Kent Vaughn Speaker Biography
In the past 25 years, Kent Vaughn has helped 100’s of organizations improve their Performance and Results. He has conducted over 2,000 days of Strategy & Execution Consulting, Leadership Development, and process improvement work for these organizations. His clients (past and present) include Wal-Mart, FedEx, JB Hunt, ServiceMaster, Nissan, Honda, ABF Freight, Covenant, Scripps, USXPress, and Jewelry Television to name just a few.
Kent is the co-author of the new book “The 3 Keys of Execution. Simple Ideas. Extraordinary Results” which was just listed #6 on INC’s Summer Must-Read Books list.
Kent has lived all over America and in Europe He graduated from the University of Alabama; where he completed a B.S. in Business Administration/Finance and an MBA (all in four years) graduating with Honors.
Kent’s work experience has varied tremendously. Prior to Co-Founding BPS, he spent nearly 24 years at an international consulting firm (in multiple roles) including as a Managing Director leading a large Sales and Consulting Team. He also spent three years in Europe as a Soviet Military Intelligence Analyst for the U.S. Army, and over a decade as a Financial Manager and Operations Leader with a Fortune 100 company and smaller organizations as well.
Kent and his wife (the love of his life) have been married for 36 years and have three amazing children. He loves swimming, running, cycling, Marital Arts, working out, and hanging out with his family. Kent continues to be goal-oriented earning a black belt on his 40th birthday, running a marathon for his 45th birthday, completing a mile swim for his 50th and recently completing multiple Sprint Triathlons.
The 3 Keys of Execution
At the beginning of each year, or quarter, we plan, we dream, and we put together strategies to be as successful as possible. We confidently proclaim that “This time it will be DIFFERENT.” We decide we WON’T get caught up in “all the little stuff.” We won’t get off track. We won’t lose focus. However, the day-to-day tasks of life and business have a way of getting in the way of our most important goals. This is something that happens to most of us; we head off trying to fight the good fight, but we do so unarmed. It is unacceptable to allow all the distractions and competing priorities get in the way of achieving greater success. What we must understand is that there is a formula for execution—simplicity, visibility, accountability. This formula is all you need on your path to executing strategies to achieve your goals.
You will want to complicate it. You will want to add more to your plate. But every time you add more, you create an environment for the “Diffusion of Responsibility.” You allow yourself to say “Well, I had to do…” or “There’s not enough time to do…” The truth is that there is never enough time to do everything, so you MUST follow the formula of Simplicity, Visibility, and Accountability to reach your goals. This will give you the armor you need to ward off all the other distractions, eliminate the diffusion of responsibility, and give you the ability to succeed at even the most intimidating goals.
Everyone Can Lead
For centuries the question has been asked if people are born leaders or if they can be taught or trained to become one. Some organizations and authors would have us believe that you either have the DNA to be a leader or you don’t; however, other organizations believe that with the right training, tools, and perspective anyone can become a leader. I believe that just like sports, some people have more natural ability than others; and yet, as has been proven again and again in athletic competition, natural ability alone does not always translate into results on the scoreboard. We’ve all seen natural athletes who did not live up to their potential. We’ve also seen people with a lot less ability to produce amazing results because of hard work and some great coaching.
There is a lot more to being a leader than birthright, breeding or education. It is really what you do and how you do it. Which is precisely what I focus on in this presentation. Great Leadership requires success in three areas. Success in one or two areas can lead to great success, unfortunately, it always leads to Leaders with an asterisk by their name. "They were great except for this ......" Here are the areas ever leader must focus on:
1. I have my own act together (I must lead myself well).
2. I lead others well (which is different than being a dictator or drill sergeant who gets short term results).
3. My Team consistently achieves great results (not just once in a while).
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