We would like to highlight our regional manager for our Wilmington area! Josh Ober! 
After graduating high school in 2008, Josh decided to pursue his passion and join the military. He spent five years in the active duty United States Marine Corps. In his time in the Marines he served on three different deployments. Josh promoted fast through the ranks of Marines and in just over 3 years time, he earned his meritorious promotion to the rank of Sergeant. After making the hard decision to honorably discharge from the Marine Corps, Josh began working for Environmental Cleaning Solutions Inc. as a full time employee at the Harrisburg Mall. His hard work, diligence, and attention to detail in his time at the Harrisburg Mall paid off as he is now our Divisional Manager for the Philadelphia, PA / Wilmington, DE regional area where he now lives with his wife Amanda.
Category Archives: leadership
ECS – Attracts High Quality in their Management Team!
Creating Culture!
Creating culture in business is something that must be completely intentional. It doesn’t just happen.
It’s been a very long time since writing my last post. I kind of feel like the famous Bible story about David the shepherd, not seen very much, but on the back side of the mountain, tending and protecting his sheep, learning, growing and being tested. That’s how my last calendar year was. I haven’t always been victorious, sometimes I lost, but I always learned great life lessons.
In 2014, Environmental Cleaning Solutions, Inc. grew over 300%. Expansion was fast and furious. Many factors went into this large and fast growth. Life changed for all of us. One of the many factors that enabled us to experience this kind of growth was the LIFE Leadership development company. Improving my people skills, learning to work ‘on’ my business and not ‘in’ my business, learning to look at our employees as teammates, and partners and building relationships with many of them, instead of looking at them as a ‘means to an end’, being real, finding purpose, and many more factors…
Changing and growing yourself is a journey, not a destination.
In 2014 we started a monthly corporate leadership training program (LIFE Leadership) with all of our managers. Starting anything new, requires intentional effort, is at times awkward, and you must know why, or you’ll quit. However, the changes in growth have and continue to be phenomenal.
In studying many other companies, there seems to be some common threads of success. Some of those common threads are:
– Purpose, Vision, Values, and Focus
– Personal & Leadership Development
– Focus on Mentorship
– Overcome yourself: if too cocky, sand off the rough edges; if lack of confidence, build it.
– Be Teachable
– Learn to Delegate, duplicate yourself
– Trust Others, believe in your employees, expect excellence
– Lead by Example
I’ve been self-employed for over 26 years. With many successes and failures, you must re-visit the ‘why’ often to keep growing and not become stale.
As a Leadership Team, we are re-visiting every aspect of our business. From company vision to how we hire, we are asking the tough questions. We hired consultants and are even entertaining the thought of re-branding our company with a new logo. Input from our teammates is extremely important.
We love our Teammates, our Leaders, and our customers! We are humbled to be a growing company in some difficult economic times. We have offices in Harrisburg, PA; Reading, PA; and Wilmington, DE, with our Headquarters in Lebanon, PA.
Stay tuned!
Sincerely,
David A Ober
daveober.team@gmail.com
Jeff Daniels, American Freedoms & LeaderShift
Jeff Daniels, American Freedoms & LeaderShift
Posted by Orrin Woodward on March 22, 2013
Jeff Daniels, playing Will in his TV show, believes America is in decline. In fact, he believes this so emphatically that some of his language in the video is not children-friendly. I apologize in advance for some of the wording in this video. However, the points he makes and the discussion around it are so valuable that I decided to post it. Mr. Daniels has pinpointed the effects of the Five Laws of Decline upon American society. Nonetheless, identifying the effects and solving the issues are not one and the same thing. The Five Laws of Decline must be rooted out of our culture, ending the plunder of working citizens on both sides of the political aisle.
http://orrinwoodwardblog.com/2013/03/22/jeff-daniels-american-freedoms-leadershift/
Education think outside the box!
Read excellent article by-Chris VanDevere earned a degree in a course of classical liberal education known as the Program of Liberal Studies at the University of Notre Dame. He returned to Notre Dame to complete a joint Law and M.B.A. program.
The challenge of traditional thought is understanding that what always was does not have to be what always will be! LIFE
(think of travel,communication,economics etc.) Be careful of the assumptions you make and keep!
http://claude-hamilton.com/life-old-fashioned-primer-on-education/
Life education changing life’s! Testimony over titles!
Here’s the kicker… There were 12 (TWELVE) other applicants who interviewed. They ALL had Bachelors degrees, and 6 (SIX) of them had Masters Degrees!!! I was the ONLY ONE who did NOT have a degree, but rather had a leadership education from the LIFE/Team community and I’m the one who got the job making a mid-range teachers salary. WOW! http://orrinwoodwardblog.com/2013/01/14/larry-stacey-allswede-testimonies-over-titles/
THE IMPORTANCE OF AUTHENTIC RELATIONSHIPS IN TODAY’S WORLD!
