Submit Your GTY Story

Tell us about your Greater Than Yourself experiences. Have you taken on a project of your own?  Has someone chosen you to be their GTY?  Is it working?  Is it failing?  We want to hear it all! Tell us your story in detail, provide us with your contact information, and…who knows? You may end up on this site as a learning example for the rest of us.

Name:
 

Email Address:
 

Phone:
 

Your Story:

Latest GTY Stories

The power of belief… I didn’t understand how fundamental that was to my core until this past week. As I reflected over the last couple of weeks I tried desperately to understand what it was that was hindering my ability to move forward and grow. My thoughts were scattered and incomplete. I went from feeling somewhat justified in my current course of behavior and believing that I could go into this new phase of my career with much success to truly believing that I was incompetent of moving forward and not being able to progress as I had anticipated. Knowing that I am not one to settle for not having a full understanding of why my thoughts were incomplete, I had to dig deeper into my core. What could possibly be at the root of this internal discontentment and indecision? What was the fundamental difference at this time in my career than in previous times? And, as I stumbled upon the answer, the tears rolled down my cheeks. I knew the answer. I had not been able to more fully grow and move forward because I perceived that the people whom I respected the most did not believe in me. Again, knowing that I had been shaken so substantially, I knew I had to take this idea one step further to more completely understand. I had to own my responsibility. I then asked myself another profound question. What had I given to these trusted and respected individuals to believe in? The tears continued to stream down my cheeks. Only, much harder this time. And, admittedly, it was one of the most difficult conversations I have ever had to have with myself.

Let me explain further a couple of events that let up to this transformational moment in my life. A couple of weeks ago, someone said to me, “I wonder how well your store really is running.” I sat in my chair at that moment paralized. That statement penetrated through to my very soul. It stung like nothing I had ever felt before. I tried to understand why that statement was made. I couldn’t understand on what grounds she felt justified in saying it. All I knew for certain was that it hurt me deeply to hear her say it. That evening, I talked to a very dear friend about what had transpired. During our conversation, I began to justify that my store was running well and that she had no business making that remark. I was not owning my responsibility because I did not understand what that responsibility was at the time. Today, I can share with you that I do understand. I understand why it hurt me so terribly. And, I understand why she said it. At the time the statement was made, I immediately felt that she did not believe in my ability and my talent. In retrospect, I had not given her the opportunity to believe in. I had not shared with her enough of my abilities and enough of my talents to make her think any different.

The other event that occurred was very similar in that it pained me deeply and I didn’t know why. An individual that I respect and value said to me, “Go back to your store and be who you are.” Again, the perception that I have had of myself up to this point had crumbled before my eyes. I lowered my head and walked away. The pain of that statement resonated so deeply, I can’t even remember if I commented back to her before walking away. The echo of those words in my mind consumed my every thought there on. What could she have meant by that I kept asking myself? The only conclusion that I could come to after that incident was that I really must be incapable of taking my career to the level. After all, I valued her opinion of me and she wouldn’t have said it if there weren’t truth to it. The perception that I had of myself going into this new and exciting phase of my career was once again dismantled abruptly.

The person I thought myself to be was profoundly different than who she believed me to be. It is very clear to me now, how impactful this revelation is to my success going forward. At the time, I understood that comment to mean that she did not believe in my competencies to progress professionally. I now understand that comment to mean that I had not given her reason to believe that I could. The lesson learned here is so incredibly valuable. It is imperative that as we learn and grow both professionally and personally, that we surround ourselves with people who believe in us. People who believe that the possibilities are endless. It is equally as important that we share with them exactly why they should believe in us as often as we can. Be greater than yourself! Amy and I own Nubson Design, a graphic and web design studio in Moorhead MN. We attended the Greater Than Yourself speech that Steve Farber presented in Fargo, ND with Lindsey, our intern at the time.

After reading Greater Then Yourself, we had decided that Lindsey would be our project. Her internship had just ended and we knew that she could grow even more with our help. We started meeting with her once a week to look over her school projects and to talk about design. Under our guidance she won a logo contest for Undeclared Records, Moorhead State University’s recording studio. We also submitted three projects for Lindsey into ND Advertising Federation’s ADDY Awards. She won Silver (2nd) for her Undeclared Records logo in the student category. She graduates in May 2010, and we are continuing to be available for her as she applies for jobs.

This process has been rewarding for us too. We grew as much as Lindsey did. I learned that I have a passion for teaching and would someday like to teach a class. Amy got more involved with the design students in town. We will continue to be there for Lindsey and we know that she will pay it forward. Our next step is to decide what to do for the next Greater Than Yourself project.

