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Here’s what people are saying about Jim Huling articles on leadership, life and excellenceI just read your article "The Courage to be Yourself" in SmartBusiness Miami, and I just wanted to thank you. I thank you for your article because it does two great and unique things. First, it puts into plain language some practical, utilitarian ways in which honesty can pay off in the long run, which is something we rarely hear about. Second, it points out the remorse, even pain, one can feel for compromising one's principles. It's a convincing combination, one that may inspire someone, somewhere, to choose truth over lies, maybe even just once... and that, as you know yourself, is a powerful and positive thing. Anyway, bravo, sir! Well done. Just a quick note to thank you, again, for your outstanding column in Smart Business magazine! I completely concur with your philosophies and have been part of some exceptional leadership environments that benefited from similar approaches. In my experience, the most difficult part of such a transformation is to get senior leadership's commitment! It's very difficult for most people to relinquish control to the point of allowing such transformation to occur. And without senior leadership buy-in, you only find pockets of engaged employees within larger companies. That's been my quandary at Home Depot -- trying to execute initiatives to engage people's hearts and minds, when that's not valued by those above me in the organization. All that whining aside, you've given me the encouragement to go back to the well and take some steps to at least see if I can help make a mini transformation occur within the leadership team that I'm a part of! I really enjoy your articles in the Smart Business Atlanta magazine. I used the most recent one, "The Cure for Exhaustion" this morning in our Business Development Meeting. I got great comments from many of those attending (50 +). Thanks for your wonderful insights and positive impact upon me and my colleagues. I hope you are doing well. I have told you before how I always look forward to reading your article in Smart Business. I don’t know how you do it but it seems like every issue your article addresses something that is top of mind for me. In your article Job vs. Life you describe how things seem for me today, overwhelmed, overworked and stressed out. Your words of wisdom mean a lot to me and many others I am sure. Keep up the good writing. I was impressed, touched, and encouraged by your article Job vs. life in Smart Business. I have been so involved with what seems like a million things over the past few months. My life has been put on the backburner and this article is a reminder that there is hope and it is up to me to do something about it. Thanks again for a well written, clear, eye opening message. I just had the pleasure of reading your article on creating a balanced life. I wanted to drop you a note and thank you for clearly defining a process that has worked for you and I hope will work for me as well. I have already started defining my roles, envisioning my headlines and writing my eulogies. Thanks again for your contribution. I really believe this article will help me with what I have been struggling with for many years. Thank you for taking the time to write this down in The Business of Life and let us all know we can create the special moments in our lives that will turn into loving memories. I will take up your challenge and start making plans for that special memory with my family. You are truly an inspiration to all of us. I just want to recognize your article in "SmartBusiness". Well done. I will be distributing it around the office. I enjoyed your article and think your thoughts are very important. The great thinker C. K. Chesterson wrote something similar when he asked, “Do you listen to yourself or do you speak to yourself?” He said the difference between listening to yourself and speaking to yourself determines whether you are happy or prosperous in life. I do believe that if you really truly speak to yourself the good things of life versus listening to the negative things in life, it can make all the difference in your life. Again, thanks for your article. I want to tell you how I appreciated your article in the Smart business magazine. I am in the process of changing from operations management to a sales position in where things are never certain. I can appreciate a lot of what you mentioned and I wanted to personally thank you for your insight. Thanks for the words of wisdom. I am a Receptionist at ICS Triplex in Houston, Texas. Oodles of magazines come across my desk for distribution. For some reason the last few months, SmartBusiness has ended up lying on my desk and I have flipped through it and read your articles. I found myself today looking for it. I just wanted to say that I like your style. Down to earth, solid values and principles. Hope you don't mind this intrusion from a stranger. I just think we as a people find plenty of time to complain but not enough time to compliment. So, my compliment to you, Sir. This one I truly understand. Telling the truth in an unpopular situation is one of the most difficult things we ever have to do. When I was at my last company truth was a daily casualty. Well said and well done. I just read your article about being yourself from November of last year in Smart Business. Stumbled on it looking for another article, but glad I did. I am fairly early in my career, but have had a great opportunity to hold a number of leadership positions in running sales forces and