Winning Edge

Our thoughts drive our behavior- -both what we think and how we react to the thoughts that we have. This is obvious on its face. But far too often, leaders fail to adequately consider this fundamental behavioral component. Greg Taylor, professional speaker and leadership coach, has seen first-hand the transformative power of encouraging thoughts in lifting people up and maximizing their performance. Without a leadership model based on positive reinforcement, no one, not team members, nor leaders, nor the organization itself, can be its best. It’s simply not possible.

Taylor is on a mission—to lead and train leaders, to transform and teach transformation, to empower and lead others to spread empowerment. His thirty plus years of successes and failures, of triumphs and bruises, have become distilled into this simple formula: “We help leaders become a better version of themselves.” Taylor knows that when people are transformed in this way—taking their own unique gifts and improving upon them—everyone in their orbit benefits. Superiors, subordinates, colleagues, friends, family—everyone. It is on this principle that Greg Taylor founded his leadership development company, Winning Edge.

Transformation, of course, doesn’t just happen. It takes a willingness to stretch one’s boundaries, to push into, perhaps, short-term discomfort, to do the work required. It takes a mindset that Taylor describes as a “relentless pursuit of excellence”. This mindset is one of Winning Edge’s lodestars. Often when people are introduced to this concept, they envision a goal of perfection. Nothing could be further from the truth. In Taylor’s system, the relentless pursuit of excellence is about daily improvement. Where did we start the day? Are we better at the end of the day than at the beginning? Are we willing to make daily improvements, however incremental, day after day after day? If so, the sum of those small improvements will be large improvements. These aggregated small improvements will, over time, become complete transformation.

Another tenet of Taylor’s teaching is the notion of winning through adversity. Adversity can present itself in many forms. There are uncontrollable, external events and circumstances that must be assessed and managed. There are controllable, often internal in their nature that must be anticipated, avoided, or minimized. How leaders deal with both of these is primarily determined by their thinking. Are they able to use good judgment because their perspective is sound? Can they engender a sense of calm in others because of their own serene leadership? Are they able to unburden to be their inspired best, even in the face of headwinds? The leader’s thought processes are paramount during times of difficulty.

If you were to meet Taylor, you’d be struck by his energy, enthusiasm, and obvious interest in others. His catchphrase “Let’s grow!” is frequently sprinkled into his conversations. These are two simple words that can be easy to overlook, but they really speak to everything at the core of the man. Wherever we are today, we can be further along tomorrow, and we can get there together. This overarching theme is central to Winning Edge’s Take Another Step System (TASS), an Inspirational Leadership Workshop. This program focuses on a step-by-step approach to cultivating the thoughts and actions of leaders and their organizations. In TASS, leaders are inspired, and they learn to inspire. They learn the broad spectrum of concepts that Taylor has developed, but, more importantly, they study the specific and practical ways that they can apply Winning Edge’s lessons to their own situations.

Indeed, that may be the most important aspect of the Winning Edge program—that its services are specifically for YOU. Greg Taylor judges his own effectiveness by the success of his clients. In his view, he has not done his job until a client has learned practical processes that have put them on a path to achieve their goals—one client at a time, one story at a time, one step at a time. For Winning Edge, there is no other way, and a roster of satisfied customers is testimony to its ultimate worth.