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HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL ILllJßEfflfiH r IMb kt’ Hv Second Baptist Church, 2404 Moody Road, was recently recognized by Keep Warner Robins Beautiful with the Beautification Award of Excellence. Pictured from left are Terry Duemberger, KWRB, Arthur Head, KWRB, Burt Whitehead, Don Rainwater, Mary Eater, KWRB, Clint Johnson and Jack Steed, KWRB. Submitted Sun Trust Bank- Houston Crossing was recently rec ognized by Keep Warner Robins Beautiful with the Business of the Month Award. Pictured accepting the plaque from Steed is Lynn Yawn, Branch Manager. Also pictured are Joyce Ballard, Tonya Boyd, Diedre Hugley, Wes Griffin, David Carr, KWRB, Ron Weigle, Area Manager and Cheryl Taylor, KWRB. Submitted Keep Warner Robins Beautiful recently recog nized Sylvia Rogers with the Home of the Month Award. Pictured Hazal Hagan and Jack Steed, KWRB. Submitted Why use so many mental models? I love it when a client (or a reader) asks me a tough question that causes me to pause and consider. Often my immediate response is “I don’t know - let me think about it and I’ll get back to you.” That phrase is a good one, by the way. If you are a leader, it should be among your sentences that are easy to say. Just be sure to get back to the person, or your credibility will suffer! Recently, I was on a tele phone coaching call with an individual who is growing in powerful ways. Near the end of our conversation, he asked, “Why do you use so many mental models?” I didn’t know how to answer right away. I asked for time to think about the question and promised to respond next time we talk. This article will be his answer. He’s made such terrific progress in a short time! He says he’s never experienced a teacher or a mentor who stimulated him to think in these new ways about his behavior. He now under stands his effect on people in ways he’d never previously considered. We all have mental models. Every leader. Every worker. Every parent. Every strug gling person. Every success ful person. We don’t know where or how we learned our men tal models. We usually don’t even know they are pres ent. Still, they silently work under the level of our aware ness, influencing our behav ior in ways we don’t even realize. Mental models are why many competent people are not able to explain how they do what they do. Perhaps you’ve observed an artic ulate speaker, or a gifted Looking good 1 1 , I * m§k%r jU&mwa f [Zf , *s*, y r ®ifiu? r »ut ' ' ■“« |jj| J. . Bt—^ — 'Wr — w~ mm artist, or someone who can look at an income statement and accurately proclaim the health of that organization. You stand in awe and ask, “How do you do that?” All too often, the expert’s response is “It just comes easily to me.” Not a very sat isfying or helpful response Dennis Hooper Leaders Building Leaders mental models are usually unexamined and untested. Experts are particularly susceptible to this truth, because mental models are so self-validating. We easily produce the evidence to jus tify our perceptions. Most leaders in today’s organizations have been placed in that position because they were quite good at what they did before. Many leaders think they see things as they are. They believe that they are objec tive in their ability to mea sure and discern. Dictatorial leaders are especially cer tain that they perceive and understand every situa- DAVID OVERTON JEWELERS 905 Downtown Carroll St. • Perry tion accurately. (After all, the word is SUPERvision, right?) All of us, including leaders, are self-deceived. By inten tionally questioning their mental models, leaders can remove the distorted glasses and see the same situation in a very different light. According to Charlotte Roberts in Peter Senge’s The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook (p. 239), “This discipline [mental models] offers the highest leverage for change. Though it seems to some to be strictly an intellectual exercise, with little relevance to the ‘real world,’ it is prob ably the most practical of the five disciplines....We see, perhaps for the first time, what we have done to our selves and others through automatic or incomplete thinking.” With new insight, leaders can generate and test new options for their decisions and behaviors. Dennis Hooper is a Certified Leadership Development Coach, helping leaders build future leaders and organizations of excel lence. You may contact him at dhooper2@juno.com. if you are trying to learn that skill, is it? Part of my job as a coach is to chal lenge the way my client’s process informa tion. Our Prime Rib Seasoned to Perfection 1-75 Exit 136 • 987-8877 38863 •Jewelry Repair & Cleaning •Watch Repair •Engraving •Appraisals •Estate Jewelry •Class Rings 478-987-1392 LOCAL Hours: Mon. -Kri. 9:3oam-s:3opm Sat. 9:3oam-2pm MH1.W425 Elected judges have big impact Dear Readers, For the past two weeks, I have discussed issues about voting luws; this week I would like to concentrate on something slightly different - judicial elections. Lost in the swirl of the political mudslinging is the important decision about judges we all have to make when we go to the polls. In Georgia, most judges (Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, Superior Court, and State Court) run in purportedly non-partisan elections, meaning that they have no designated party affiliation. In contrast, the Federal Judiciary are appointed for life and not subject to election. Other states have other mixes such as reten tion elections (where voters decide to either retain, or not, retain a judge, with or without another choice on the ballot) or having judges serve for a speci fied term of years. But, in Georgia, judges have to run for re-elec, ion every six years - Supreme and Appellate Court - or every four years - Superior and State Court. Until a recent United State Court opinion, judi cial elections were extreme ly sanguine - judges