Hello, I just finished reading your book and I have been truly challenged and inspired by it. I say that because I read alot of inspirational books, being a Pastor of church I'm reading regularly books that help me spiritually and books that will help my congregation spiritually. The topics of my readings range from discipleship to stewardship to leadership. And I thought as I read your book I would be reading something that would simply remind of something that I read before. Having been recommend by a dear close friend, I purchaced it and began to read. what an unexpected surprise! Your book does for express the principles that the Bible teaches about discipleship, stewardship and leadership but away that that so practical, reflective of what scripture teaches about the nature and character of God and what He intended us to be when He created us.

Your book points quite plainly that, that innate intention is still apart of our DNA so to speak. But the real reason I am so impress with this GTY concept and have decide to choose a GTY project is because for months now I have been wrestling with a difficult decision regarding an employee. We have a medium size staff at our church about 18 people, at various levels of organizational positions. About a year ago we started an internal evaluation of our organizational sturcture and functions to determine how we can be more efficient and effective in accomplishing our mission and vision.

This process has been quite rewarding and has created great sense of excitment, energy around our church and among our staff. Except in the area of one our Executive departments. Around September of 2009 I begin to notice during ourweekly evaluation meetings, which consist of the executive staff and corporate board members,as been began to evaluate this executive department most of the problems that was effecting our churches progress was coming from this department and as we began to suggest changes in leadership sytles and training it seem as if the executive in charge was resistant, which made some the board members more aggressive in their suggesting. But to make a long story short, I have wrestling back and forth about firng this executive, because I see so much protential in him, and yet he doesn't seem willing or capable of raising his abilities to meet need for leadership in this department at this time. I so much giftedness in other areas, as a communicator be the congregation, but administratively his department and his staff seem to failing.

I was frustrated about his inability to step up and about my inability to come up with away to help him reach his potential, because I truly consider him a friend, and love and respect his heart. Not until your book, the principle is short is the concept of the discipleship which we teach our menbers to embrace, sometimes your so close to forest that you can't see the trees. It was right under my nose but I did see it until I read your book and the GTY concept gave me a different way of looking at it and thinking about. I am going chroncile my journey with this Executive whom i will name when he agrees to be my first GTY project. Thanks again!

I was visiting Indigo ( my usual saturday haunt). I picked up your book, Greater Than Yourself. I usually do not read the forward but for some reason decided to do so on this day. As I was reading the forward the name Matthew Kelly jumped out at me. He had come to Calgary, AB to my church a couple of years back. Although I missed seeing him my friend told me I had to read his book. It wowed me. I thought, if Steve is connected to the great Matthew Kelly, I have to buy the book.

I read your book and was all over inspired. I set out to create a challenge for myself to reach out and give back through acts of kindness daily. I called it the Power of One Challenge March 2010.

As I was planning this most incredible experience occurred. My boyfriend Dan, had privately been caring for homeless man through kind words, actions, and food. He even gave him his number so he could help him find employment when he was ready to take that next step.

Then one day Dan got a call from this man. Not to help him find a job, but to tell him he was taking his life. The man made his last call to Dan and said he had taken pills and was going to die. He called Dan, his last friend on the earth. To make a long story short Dan set out to locate him in Downtown Calgary and saved his life. I started the Power of One: 31 Days of Kindness with the gift of Dan who gave of himself at much risk to save another life.

Check the blog on my web site www.marketingmatterscanada.com

I keep telling people about your book in the hopes that many more lives will be touched through the experience.

Thank you for your writing and hope to meet you one day!

My story starts with a confession. Right after "Radical Leap" hit the bookstores I read the cover and adopted the LEAP formula as a training model for students and staff participating in a leadership course I developed for middle-schoolers. Without even reading the book I recognized the power of Cultivating Love, Generating Energy, Inspiring Audacity, and Providing Proof.

A good friend describes what I did as "intellectual shoplifting". With that in mind, guilt eventually prevailed, forcing me to buy the book. The framework I developed from reading the cover was good. The concepts the author describes in the story were nothing short of revolutionary. I promoted the Radical Leap as "the best, practical guide to the Golden Rule in print." I also bought and read "The Radical Edge." Farber's two books became the foundation for an internship I lead last summer in the Dominican Republic for college students serving with Orphanage Outreach.

Every day we discussed the practical implications and the work involved in cultivating love. I challenged my interns to cultivate love with one another and for the boys who lived in the orphanage where we lived. We evaluated our work in light of loving behavior. We explored the depths of what it meant to be fascinated with and grateful for one another.

The results exceeded my every expectation. My minimum expectation is to function as a healthy, supportive team. My goal is to see our team evolve into a community. By summer's end, we were a family. Interns, my staff, and the children living in the orphanage had become so close that we unconsciously lived for one another's benefit.

