought about it much then, but to be a good leader you must have integrity.  A leader is honest with the people, and not just those they are leading.  Being secretive can have a major affect others morals.  If there is an issue with someone’s work, a great leader will tell him or her, not in a mean or degrading way but in a constructive and educational way.  It was once said, “A great leader can tell you to go to hell in a way that you actually look forward to the trip.”  You should also be fair to everyone, not playing favorites or leaving some behind.  You don’t single anyone out in front of everyone and humiliate him or her.  You need to promote unity and teamwork.

Leaders come in all shapes, sizes and personalities, the same way as the people they lead.  They need to be able to analyze the people they lead to find their strengths and weaknesses.  This helps to be able to put them in the best position to be successful.  Tough decisions have to be made, but real leaders have the confidence in their decisions.  When they make a bad decision they can’t let that break them, they are confident that the situation can be fixed and they will do better next time.  They should be creative in their solutions because one thing that worked in the past don’t always work.  Leaders can have different visions for how to succeed.  There is no one way of doing things.

To be a Boss and a leader you must know your purpose and purpose is not to sit in an office and send emails.  The purpose of a leader is to bring out the best in their people, teach them to be their best, inspire them to work hard and take pride in what they do and promote teamwork.  To be a great leader you must have integrity, commitment, communication skills, accountability and must be confident in your decisions.  A boss is only a leader when they do all of these things.  If all these are followed then they are sure to succeed and bring out the best in their employees.

Putting in the work

There have been times in all of our careers where we rode the wave of someone else’s success.  My question is how long did that last and did you really learn anything from the experience?  I’ll bet that it didn’t last very long and that you did not learn very much.  If you do feel like you learned, a lot take a moment to look back and see how much you could have learned by making your own wave. 

The first thing to do if you feel that you are riding the success of someone else to re-evaluate the situation.  Ask yourself some questions to help determine if it’s really true.  Some of the questions I ask are:

Am I living my purpose?

What did I do to get here?

Do I deserve this glory?

Did I put in the time to get here?

What am I doing to move to next level?

Who am I influencing while I’m here?

There are many more questions that you could ask these are just a few that I ask myself.

What is your purpose in life?

That is one of the questions that I ask myself almost daily.  Why was I put here on this earth and what is my true purpose.  For me there are several different answers to that question.  One is that I am here to help spread the word of God while helping others.  Another reason I’m here is to help push the limits, in a good way.  I help to push other to the next level.  I am also supposed to be a good dad, husband, and friend.  After I remind myself of my purpose, I have to ask, am I living to my purpose?  What can I do to live to my purpose better?  What is your purpose?

How did I get here? 

One of the harder questions to answer in my opinion.  When I was in the corporate world, I used to think how did I get here.  Traveling, staying in nice hotels, eating great food, meeting awesome people.  Out of everyone in the company, how did I get to that position?  Why me?  As I dug deeper into the question, I would humbly come to the realization that it was both a blessing and a curse.  While I enjoyed every aspect of my position, I disliked every aspect as well.  I was traveling 50% of the time, that meant that I was missing 50% of my kids life as well as not sleeping with my wife 50% of the time.  Staying in nice hotels meant that I didn’t get the chance to enjoy my comfortable bed and cuddling with my wife.  Eating great food meant that my body suffered because I was in different parts of the country every week.  I missed my home cooked meals and eating as a family every night.  Meeting awesome people, well there is no substitute for that and no down side to meeting new people.  What I did discover was that I was still living my purpose for the time.  I was being used to help others that I would normally have never met. 

I have been on the other side of that situation as well.  I rode the success of someone else in the past and it didn’t last very long.  I was where I thought I wanted to be but it wasn’t where I needed to be.  I didn’t put in the time and expected the success.  Have you ever been there before?  Looking for a “get rich” life without putting in any of the work?

What did I do to deserve this glory?

I ask myself this question every day, and every time something happens, that is good.  Did I put in the work to deserve this or am I just accepting the gift?  I have worked with those who were always looking for a handout, not a hand-up.  It’s hard for me personally because I’m a very giving person.  I absolutely love to give to others, even when they don’t deserve it.  I have learned that there are people in the world who are so used to having everything handed to them that they stop trying.  They start expecting others to give them a handout.  I have been there before and don’t want to go back to that.  I would much rather someone give me a hand-up and help me get on my feet with advice and encouragement.  Then I, would they give me a gift that I don’t deserve?

