Business ethics is big news. From the collapse of Enron to the conviction of Martha Stewart, there appears to be an increased awareness to the values being demonstrated within organizations. The issue of ethics or values is not just isolated to business.

In talking with an elementary school principal, she shared with me that the single most contributing factor to the decline in academic achievement is the lack of values within society. One of her best examples was parents who backed their cars up a one way street in front of the school to pick up their child. These parents thought nothing of violating the law as long as they accomplished their goal - picking up their child. Of course, the safety of all the other children was ignored.

Even within Ezine Articles, the issue of ethics and values appears to be of importance given that the one of the most read articles, 15,000 times, was 46 Clues Your Partner is Having an Affair. As the colleague and another ezine expert author Alan Boyer who shared this with me said "Sort of says something about our culture." Yes, it certainly does.

This leads to the question why are readers more interested in reading about whether their partner is having an affair instead of how to improve themselves? The most viewed self-improvement article had less than 4,000 reads.

From my perspective, I believe that we are more concerned about our weaknesses or the weaknesses of others. The weaknesses of others create self-validation of our own weaknesses. Many of us shy away from strong people by labeling them as nerds, geeks, assertive, stubborn and gravitate toward weak people. We feel comfortable being one of many instead of one of few. Maybe that's why one slogan The Few, The Proud and the Brave resonates with some.

Anther example of a weakness mindset came during a coaching session I was conducting for supervisory training in a small business. I asked everyone to list their strengths that they bring to the table as new supervisors. The pens barely moved. Then I asked them to write down the weaknesses that they have and the pens literally flew off the papers. Possibly due to our culture, our educational experiences, we are conditioned to see our weaknesses first and to ignore or feel uncomfortable about our strengths. One consistent factor that I see within my executive coaching practice is the number of individuals both young and old who truly don't like themselves because of all their perceived weaknesses.

Maybe it is time to rethink how we view ourselves and adopt a personal philosophy of joy and abundance instead of misery and scarcity.

Leanne Hoagland-Smith

Good Day. Thanks for visiting. I hope that you have enjoyed my articles. In 1999, I founded ADVANCED SYSTEMS because I saw that performance could and should be doubled in warp time. Individuals, small and large businesses could not afford expensive solutions that may or may not deliver improved results in 12 months.

From my corporate, small business and education experiences, I recognized the individuals must have opportunities for connecting their passion to their purpose to secure the desired performance results, but many lacked the necessary skills, strategies and tools.

With over 20 years in sales management and 10 years in education, I understand how to unite productivity with profitability by developing a proactive working culture. My previous experiences resulted in cost savings through one of the first implementations of a computer software in a wholesaler distributor to the creation of a vendor performance assessment.

Since facilitating over 500 sessions, developing and editing over 25 training programs and writing numerous articles focusing on performance improvement, I bring a results focused approach to my clients. Also, I am proud to be one of the first five nationally certified facilitators of America?s Rising Stars (a Student Leadership developmental curriculum).

My passion is to help others connect their passion to their purpose to double performance. As The small business coach in Chicago, my clients have easily doubled their performance. Since our greatest resource is our young people, I am now working with large urban schools to generate the same results.

Education Background

• Graduated with honors from Purdue University with a B.A. in Education
• Earned M.S. from Purdue University in Instructional Design and Curriculum
• Published in the national trade journal, The Supply House Times, and numerous national newsletters
• Developed seminars and training on diversity, communication, leadership, sales, effective trade show behavior, networking, knowledge management, goal setting and improved educational outcomes
• Co-authored M.A.G.I.C.A.L. Potential: 7 Capicities for Living an Amazing Life Beyond Purpose to Achievement, to be available in 2006
• Working a another book focusing on performance in public education
• Speaker in a national bureau - Resource Associates Corporation