operations teams in my short tenure (I am now 31). Self-doubt, being the young guy on the block, and interacting with leaders with much of the time greater knowledge and experience has plagued me for years. I always focused on learning more so I can be ‘at par’ with everyone else in lieu of offering my perspective. At times I have failed to notice that my point of view was as valuable as the others in many cases- if I had only spoken up. Reading your article reminded me of how far I have come and how much confidence I have built over the years- but still have a long way to go. I don’t like be too introspective, but enjoyed the article mostly because it reminded me that it is easier to just be yourself than it is to put up a façade. I hope this note reaches you well and Thank you. Well written. Sharing you with this organization through your column is one of the highlights of my career (next to having the wonderful opportunity to work directly with you so many years ago). One person actually stopped me in the cafeteria last week and asked what it was like to work with you. In addition to the learning your column provides I think you also help show the organization what true leadership can be. We've got a long journey ahead and a lot of growing to do, but you've helped us get started. Thank you! I think of you often, and the lessons learned and those I continue to learn from you. Thanks for being the powerful teacher that you are! I am writing in regards to your article in the February issue of Smart Business Cleveland. You made many valid points on how to “Reach your intended destination” and how to set and achieve goals. I made copies of the article and gave them out to my sales reps, hoping that they will use some of ideas to drive our business. Thank you for the advice in the article and I look forward to upcoming issues that I can pass on my sales team. I read your article "Reach your intended destination", in Smart Business magazine. I just wanted to say thank you for writing articles that make leadership investments in others. I pastor a church in San Carlos and have found some important elements in this article that will advance what we are doing. As a young pastor I am always looking for ways to streamline my goals, this has helped out tremendously. I pray blessings on you as you continue to invest in others. Hope that this finds you well. I feel like I have finally "arrived" if I can have in interview in the same issue of Smart Business magazine as Jim Huling! Great story and great message. Having just been through the acquisition of our company by CBRE, I wish that I had seen this back in November, before my "pep rally" speech! Hope to see you soon. In your most recent column, Strength in Vulnerability, you have communicated in a wonderful way a Leader's greatest asset in a time of crisis! I love you and appreciate you Jim! I read your article in the April 2007 SmartBusiness and think it's right on target. People are busier than ever, and the lines between personal and work lives are more and more overlapping. Your article’s practical tips are just what readers are looking for to implement changes to improve their quality of life. Just wanted to write you a quick note about the article I read recently in Smart Business magazine. What a wonderful piece! Thanks and continue in the good work you are doing! I just finished reading your article, “Overcome your fear of change” in the October 2006 edition of SmartBusiness San Diego magazine. I was impressed by your message with respect to the decisions that need to be made during times of change. As the Deputy Chief, our organization is in a process of change and will continue to experience unprecedented growth (change) over the next two years. I respectfully request permission to copy and use your article during my next meeting with our field commanders. I use these frequent meetings not only for operational reasons but help our young leaders within the organization as they develop throughout their careers. Your article hits home the point we are trying to communicate. Your consideration in this matter is greatly appreciated. "I felt like a midwife reading your two columns. I was moved to tears by the first, with the touching story of how you realized time with your new daughter mattered more than the cult of corporate allegiance. You are a GREAT WRITER!!! I always knew this psychically, but as a former published fiction writer/journalist I have my own standards of what good writing means. Reading your columns I had to smile. You are really on target with how you write, with what you have to say, and how it really sinks in for the reader. Congratulations on your new career--author next! So proud and so happy for you!" "I read the article: "Understanding Who You Are". Outstanding! I can see now, how our areas of our lunch conversation so resonated with the article. Certainly you recall the golden days of paper Day Timers when Covey married up with Franklin publishing and created their version of a Day Timer where they provisioned areas specifically for identifying roles such that they could be tended to. Making those "emotional deposits" so necessary for good relationships both at work and home. In fact, the instructional classroom training for using the Franklin/Covey Day Timer also included thinking about what one would want said at their Eulogy. This activity became a very somber time for many. A most "awakening" moment one might say. The examples you cite of you imagining your daughter saying "My Dad was always there for me" ..., only you may not have been, fall squarely into the chapter