Here’s something that i have actually done in the past.  I had a manager offer me a jacket.  Instead of taking the jacket, I told them, “Give me 2 weeks to get this project completed.  If it’s done to your expectations then I’ll take the jacket.  If it’s not done correctly then you keep the gift.”  This did two things.  First, it made me accountable and gave me a reward for completing the project and doing a great job.  Second, it allowed my boss to give me more rewards in the future because they felt like it was a major incentive.  Take a moment to think back have you ever accepted a gift that you didn’t deserve?

Did I put in the time to get here?

If you are hard on yourself, than this question will most likely be, NO.  When I ask myself this question my answer is mostly no.  Nevertheless, the more I think about it the more I realize that I am being too hard on myself.  There are some other questions you can ask to help determine if you really did though.  Start with, how much have I been working on this.  Notice i didn’t ask you how long you have been working on it, but how much.  There is a huge difference.  I have been working on some projects for years and they are still not complete.  The difference is that while they have been unfinished for years I haven’t really put much time into them to get them completed. 

Another question you can ask is how dedicated you were.  You are the only who can answer this question.  Your dedication will greatly alter the outcome of how much effort you really put into the project. 

The last question that I ask myself is, do I truly believe in the project?  I have found myself being forced to work on a project that I know nothing about.  I didn’t believe in it.  There have also been times where I never took the time to learn what the project was really about therefore I didn’t put in enough effort to really sell the project.

What am I doing to move to next level?

Each and every thing that we do should be pushing us to level up.  Otherwise, why are we doing it?  Let’s go back to our childhood for a few moments and think about Miro brothers.  When you played, why did you smash every block?  To try to get coins and or a mushroom.  Why did you raise each flag? Therefore, you wouldn’t have to start from the beginning every time you failed.  Life is very similar to a game.  Everything you do is for a reason.  The first time you do it, you might not realize that it is for a reason though.  I constantly think about how I am going to move to the next stage of my life and what the end goal is.  I still make mistakes every day.  There are definitely days where I jump on turtle, then jump again to make him slide off and send him the wrong direction.  Then out of nowhere, he come flying back and makes me small again.  I fail every day.  However, I don’t look at them as failures I look at them as opportunities to grow.  Think about what you are doing to help move you to the next level.

Who am I influencing while I’m here?

We all influence others every day.  Even if you don’t see anyone, you are still influencing someone.  My wife and I post pictures to Facebook frequently.  We both have one thing that we ask ourselves before we post a picture, what kind of memory will this bring back in 1-10 years?  If it’s not a positive memory then we don’t post the pic.  We do this because we absolutely love the memory’s that come up on our feed.  We also think about everyone who follows us and we always want to portray a positive image for him or her.  It’s not a fake life, it’s a real life.  That’s why if you follow me on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn, you won’t see me complain. 

While I was traveling for past jobs I used to ask myself every trip who did, I influence and was it in a positive way.  I am ashamed to say that there a few times that I had to go back on my next trip and apologize for not being a positive influence.  What kind of influence are you providing for those around you?  Look back at your old posts and see if you can improve the way you communicate with your community.

In the end you are the only who can determine if you are putting the work.  It comes down to you and you are the only one who will ever TRULY know if you did the work or if you skirted by on someone else’s hard work.  Don’t be the person always asking for a HANDOUT.  Instead, be the person who is giving a HAND-UP to those around you.

Goals, how to set and achieve any goal!

Today we are going to talk about how to set attainable goals and achieve those goals in a realistic time-frame.

Goals are major part of business and life.  My goals are what push me to be an over achiever.  Ever since I was a young boy growing up in the country, I set goals for myself.  Some of those goals were great, others not so much.  The great thing about the not so great goals are that they allowed me to learn how to make good goals and set realistic time-frames to achieve those goals. 

The first thing that I encourage everyone to do when I put on my goals seminar is to set a time-frame for the goals you are going to write today.  I set three different time-frames, Distant future, near future, and NOW. 

Distant Future Goals are meant to be goals that you can work towards for several years.  Those goals might include something like retirement, owning my own business, marriage, buying a house, or buying a vacation property.  You get the drift.  These goals are not usually something that you can achieve today they take a little time to accomplish.

Near Future Goals are the goals that you can achieve in the next 6 months to a year.  Some goals for this category might include, buying a house, getting married, starting to date again, paying off credit cards, cleaning my garage, finishing that one project, starting a new job, or starting my business.  These goals are something that you can accomplish but probably not toady.  They take a few months of planning to make sure that you are ready.

NOW Goals are goals that you can accomplish today.  These goals might include, starting a diet, exercising, getting married, buying a house, taking a shower, starting your business, changing jobs, upgrading your flip phone to a smart phone, starting your business page for social media, you get the drift.  NOW goals mean that you can do them today without much thought or effort. 