could talk about their careers, qualifications, and general judicial philosophy, but the cannons of ethics prohib ited comment on specific legal issues. That all changed, how ever, after a 2004 legal challenge to these judicial cannons restraining judi cial campaigning in the last election. LETTER From page 4A Therefore, neither the employers Social Security “contribution” nor your personal Social Security “tax” is “your” money safe ly tucked away in a Trust account awaiting your retirement. There are no personal Social Security “accounts” and you have no Constitutional “entitle ment” to any Social Security taxes or any other U. S. tax dollars! Bottom line, FDR and the Democratic Party never intended to establish a social security trust fund “for the aged.” The entire concept was a fraud to convince the public to go along with a tax increase while the Nation was still suffering from the “great deprecation”; therefore, all social security “benefits” are nothing more than a gigantic pyramid pay off scheme which is running out of victims (tax payers) to replenish the excess tax money which has been spent year after year. This national social welfare program has been perpetuated by both Parties and it’s about to bankrupt the country and unfortunately; the Medicare “insurance” program is another great .. .s'';, if /" $ 6-month CD $> THE BANK OF PERRY For your convenience, our bank's lobby is open front 9:00 a.m.- Moon each Saturday. Now, it is pretty much of a free-for-all, as the Ist Amendment right of judicial candidates permits them to speak openly, should they so choose. Thus, the “gotcha” poli tics that we see in the cur rent batch of disgusting political ads may soon defile judicial elections making our judicial system target ed for political purposes, instead of electing the best qualified judges. The result of this “new” ii Jim Rockefeller Columnist of our judiciary to assure that “right-minded” justices are elected. Some might not think this a problem, but it is, and you can see this evil cancer in Justice Carol Hunstein’s fight for her judicial life. Hunstein has a long his tory of being involved in championing and improv ing our judicial system and judiciary. She graduated from law school in 1976, served as a Superior Court Judge from 1984 to 1992, when she was appointed to the Georgia Supreme Court by then-Gov. Zell Miller. Her opponent, Mike Wiggins, has been an attorney since 1985 and his most signifi cant professional experi ence has been serving in the Bush Administration from 2001 to 2006; first Democratic socialist pyra mid scheme in the same boat. The Democrats set up both of these tax programs and they are still playing the public for suckers in the “entitlement” aspect and are still getting away with it. Even when their own President Clinton pub licly urged revision, the Democrats did nothing! Perhaps a socialist nation is the goal of the Democratic Party and if a 50 percent or higher income tax rate or a 100 percent increase in “Social Security” taxes is required to finance their socialist programs ... OK! However, there is a way out. The solution is the Fair Tax which allows you to keep all your money, provide for your own retirement, pay the cur rent Social Security costs, and will allow the disas trous Social Security pro- Assessing Your Leadership Skills -SBS/person F«rg(.l ' 1 * Rates an subject to change without nctice. Annua/ Percentage Yield (APY) is accurate as of the date oj this advertisement. Some restrictions may apply. Minimum deposit amount SI,OOO. An early withdrawal penalty may he imposed. 1006 Main Street, Perry • 478-987-2554 www.bankofperry.com THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2006 as an Assistant Attorney General and then in 2005, as Principal Deputy General Counsel for the Department of Homeland Security. Wiggins’ personal history does not describe him having ever appeared in a courtroom. So, you have a well pedigreed Supreme Court Justice running against a judicial neophyte; you would think this would be an electoral mismatch. But Wiggins’ campaign is well financed by the National Chamber of Commerce and Texas PACs, masquerading as Georgia special inter ests groups with innocuous names. The sole purpose of this outside funding is to elect a partisan justice dedicated to supporting corporate and special interests, instead of being an unbiased jurist. Justice Hunstein, then, is forced to respond by raising over a million dollars, many of which will come from attorneys or organizations who might very well have interests in cases that may come before the Georgia Supreme Court. This election, then, will decide the nature of future elections - think carefully about this when you go to the polls next month! Warner Robins attorney Jim Rockefeller is the for mer Chief Assistant District Attorney for Houston County, and a former Assistant State Attorney in Miami. Owner of Rockefeller Law Center, Jim has been in private practice since 2000. E-mail your comments or confidential legal questions to ajrCqrockefellerlawcenter. com. terri tory for judicial elections is that powerful monied interests are lead ing an assault on the freedom gram to be phased out or changed into a real volun tary retirement program free of Congress. It is a pity Jim Marshall is solidly against the Fair Tax and apparently agrees with the Democrat's vlsipn of eventual tax increases, which will turn our nation, both politically and eco nomically, into a Socialist state. Of course Marshall can righteously say; correctly, that nothing like this will happen on “his watch.” where do you stand Mr. Collins? What is your vision for the Nation in this mat ter after your “watch”? Roger Young, Warner Robins Best Cooks In Perry! «*een derby F. Dennis Hooper Certified Leadership Development Coach Building leaders and organizations of excellence (478) 988-0237 dhooper2ySjuno.com Superior Rates! 5.75 * 5A 37722 Member \=J FDIC LENDER