I mentioned in my previous email; "The Cost of Work - How much do you pay?" There is so much to explore in this area as over the last 8-10 years there has been a dramatic shift of what is considered the norm." "I feel like those of us who can talk the talk and walk it..., are a dying breed. We are out numbered by those who don't know the principles of which you and I speak and are clearly passionate about. Once..., long ago, it seems there was a near cult like culture of companies and individuals rushing to get on the bandwagon of quality both in process and in management. Covey classes, Process Re-engineering, Tom Peters "Managing by walking-about" and so on. I have sensed a major decline in this. By your writing, you are and have become a gladiator in bringing focus back to this "lost culture". It is ever so refreshing to find an officer of a company that has so embraced the elements we've spoken about that conveying these within their company is a first priority, that I fall short of words to truly express myself here. Keep doing what you do Jim, you and yours, both at home and work can only benefit from it. The industry sure as heck will!!" "Great stuff!!! As an aspiring writer myself, it is great to see that you have found something you believe in so fully that it makes your writing powerful, clear and easy to read. I know that you will be a great success in this new endeavor like you have been with everything else. Your vision is wonderful! Touch as many lives as you can and I look forward to reading more." "My father just forwarded me your article as I sit here in my new “high-powered” office off of Fifth Avenue. Two weeks ago I received a promotion, and along with this massive complement came a stressful priority struggle. I have been in the office at 7:30 AM and leaving at 10:30 PM; I have been snapping at my friends and family each time they call to say something I have been thinking of as “a waste of time”. I have not been able to do my laundry, let alone even drop it off at the Laundromat. My kitchen is a mess and I have lost 5 pounds do to lack of eating. To top all of this off, today is my birthday and I just told my best friends that I may not make dinner tonight. This all leads up to the point: Your lovely article couldn’t have been forwarded to my obnoxious outlook email influx at a better time! Thank goodness I “made” the time to read it. I realize that if I don’t sit down and write out my goals and priorities, not only will I have a nervous breakdown, but life will pass me by. At my funeral, it would be more important to hear that she ‘always made times for her friends and family’ than ‘wow what a great project director’. Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you! I hope you have a great week." "I wanted to drop you a quick line of thanks and encouragement, and to ask you to please continue writing your Business of Life pieces that I enjoy and value so much. As a student of life, and practitioner of business, I have plenty of separate items to read about both topics. Your articles are one of the few commentaries that put them together and afford an insightful view about how one can truly share both a fulfilling career while living a value-rich and grounded life. There are plenty of calls for our time which, for many of us has become our most precious commodity and asset. While I firmly believe that every full day of our lives God gives us 2 great gifts: (1) 24 hours; and (2) the free will to determine what to do with the first gift, your instructional lessons (I would demean them by calling them articles) provide a well-reasoned and practical way to balance both gifts and traverse the challenging business lives many of us are blessed to be able to live. Thanks for being a righteous and helpful messenger and please continue to provide your clarion calls for those of us toiling in the vineyards." "I want to thank you for the excellent articles you have written for SmartBusiness magazine. These articles are very helpful to me, and I consider them so useful that I regularly pass them along to colleagues Your practical, values based approach is very much appreciated. I eagerly anticipate each article, and I look forward to reading many more. Thank you for writing them." "I wanted to drop you an email to let you know how much I have thoroughly enjoyed reading, absorbing, and applying each “The Business of Life” article that I have ever read within the Smart Business magazine. You have an uncanny way of taking dry leadership principles and transforming them into specific actions that I then apply to both my personal and business life. In the very beginning of most of your columns you ask deep and intriguing questions that stir my imagination. From the question of the number of tomorrows I have to knowing the difference between a fantasy and a vision, your questions enable me to dig deep and consider possibilities I have never thought of. I never knew that I would learn so much about myself and how to live my life to the fullest by reading a business magazine! Each time I get a new one I am excited to open it up and search for the business of life because I get so much out of each article. You have a very comfortable style that allows me to truly get what you are saying. I feel like you are my personal coach allowing me to discover new things about myself through the simple yet meaningful points you make. The key to making your ideas work in my life is me listening to your call to action and then taking action. I feel that you provide me with the encouragement and support I need to take my life to the next level. The