I’ll bet that you noticed that some goals fit into more than one category.  Like buying a house, starting a business, changing jobs, getting married.  That’s because we are all at different places in our lives.  While I might be ready to get married tomorrow, you might want to wait a little while.  You might be ready to jump into your own business but I’m content with working for someone else for the rest of my life. 

Our goals can change depending on where we are in life and what we want.  Now that we have our different categories for our goals, it’s time to start setting some. 

How do I set an attainable goal?  Attainable means that we can go out and actually achieve our goals. 

I had a person once come into my office and said Dan my goal is to sell $1 Million in my first year!  I was stoked for him; he set a massive goal.  He was stepping into a roll selling something he had never sold before.  I had two options.  The first is to let him run with this passion and give him all the support I could, or I could help him set an attainable NOW and Near Future Goal.  You see he had a great distant future goal.  To sell that much.  The problem was that he had never set his NOW goal.  We worked together and he set a NOW goal of one sale in the first month.  His Near Future Goal was to sell five contracts in a month and his Distant Future Goal changes to sell 15 contracts a month.  We lost the $ amount and started focusing on the amount of contracts sold.  This really helped to make his goals attainable. 

To set great goals that you can attain you need to start with Distant Goals.  Then you reverse engineer those goals and make your closer goals work towards your Distant Goals.  This way when you achieve a smaller goal it puts you that much closer to your HUGE goal. 

Take a few seconds and imagine yourself in 5 years where are you?  What are you doing?  Who are you with?  What do you have in your hand?  What clothes are you wearing?  Imagine every detail. 

All right, do you have it?

Great now write it down, every detail.  This part is important, trust me.

Sweet now that you are all done with that.  Can you see your real Distant Goal?  A quick version for me is that I am in jeans and a soft shirt, I have sand between my toes, and I can hear the waves crashing against the shore.  In the background is my vacation house with nothing between my family and the ocean.  There is some awesome greenery surrounding the place.  My wife is next to me and my children are older some of them even married with kids.  We are all together enjoying this place and our company.  We don’t have to worry about money anymore because we have several businesses running seamlessly in the background.  We still work hard, but we play harder and enjoy our lives, every second of them. 

This is a great example of a simple distant goal.  It has a where, what, and who.  Now I can reverse engineer this goal. 

Near Future Goals for this Distant Goal would include.  Starting hands off businesses grow said businesses, staying close to family, buying beach house, learning to surf, raising my kids to have God in their heart, keeping my marriage healthy.  These are just a few.

NOW Goals would break down each Near Future Goal into attainable goals that push me towards the end goal.  Let’s take stay close to family and break it down.  NOW goals would include: vacationing as a family, play family games, have family dinners regularly, be a friend and a parent to my kids, be there to support them in their activities, show them how much I love them not with money but with love and affection, listen to them, don’t make them feel dumb. 

You would do this for every aspect of your future goal.  

The last aspect of goal setting is to make yourself accountable for the goals that you set.  The best way to help yourself be accountable is to share them with someone who you trust to kindly ask you how you are coming with your goals.  If you divulge all of your goals they can ask you a simple question like, “How if family game night going?”  That simple question will make you accountable.

Remember that these are just the basics for setting real and attainable goals.  We will have more blogs in the future diving deeper into goals. 

If you or your team are interested in having a training on, goals contact us today to get that set up.  We will gladly come to you and help your team set attainable professional or personal goals.

Ok now it’s your turn.  Email me your goals dan@eclipse-dot.com.  Let’s share our goals and make ourselves accountable.

The facts about Commercial Motor Vehicles.

Who is ultimately responsible for determining if a driver is qualified to operate a vehicle for the company?  Most employees believe that it is the companies’ responsibility, while most employers believe it is the drivers’ responsibility.  The truth is that is both the employee and the employer's responsibility to ensure that the driver is qualified to operate the vehicle.

The next question you probably have is what does QUALIFIED mean?

If a driver is operating a tanker vehicle without a tankers endorsement then they are NOT qualified to operate that vehicle.  Or if they are operating a CDL vehicle without holding a valid CDL then they are NOT qualified.  Or if they are operating a non CDL (GVWR under 26,000lbs) without possessing a valid medical card, then they are NOT qualified.  Or if the company does not have a valid driver file for the CMV driver that is up to date, that driver is NOT qualified.  In this newsletter we will dig deeper into all of the qualifications and how to ensure your drivers meet the federal regulations.