March 14, 2012
by CBS News.com
(MoneyWatch) COMMENTARY Now more than ever, there never seems to be enough time to get things done. Why that is, I don’t know. But I do know that, in an era of social networking, telecommuting and virtual meetings, when it comes to work, the one thing that gets sacrificed is relationships.
Big mistake.
If you want to get somewhere in your career, in management, in business, the worst thing you can do is just focus on work, work, work. Success is all about relationships. Relationships with your management, boss, peers, employees, customers — everyone in your immediate work ecosystem, if you know what I mean.
And I’m not just talking about working relationships; I’m talking about your personal relationships with these people, where you break through the workplace persona people use for whatever reason and actually connect with the human being beneath.
Just to be clear, this isn’t about wasting people’s time. That’s a bad idea because, as I said before, that’s the one precious commodity that nobody has enough of these days. But if you do it right — if you’re genuine, open and sensitive to people’s boundaries — you’ll do fine.
Here are seven reasons why your success depends far more on those all-important interpersonal work relationships than you realize:
Any CEO, VC, or entrepreneur will tell you that their network is their biggest asset. It’s where opportunities come from. And when it comes to networking, doing it old school is a major distinguishing factor versus social networking. When you have a personal relationship with someone, that creates a level of trust that sets you apart from the virtual hordes.
Strong relationships make it easier to get information and information is power. It could be about a major project, a key customer, budget cuts or an upcoming promotion opportunity. When it comes to important stuff, you have to give to get, and you’re not going to get anything valuable from somebody who doesn’t trust you.
Relationships get people through tough times. Long ago I learned that, all things being equal, a personal relationship will help you keep your job, win the business, whatever it is you need, it can make the difference when times are hard. It also means you have someone to lean on. Try leaning on someone you hardly know. Bad idea.
The higher up the corporate ladder you climb, the higher the stakes, the bigger the deals, the more important everything becomes. And that means people have to look you in the eye and feel confident that they know who they’re looking at, that you’ll do what you say you’re going to do, get the job done, whatever. And vice versa.
These days, companies have to be lean and mean, and that means having fewer, stronger relationships. No kidding. It’s the same reason why manufacturers minimize their number of vendors, suppliers and components. Because it’s more cost effective that way. Also, there’s a cost associated with bad business because you didn’t know the person as well as you should have and he failed to meet a commitment, for example.
It may be easier than ever to work and communicate virtually, but all that does is level the playing field, meaning there’s nothing that distinguishes your relationship with an individual. There’s no real connection, no real bond, and when push comes to shove, you can’t expect that person to do anything special or go the extra mile for you.
Personal relationships are more important in just about every nation on the planet than they are in the U.S. Why that is, I can’t say. But I’ve done business in dozens of countries on five continents and just about every culture devotes more time and energy to personal relationships than Americans do. And the more global our markets become, the more important it is to get with the majority program.
What if there was a company that could teach you how to have successful relationships in a community setting ( not theory only) but then would also compensate you as you all learn and grow together in growth groups all across the country!
This is why the LIFE business is going to be the next Walmart,Microsoft,apple etc. but instead of creating another billionaire it will create many millionaires and financially free families! www.the-life-business.com Life # 61235149 www.daveoberleadership.comThe business of the information age our product is information! Welcome to the future!
What is leadership and why does it matter?
Dan Hawkins : What is leadership and why does it matter?.
FRIENDS and FUN!
Over the holidays Beth and I have had the privilege to spend time with our business partners and friends in St. Pete Beach, Florida. We spent time laughing, sharing funny stories, reflecting back over the past year and strategizing for the new year. Those awesome people were Denny and Donna Smith, Mike and Lynnette Parr, (and son Brayden), Tony and Sharon Hoffman, (and daughters Maile and Madison), and Kolynn and Lynn Kelly. It was the first time we have ever celebrated the new year on the beach. With the 75-80 degree weather, sunny days with powder-like sand… it was a grand way to relax, re-charge, sharpen the ax (lots of reading) and get ready for an awesome 2012! Being from Pennsylvania, the vitamin D really felt good!
As LIFE continues to grow, and as I meet with more and more people and companies… I’m finding with the economic climate FUN and FRIENDS is something that people really need to work on. Many times executives express the opinion that business owners and executives are under so much stress that they don’t have fun. With trying to meet quotas, keep stock-holders happy, board of directors… going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark, conflict, turn-over, etc… these executives go home many times so stressed they shut down and in-turn cause relationship issues with family.
Executives absolutely love the holistic approach to improving LIFE in all areas because all areas are inner-woven. If you are having problems at work, it can affect relationships at home, and vice-versa.
Having a master-mind group of trusted friends, (like the ones listed above) is also extremely important. It provides a safe environment so that you can share thoughts, ideas, and gain perspective and not feel like you are being judged. This also provides much-needed accountability which keeps you on track and allows for continuous course correction and adjustment.
Find trusted friends and create times of fun in 2012. Work hard, Play hard!
Sincerely,
Dave Ober
Dave Ober Leadership 