Matt Paknis Leadership Development

"Can You Spare a Little Help" generated appreciated responses. Thank you. My good friend Eric took me to lunch and shared his father Peter's life story. Peter is about to celebrate his 98th birthday. Peter was born and raised in Hamburg, Germany. When he was fourteen his parents divorced. When he was twenty one he was placed in solitary confinement for eighteen months for dating a non Jewish woman. After being released from solitary confinement he was considered a political prisoner and was ordered to build both Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps. In 1939 he was released from prison under the condition he'd leave Germany. He emigrated to the United States and arrived with $5 in his pocket. With his money he rented a room and purchased wholesale first aid kits he sold for a profit. He then supported himself by waiting tables and parking cars at resorts in the Adirondacks. In 1942 he was drafted into the United States Army and became a USA citize...

Recent tragedies hammered home, to me, the impact of time. We had a family tragedy within a week of famed linebacker Junior Seau deciding to end his life. Time factored into both deaths. Based on reports, we assume their time was spent in apparent inescapable pain; internal demons and signals harassed their brains with continuous unwanted pain inducing triggers. We assume they felt there was no escape; no apparent way to change the ebbing tide of locked despondency. Based on articles, Junior projected an image of strength and optimism. According to reports, men in his culture are expected to be strong and supportive. His role as an NFL linebacker was to be the cog in a fearless front of defense. Based on his physical gifts, he was able to project this image in his play for almost 5 times longer than the average NFL player's career. And, Junior was considered one of the best in this role. He was rewarded for not being vulnerable, or human. This sense of despair can hap...

Trust is a popular corporate buzzword. It creates, according to Tom Peters in his seminal work "In Search of Excellence", the highest form of human motivation. A person experiences trust when he realizes people or institutions or systems or equipment won't allow him to be hurt when he is vulnerable. We are vulnerable when we buy a product or service, when we share private or personal thoughts, and when we take risks. We are willing to follow people we trust because we believe our best interest is served by them. They won't hurt us. Trust lubricates the cycle of effectiveness where trusting thoughts influence trustworthy actions to impact positive results to build trusting relationships. We trust doctors to heal us when we are sick or injured. We trust banks to secure our assets. We trust teachers to share the truth. We trust coaches to build skill and psyches. We trust institutions to protect our interests to propel the greatest good. In the past six...

Thank you for your responses to the previous blog. As a result, I am in the process of creating support systems to better address abuses of power and childhood assaults. I will keep you posted on this progress. Themes evolved from your emails and blog responses. Below please find some of these topics addressed. 1. Who's coaching your kids? Many readers want to know how to identify a predator who may also be a coach, teacher, scout leader, or anyone in a position where he or she has regular access to children. There is no look or specific demeanor, but predators tend to violate respectful and standard interpersonal boundaries. They invade others' physical, emotional, and verbal space with inappropriate conduct often masked as concern, teasing, or playing. Predators put themselves in positions where they are surrounded by unattended children. Predators tend to spend an inordinate amount of their free time with children and have limited interactions with people in their own...

Author's Note: Joe Paterno was fired as Penn State's football coach on Wednesday November 9, 2011. Joe Paterno died Sunday January 22, 2012. He was eighty five years old and lived, for most of his life, like a king. My mother received her early death sentence, melanoma in her lymph system, when she was 35. She died when she was 44. I was seventeen. Since then, I've respected the dead and their families, and focus on their contributions and accomplishments when they pass. Thus, I off lined this blog when I learned Joe Paterno died. It's critical of him and his avoidance response when knowing his former prized assistant, Jerry Sandusky, was seen sodomizing a young boy in the Penn State Football Complex showers. I worked with Joe Paterno and Jerry Sandusky as a graduate assistant football coach. I am also a survivor of early childhood assault outside of my home. Multitudes of great football players like Franco Harris, Lydell Mitchell, Jack Ham, Curt Wa...

Have you ever discovered a new talent by accident? Yesterday I heard eight high potential technical employees who are being groomed for management positions present their educational and work histories in preparation for speaking to high school students. A common theme connected their stories. Most had no mentor to guide them early in life. They made uninformed decisions leading to unfulfilled jobs before finding an employer who directed, and celebrated, their talents and drive. When given the opportunity, the speakers excelled. They learned they could solve technical problems. They learned they had high personal standards for achievement. They learned they had the capacity to influence others in very positive ways. Others recognized these talent and these speakers were chosen for very selective management development programs. Recent Gallop research states everyone is born with a talent he or she can demonstrate with more proficiency than at least 10,000 people. A good educat...

Happy Fourth of July 2011! Independence Day this year made me reflect on the freedom, and value, of friendship. "Make new friends, but keep the old; one's silver and the others are gold." These are the words to a song learned at Central Avenue Elementary school in 1971, the year my thirty five year old mom received her early death sentence; melanoma in her lymph system. I was in 3rd grade. My mom encouraged me to build lasting friendships. She had a very loving heart and I sensed the compassion she had for my young friends. It made it natural for me to like them. Perhaps she encouraged me to make friends because she anticipated our family might, like others who experience the death of a young parent, implode after her death, leaving me and my siblings and our family on separate islands. Friends can't replace family, but good friends can fill the lost family void. "A person someone is fond of and knows well", according to Webster's Dictionary, is...