 Let’s get started with the basics.  Any vehicle with a Gross Combination Weight Rating (GCWR) over 26,000lbs requires a CDL (Commercial Driver License).  Unless it is an emergency response vehicle responding to or from an emergency, or a vehicle owned and operated by an agriculture producer and is within a 150 air-miles of the farms home-base. 

If you are operating a Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) any vehicle used for commerce that has a GCWR over 10,000lbs. Then you must have a valid driver license and a valid DOT medical card.  To put that into perspective if you are driving a Ford Ranger with a GVWR of 3500lbs and you hook up to a trailer with a GVWR of 7,000lbs your GCWR would be 10,500lbs.  If you are trying to make money and crossing state lines then you are required to be a Commercial Driver, and your vehicle is required to have meet the Federal Motor Carrier Regulations (FMCSR’s).  Crazy right!

How do I find the GVWR on a vehicle?  The best way is when you open the drivers door there is typically a tag with the VIN number on it.  That is where the GVWR is listed.  On a trailer it will be listed on the VIN plate.  The Vin plate can be found on the neck of the trailer or on a larger trailer it can be riveted to the frame by the landing gear. 

Did you know that pickups have upped their GVWR in the past 15 years?  In 2005 the typical 1 ton single wheel pickup truck had a GVWR of about 9500lbs. In 2010 the GVWR was typically 10,000lbs, & in 2020 the typical GVWR is 11,500lbs.  That’s over a ton difference.  It’s great that vehicles are now able to haul more, its bad because if your company used to buy 1 ton pickups they weren't DOT regulated vehicles now they are!  The 1 ton duly used to be rated to 12,000lbs and now are rated at 14,000lbs or more.  Why is this so important to know.  Because you used to be able to hook up to a 14,000lbs trailer and not need a CDL.  Now when you connect to that same trailer rated at 14,000lbs your new GCWR is now 28,000lbs and you must have a Class A CDL to operate that vehicle legally.  

 Regular License.  States have different Classes for their regular licensees,  Colorado uses a Class R, Texas Class C, New Mexico Class D.  There is no federal regulation for the Class of a regular driver license.

Commercial Driver License (CDL).  The CDL is required to have the same Classes no matter which state the license was issued in.  There are also a few more details that you should know about the CDL.  There is a maximum of 8 years that the license can be valid for by federal regulation.  Some endorsements shorten the length that a license is valid.  If a medical card is not uploaded into the CDLIS (Commercial Driver License Information System) then the CDL is not valid and the state must downgrade the license to a regular driver license. 

CDL Class A.  Any combination vehicle that has a GCWR over 26,000lbs where the trailer has a GVWR of over 10,000lbs.  Let’s say that you are operating a dump truck with a GVWR of 26,000lbs & you’re pulling a trailer with a GVWR of 10,000LBS. Are you required to have a CDL?  NO.  Because the trailer is rated at exactly 10,000lbs and the truck is rated at 26,000lbs you do not have to have a CDL.  If the trailer was rated at 10.001lbs then you would be required to have a Class A CDL.

CDL Class B.   Any vehicle that is rated over 26,000lbs requires a Class B CDL.  That means that if you are operating a crane that has 2 steer axles and 4 drive axles & weighs 110,000lbs would require a Class B CDL.  If the boom of the crane rests on a dolly then a Class A CDL would be required, because the dolly is considered a trailer.  

CDL Class C.  Any vehicle under 26,000LBS where a CDL is required to operate.  Examples would be buses designed to carry 16 or more passengers including the driver, or any vehicle carrying a placaradble amount of hazardous materials.  A commonly mistaken vehicle is an airbrake equipped vehicle.  You MAY operate a vehicle that has airbrakes WITHOUT a CDL as long as the vehicles GVWR is less than 26,000lbs.

CLP (Commercial Learners Permit).  This is given to a person who passes the CDL written exams.  The CLP will be good for 6 months and can be renewed one time before the CLP holder will have to retake the written exams.  When a driver holds a CLP they can not operate a CDL vehicle unless there is another person in the font seat that is properly qualified to operate the vehicle that is being operated.  Example: If the vehicle requires a P endorsement both the CLP and the CDL holder must posses the P endorsement on their licenses.  If it is a Class A vehicle then both the CLP must hold a Class A CLP and the CDL holder must have a Class A License. 

 CDL Endorsements:  If a vehicle is rated over 26,000lbs and meets certain criteria then a special endorsement is required to operate that vehicle. 