Two stories illustrate the power of cultivated love: Manuel was a 7-year-old boy who never smiled and rarely spoke with anyone. We didn't know his story, but his wounds were obvious to all. I didn't use the terminology back then, but Manuel became our "Greater Than Yourself" project. We poured love into that boy, encouraging every positive step and patiently waiting out the backward ones. We studied Manuel until we knew his favorite games, activities, books, and foods. We knew his moods and learned how to time our approaches to him to make them most effective. By summer's end, Manuel was a chatterbox with a bold, beautiful smile. Volunteers who visit our facility, meet Manuel and then hear his story are stunned to hear my description of the "old" Manuel. Loving someone is nothing short of transformational.

We concluded our summer together with two nights of reflection and affirmation. The first night focused on the kids we served and the second upon the members of the intern family. My boss joined us for our final week so he could see what we were doing. Although he had observed or led a number of intern programs over the years, he had not observed our team. After hearing our team's comments and seeing the deep love and intimate knowledge the interns had for the orphanage kids, Tom pulled me aside to share this observation (paraphrased): "I have never seen a team of interns with such a deep knowledge of the kids or who carried such a high view of each child's potential. This is extraordinary!" He was seeing first hand the result of cultivated love expressed through "Greater Than Yourself."

I bought Farber's book "Greater Than Yourself" in the Miami Airport on my way home at summer's end. I read the book from cover-to-cover during my long layover. My reading stunned me. Farber's work did not give me new heights to climb, but instead confirmed our application of the principles he so effectively outlined in his first two books. If you live LEAP, become fascinated with and grateful for the people around you, and endeavor to change your world, the natural result is "Greater Than Yourself".

In 2010 I will be leading another group of interns. I cannot wait to see the impact we will carry forward in the lives of Manuel and his friends, and in the lives of our new team of interns. Mr. Farber, thank you for giving me a powerful framework upon which to build.

In doing some Holiday shopping for my children, I ran across a small book called The Radical Leap in the Leadership section of the bookstore. Little did I know how much Steve Farber's work would change me and help me on my new quest to change the world. After reading The Radical Leap I felt a sense of responsibility to contact Steve to let him know how much I appreciated his book. I immediately began to share this story with others in my life and to look for other books by Steve. I was equally impressed with his second book, The Radical Edge, and am currently using some of its practical tools in my everyday practice as the principal of a middle school in the St. Louis area.

Now Steve has taken his leadership ideals, beliefs and values to an even deeper level through his new book Greater Than Yourself or GTY. In reading this book I can tell you it makes you reflect on who you are and how you are affecting others around you. It opens up the concept of loving what you do to loving those around you and caring so much about them that you want them to be greater than yourself. To me, that message fits so well to the field of education. The best of the best teachers want this for their students. They want to share their knowledge and give so much of themselves to their students that they know when the year is over, their students are not only prepared for the next school year, but are better prepared for life.

Is this not also so true for coaches? The best coaches obviously love the sport they coach, but relish the opportunity to make their players and teams better than any team they were ever a part of, and they totally give of themselves to get this done. As we educators know, money is not our reward. Our reward is the experience of giving ourselves to our students. I’ve been an educator for 16 years, so you can trust me when I say that when a student (or a player you have coached) says thank you for making a difference in my life…well, that's much more of a treasure than a paycheck at the end of the month.

I also feel that Greater Than Yourself has key concepts that carry over into other areas in education besides student/teacher relationships. How about student/student relationships? So much is already being done through character education programs, but here’s an opportunity to help students understand the value of helping fellow students. And how about teacher/teacher and teacher/administrator relationships? The days of teaching in isolation are long gone, and we are now in an era of education where Professional Learning Communities are valued, where we look at individual strengths and put teacher-teams together based on these strengths, and then we encourage them to collaborate.

Reading Greater Than Yourself will heighten the respect for this collaboration and promote true investment in each other to catapult team members to becoming greater than they ever imagined. Our keeping an open mind to the application of Steve Farber’s work to the field of education can truly change our schools and the communities in which we work. I highly recommend Greater Than Yourself for educators. Not only will it serve as a great refresher for the teacher to student relationships, but it will serve as a huge motivator for teachers to help their colleagues become greater than they could have ever dreamed.

As for me, I have a GTY project of my own. She is an educator who wants to become an administrator/principal. She is in the final rounds for an administrative position in a neighboring school district. Regardless of whether or not she lands this position, I know she will be a great administrator sooner or later. And if I have done my job well, she will go on to be a better principal than I.

Jim Wipke CMS Principal

I was encouraged to read your book by a Right Management consultant. I am currently in transition. I'm a Sr. HR Business Partner who provides HR leadership to senior executives and their management teams. I have supported a wide variety of businesses and have a proven track record for designing, developing, and executing innovative HR solutions. My passion is Talent Management. I partner and coach business leaders on optimizing talent and maximizing employee engagement.