fantastic thing is that each article focuses on one specific thing so that over time as I apply these principles I make progress toward becoming my dreams! Thank you for coaching me through your words!" "Just wanted to encourage you to continue with these articles. With the fall off in attendance by many in church or organized religious activities, your articles may be one of the few ways in which business people are encouraged to be authentic, to live in the 'now' in the light of 'tomorrow' (not vice versa) and to get 'still' enough from time to time to examine their state of 'being' versus ' doing'. My observation is that many promising careers, marriages and other essential relationships (like being a dad) can be derailed when you continue to live life from the "outside-in" rather than from the "inside-out." Sooner or later, you morph into the stereotypical 'politician' or 'game show host' - constantly having to script, direct, star in, and promote your latest movie or show, at the cost of your very soul. There's a famous quote that Henry Ford is alleged to have made in which he lamented "why is it, every time I want just a pair of hands, I get the whole person?" Your articles challenge business executives to be and permit others to be the 'whole person', and that encouragement is so needed today. Keep up the message - in fact, preach it brother, preach it!" "I just read your article in the February 2006 Smart Business Atlanta magazine. I was astonished to find such a gem when I was merely leafing through a business publication to make sure I didn't miss something within that might be useful! "Alison, your assistant, shared with me several articles on “The Business of Life” and I have read all of them. I must say that understanding “life” as it pertains to business is usually the missing link in many people’s lives. So many books are written on how to succeed in business but mention very little about how to incorporate life’s lessons that combines all aspects into a truly gratifying accomplishment. Balance in life is vital and stumbling in different areas is a clear indication that one needs to be grounded in the simple lessons of life you mention in your articles. I wish this was a mandatory read for everyone who thinks they can be successful without being ground to reality. Thank you" "I enjoyed your article which I read in the Smart Business magazine. I too am an avid backpacker and see a lot of lessons to carry over to the rest of life. If you ever find yourself looking for good trails in Indiana, let me know, and I'll share my favorites. Keep the articles coming!" "I just read your article “Choose carefully what you carry”, I really enjoyed it, very insightful and powerful thoughts. No doubt there is a lot of negative energy that can slow all of us down. One suggestion for you, try carrying one of those single serving wine bottles on your next hike, it would be a heck of a lot easier to carry." "I don't know Jim. I have to tell you that last night I finally read your articles in the Business of Life series (I've had them since January something). You are an excellent writer and I was very impressed with each article and how simple most concepts really are. However, I also realized that I suck. I, too, have spent the last ten years in a cult that was my old job. I know what I need to do to improve work-life balance but knowing something and doing something are two different things. Retraining "old dawgs" is easier said than done." "It is not surprising to me that your company has been recognized as one of the best companies to work for! Hopefully the "ripple effect" of this article will benefit others - I know it has had a profound impact on me." "Thanks for a well written article in June '06 magazine. I try to do exactly as you said but sometimes I get lax or my nerves become frayed and I lash out. Whenever I now get to that point, I remember your column." "I have to admit aside from a small amount of friends at Manhattan Associates and IBM or the occasional friend looking for contract IT work, I wasn’t very familiar with your company whatsoever. But I have to say that more then a few times I found myself quoting or referring to an article that I read from SmartBusiness, one of the many business magazines I read. It wasn’t until recently that I realized that the CEO of your company and the author of those articles were one in the same. From the Harvard Business Review to the local Atlanta Business Chronicle, it always seemed that the authors missed the mark. It was refreshing to read that someone actually got it right. Someone finally recognized those variables of human condition that can't be columnized on an Excel sheet." "I’m not sure how I made onto the mailing list for the inaugural issue of Smart Business Tampa Bay, but as I started scanning through it, I stopped on your brief article. It was just the pick-me-up I needed this afternoon. I’m currently dealing with a number of highly stressful situations and your article reminded me how important it is to make the time to be kind, even under stress." "I hope you are doing well. I am just writing to you to thank you for writing your article - Fulfilling Your Vision- on your website. I really enjoyed your article. Keep smiling," "I came across your article in SmartBusiness, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky, June 2006 and was quite impressed with it. I checked out the website and will now look at it regularly for good advice. I am a Nursing Home Administrator. Thanks for the spirit and morale in which you lead." |
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