February 2019

Page A18 FEBRUARY 2019 FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS S ec t i on A Rose Bequest Envelopes Original Price: $37.50/box Sale Price: $32.00/box Johnstown Hearse Rental and Funeral Supply Serving the funeral industry since 1954 www.jtownhearse.com 800-452-2249 February Specials Personal Urn Cover Available in Blue, Green, Burgundy Original Price: $8.25 Sale Price: $6.00 The opportunity to choose a Keepsake Pendant presents itself only once. The comfort a Keepsake Pendant offers, lasts a lifetime. 14KYellowGoldHeartCross 14KWhite Gold Cross Sterling Silver Heart GoldVermeilSlidingHeart TM www.madelynpedants.com e-mail orders@madelynco.com 800-788-0807 Fax 608-752-3683 call about monthly specials or visit ourwebsite 14KYellowGold Shell Keepsake Pendant Assortment Pendant Known for qualitymaterials and craftsmanship, MadelynCo. Keepsake Pendants are hand-made using jewelry-grademetals. Feb. '19:Layout 1 1/9/19 11:11 AM Page 1 By Mark Bowser The Keys to Empowered Leadership What is Leadership? Leadership can be defined as motivating one or more people to move in a certain direction. That move can be in the form of taking some action and/or acquiring a new belief. So, by this definition, leadership can also be defined as Influence and it also can be defined as Sales. Both are fundamental elements in your funeral home’s success. You may have never thought of it that way. But the fact is, how good you are at influencing others has the greatest impact on your funeral home both internally and externally. LEADERSHIP: THE ART OF INFLUENCING MOVEMENT TOWARD A VISION Effective leadership is the most vital element in any or- ganization. With it you can reach the stars. Without it the murkiest swamp will become your home. As John Maxwell said, “Everything rises and falls on leadership.” So, what is effective leadership and how do we become that kind of leader? I believe one of the best definitions comes from author J. Oswald Sanders who described leadership as “Influence.” Sound familiar? We all influ- Three Pillars of Success for Funeral Directors where we are going and the manager breaks the vi- sion into manageable parts and assigns the tasks to the right people and assures that it gets done. OK, let me throw another concept out there. What does a coach do? A coach motivates, inspires, teaches, pro- vides resources, disciplines when necessary, etc. So, which are you? A Leader, a Manager, or a Coach? The truth is that you are all three. I don’t think we can separate it anymore. You have to be all three. You are a Leader/Manager/Coach. Now, that makes our task a little more daunting in this series of articles, but will make you much more ef- fective and successful in the long run. For the sake of simplicity, in most cases throughout this series I am going to use the terms Leader and Leadership, but when I use those terms, I am talking about all three rolled into one. Until next time…Make It A Great Day! www.nomispublications.com Funeral Home & Cemetery News Contributors share insights and exchange ideas. B logs Excerpted and adapted from the book The Three Pillars of Success for Funeral Directors by Mark Bowser. To get a copy, vis- it http://bit.ly/2NdlyGc Mark Bowser is the Vice President at the Bright Corporation and one of the top motivational business speakers in the United States. He is the author of several books including Sales Success with Zig Ziglar. He can be reached at 1-800-428-6424 or email mark@BrightCorporation.com. ence people every day. It may be as simple as influencing your co-workers on where to have lunch or as vital as in- fluencing your teenager not to use drugs. The first thing I think we need to understand is that there is a difference between an “Influential Leader” and a “Positional Leader.” The Positional Leader has the title. I am the President. I am the Director. I am the King of the country. Well, that is great. But the title doesn’t, in and of itself, make you influential. The Influential Leader may be the peasant of the kingdom or the entry level em- ployee. Influence is about inspiring and moving people into action in order to reach a desired goal. I hope you have the position, but I also hope you have the trust, re- spect, and heart of your people. Whatever your position is at this time, I want to help you develop into the Influ- ential Person that you were born to be. Before we go any further, I believe it is important that we dig a little deeper into the explanations and actions of leadership. Let me ask you a question. Is there a difference between a leader and a manager? There is, isn’t there? OK. What does a leader do? What is the first action that they take? They create a vision. They may not create a vision for the entire organization, but they definitely do for their part of it. All right, what does a manager do? They make it happen. They implement the vision. The leader creates Pape Funeral Home Now Employee Owned Michael Coan and Jen Kruger DANVILLE,IL— Long time employees Jen Kruger and Michael Coan have pur- chased Pape Family Fu- neral Home, the oldest funeral home in Danville, dating back to 1916. The now former owners Mitzi Pape and Rob Pape pur- chased the funeral home when Bob Pape III passed away suddenly in 2013. Mitzi has retired in North- ern Illinois to spend time with her grandchildren and Rob purchased the 610 Tap earlier this year. Jen is a Danville resident, born and raised, a 2000 graduate of DHS, 2002 graduate and valedictori- an of DACC with multi- ple business degrees, and a 2009 graduate of Amer- ican Academy of Mortuary Science based out of New York. She holds a funeral directors and embalmers license in both Illinois and Indiana, and is licensed to sell life insurance and run the crematory as well. Jen owns Kruger’s ATA Martial Arts (located in the former Barrick Funeral Home) with her husband John and holds a 3rd Degree Blackbelt in Songahm TaeKwonDo. Jen is a member and former president of Danville Sunrise Rotary, current secretary and former president of Dan- ville Executive Club, a member of Danville Ambucs, is secretary and member of Vermilion County Funeral Di- rectors Association, and sits on the Lauhoff Credit Union board. She started as an administrative assistant at Pape’s in January of 2007 and worked alongside both the late Bob Pape, and the most current owner Mitzi Pape, who taught her the trade from the bottom up. She is now the youngest funeral home owner in the county. Michael is a 1992 graduate of Catlin High School, a 1997 and 2004 graduate of DACC with degrees in Computer Networking and Programming, and a 2017 graduate of American Academy of Mortuary Science. He is an Illinois licensed apprentice (soon to be licensed funeral director and embalmer). He lives in Bismarck with his wife Kristen and his son Nathan. Michael en- Continued on Page A29 ONE STOP SHOPPING for new and used professional coaches and limousines Dealers and private sellers can list vehicles creating a vast database of cars for sale or lease nationwide.