I don't have my GTY story yet, although I do believe I have been practicing over the years. I'm going to get re-engaged and active myself. I am attaching a note I sent to the counselor at Right Management immediately after I finished reading your book.

Barbara,

You asked me to consider reading "Greater Than Yourself" by Steve Farber this week. I have finished reading the book, and here are some of my initial thoughts…

"Greater Than Yourself (GTY), the Ultimate Lesson of True Leadership" by Steve Farber introduces a new practice, GTY, for leaders to consider and help others to be better than they are themselves.

Business leaders often ask questions regarding their role as a leader in talent management.

• How am I going to help others achieve their full potential?
• Do I want to make a difference, leave a legacy?
• How can I impact the leadership culture of this organization?
• What would it take to transform this organization?

By successfully optimizing talent or managing talent of our workforce, do leaders think in terms of helping others to be better than they are themselves?

The business community has been a "buzz" for the past few years on the power and potential of engaging our workforce and linking engagement to customer satisfaction and bottom line financial results. Maximizing engagement or the discretionary effort that is required to achieve a positive outcome is taken one step further in GTY: Expand Yourself, Give Yourself, and Replicate Yourself. Steve Farber is providing a framework for action and a "higher level of engagement" of ownership and accountability for leaders.

I'd like to think that after 28 years as a human resources professional supporting a wide variety of businesses and their management teams that I have a significant amount of experience assessing talent, developing talent, leveraging talent, and knowing what it will take to reward and retain talent to optimize results. I have always believed that to make a difference, you have to take action one person at a time. It takes two people to commit to a mentoring relationship: mentor and mentee. GTY takes mentoring to a new level. There is a commitment to help the mentee be more effective and successful than the mentor. That is the “twist”! This book is an “easy read”, set in a "story" with a powerful message. It is filled with practical advice for Talent Management professionals and business leaders alike.

Thank you for taking the time to share the book with me. I enjoyed the opportunity to think and reflect on my own talents and what I have to offer others.

I look forward to introducing GTY as a practice for business leaders to embrace in optimizing their talent.

Well Steve, I had the discussion with my GTY project and she has accepted the opportunity and we have decided to move forward. I am starting by giving her a copy of your book for her to read. We are also going to set aside time at least a couple times a month so we can focus specifially on using and applying all of the concepts you have outlined for GTY. One of our first objectives after going through the book will be to help her select her own GTY. By doing so we will actually both go through the process together. I’ll keep you posted.

My story is just beginning. In our company, Champion, I have worked to instill the extreme leadership roles to all our partners and friends with some success. Two months ago I dismayed at the [lack of] acceptance by one of our senior partners and worked to try to show him why he needed to lead. He sees himself as a doer more than a leader and also sees his role as a "danger finder." That is great, but the reason to find the danger is to take it to a solution, and that takes leadership.

In the last two weeks, with candid conversation (Patrick Lencioni's "Conflict"), he has made great strides.

I read GTY yesterday and in a meeting we had planned for 8:00 this morning, introduced GTY to him…He saw its inherent quality immediately. He called it the engine that leads to great "extreme" or "radical" leadership.

Will he be my GTY Project? Probably. That Project will be coupled with Making a GTY Project for my son Adam (who works with us) and for Stephanie, a partner and a leader.

Maybe that's too many projects, but I think not, as we are a small company–like no other you have seen–following Jim Collin’s principals and recognizing that as a "Tenant Friendly Development Company" we can make a difference with everyone we contact.

Thanks for the book.

My GTY story actually started a couple of years ago, but I didn't know that’s what it was called.

I have a co-worker who is a peer of mine in another group and we work closely on various projects. For a person of her age (she is the same age as my daughter) I think she has a lot of potential and I have always felt she is capable of so much more. After reading your book and listening to the videos here, I realized that she has been and continues to be, my GTY project. It has also allowed me to put a name to some of the things we have been doing.

I realize now that the more I try to help her, the more I have to learn myself (Expand Yourself). It drives me to learn more so I can share more. I decided a couple of years ago to support her as much as I possiblly could (Give Yourself). I have never, ever thought of her as competition, although she certainly could be, but I have never held back helping her and I would love nothing more than to see her excel well beyond what I have been able to do. I certainly know she is capable.

Lately I have been trying to encourage her and make opportunities available to her to help her expand her circles of influence (Replicate Yourself). I know that she has so much potential to be a positive role model to so many other young professionals and I am encouraging her to take those steps. What I enjoy the most is that this is not just a professional relationship. It has a such a deep and personal level and I know that we will be connected for the rest of our lives. I have never been one to have really long term friendships and it is great to see this be a by-product of my GTY.

Thanks for helping me put a name and face to this relationship. Also, you have inspired me to take on many more GTYs. The fortunate part is that there are so many potential GTYs available. Choosing is the toughest part, but also the most exciting.

Thanks again!