N (Tanker). If a vehicle is equipped with a permanently mounted tank that is over 119 gallons or tank that is 1000 gal or more and is not permanently fixed to the vehicle you are required to have a tanker endorsement on your CDL.  What does permanently mounted mean?  Welded to the frame of the vehicle.  If the tank is bolted or if the bed is bolted to the frame then it is not considered permanently attached to the truck. Written Test Only

T (Double & Triples). If you are pulling more than one trailer then a T endorsement will be required to operate that vehicle.  Lets dig in a little deeper.  Does this include a lowboy trailer with a jeep?  Yes it does.  Written Test Only

H (Hazardous Materials).  Anytime you are transporting a placardable amount of hazardous materials then you must have the Hazmat endorsement on your CDL.  Even if the vehicle is not rated over 26,000lbs then you still need an H endorsement if moving a placardable quantity. Written Test and Background Required

X (Hazmat Tanker Combo).  An X endorsement is required when a driver is transporting a placardable amount of hazardous materials in a tank that is mounted to the vehicle.  If a driver has an X endorsement then they will not have the N (tanker) or H (hazmat) endorsements listed on their CDL.  This endorsement combines those 2 endorsements into one. Written Test and Background Required 

P (Passenger).  If the vehicle was designed from the manufacture to transport 16 or more passengers including the driver then a P endorsement is required.  The GVWR of the vehicle does not need to be over 26,000lbs to require a CDL with the P endorsement.  One of the biggest questions for this one is, “What if the vehicle was originally designed to transport more than 16 people but we removed all but 5 seats from the bus and its GVWR is 16,000lbs? Do I still have to have a CDL with the P endorsement?”  The answer is YES you do.  The way the regulation reads is based on how the vehicle was manufactured. Written Test and Skills Test in Passenger Vehicle Required

S (School Bus). If you are transporting students to or from school or an event then a S endorsement is required.  Written Test and Skills Test in School Bus Required

 CDL Restrictions.  Restrictions are just as important as Endorsements to look for an a CDL

C (Corrective Lenses).  The driver is required by law to have corrective lenses while operating any motor vehicle on public roadways. 

E (Automatic Transmission). When a CDL driver takes their skills test in an automatic truck then they will be issued an E restriction on their license.  They will not be able to operate a vehicle requiring a CDL that has a standard transmission.  To remove this restriction the drive must get their CLP and take a skills test in a vehicle equipped with a manual transmission.

K (Intrastate). A driver with a K restriction will not be able to operate a CDL vehicle outside of the state where their license was issued.  For example a person with a K restriction who holds a Colorado Driver license would not be able to operate a vehicle outside of the state of Colorado.  This restriction will be added to anyone who is under the age of 21, or has certain medical waivers issued by the licensing state.

L (Air Brakes).  Anytime the L restriction is listed the driver may not operate a vehicle with a GCWR over 26,000lbs that is equipped with airbrakes.  To remove this restriction the drive must get their CLP and take a skills test in a vehicle equipped with airbrakes.

M (No Class A Passenger).  The M restriction limits a CDL driver from operating a Class A Passenger vehicle.  What does this mean?  Any vehicle pulling a trailer that is designed to transport passengers on public roadways.  To remove this restriction the drive must get their CLP and take a skills test in a Class A passenger vehicle. 

N (No Class B Passenger).  The N restriction limits a CDL driver from operating a Class B Passenger vehicle.  To remove this restriction the drive must get their CLP and take a skills test in a Class A or B passenger vehicle.

 O (No Tractor Trailer). The O restriction limits the driver from operating a tractor trailer rig.  Really what it means is that the CDL holder tested in a Class A truck and trailer that did not utilize a 5th wheel style connection.  Most likely they tested in either a pickup pulling a trailer or a truck and pintle hitch setup.  To remove this restriction the drive must get their CLP and take a skills test in a Class A Tractor Trailer vehicle. 

P (No Passengers).  The P restriction limits a CLP driver from operating a Passenger vehicle with passengers present in the vehicle.  What does this mean?  They can operate vehicles equipped to transport 16 or passengers, but can not transport any passengers on said vehicle.  To remove this restriction the drive must take a skills test in a passenger vehicle. 

X (No Liquid in Tank).  The X restriction limits a CLP driver from operating a tanker vehicle with liquid in the tank.  To remove this restriction the drive must take a skills test.  

Z (Air over Hydraulic Brakes). If you tested in an Air over hydraulic brake vehicle then you will have the Z restriction.  To remove this restriction the drive must take a skills test in a full airbrake vehicle.

W (Licensed Operator Front Seat [LOFS].  This will only be found on CLP’s or permits.  And only some states will have this restriction.  (NM is one of those states) it is stating that the CLP holder must have a CDL holder in the front seat with them while they are operating a CDL vehicle.  

Those are the facts about CDL’s.  Continue to follow us for more valuable information.