The Jeffrey And Tracey Info Emporium

Everyone has a unique perspective of what constitutes an “energetic meeting.” Some may believe that an energetic meeting must be lively and fast-paced; others may believe that a meeting is energetic when they leave feeling energized and uplifted.

Regardless of your own personal viewpoint of energetic meetings, you can increase the likelihood that your meetings will be more satisfying by encouraging your group to adopt certain procedures as standard. Here are some key procedures, if you want participation in your energetic meetings.

Clarify Purpose. A group’s clear purpose right from its beginning helps all other considerations and actions to become clearer.

Establish Climate for Sharing. When possible, arrange for participant comfort. Here are suggestions to consider:

• Provide name tags if the group is large or filled with strangers;
• Place chairs for all to see each other;
• Allow everyone the opportunity to speak;
• Protect the rights of individuals to have dissenting opinions and to change their opinions.

Explain Ground Rules. Let group members know what is expected; check their understanding and acceptance of procedures. Ask if they have questions about certain ground rules or give them choices that help them to interpret the ground rules. If the group is new, be certain that the members are involved in establishing these rules.

Set Goal(s). Develop meeting goals with the group and refer to them as the meeting progresses. As goals are reached, be certain that specific individuals and the group as a whole are acknowledged and applauded.

Reveal Agenda. Announce items to be covered and the meeting’s structure and process. Written agendas emphasize meeting focus and hold participants’ attention. When practical, allow group members to participate in agenda setting. Agendas distributed in advance allow participants to think through important items so the meeting is more productive and meaningful.

Be Task-oriented. Focus on the task and not on personalities or irrelevant issues. Be careful, though, not to be so task-oriented that the group overlooks or short-changes interpersonal relationships.

Listen to All. Acknowledge group members and their ideas. Not all ideas must be pursued, used, or evaluated, but all need to be received. Leaders and participants take the first step in showing that they are listening by giving direct eye contact to the speaker. Calling participants by name and referring to the comments they have made are indications that group members are listening to each other.

Monitor the Energy. If the vitality of the group wanes, notice and take actions to work with lowered energy. Sometimes it is appropriate to slow down, suggest silence, or take a break. Other times, it is appropriate to take an action that uplifts the energy.

Reflect Together on both Process and Task. Periodically, talk with each other about perceptions of a meeting or a series of meetings. Ask participants if they are satisfied or want to suggest changes. You might from time to time suggest changes to test a group’s willingness to look at itself. Without a specific time devoted to reflection, groups both participants and leaders can make assumptions about satisfaction of others.

Embrace an Intention of Empowerment. Decide that every meeting is an opportunity for everyone to be empowered. You can meet the opportunity with vitality and inspiration.

As you conduct and attend meetings, you need to use good sense. Each group, each meeting is unique. Experiment to find the techniques and style that produce the most productive results for each meeting.

Copyright © 1993, 2005 Marshall House. All rights reserved. You may save this article, send it to a friend, or reprint it in your online publications, provided the article remains complete and this information is attached. Jeanie Marshall is the author of the book on which this article is based, “Energetic Meetings,” which is available at Amazon.com and through the Voice of Jeanie Marshall web site, http://www.jmvoice.com/books-by-jeanie.html

As a manager, your employees will come to you with situations they don’t know how to handle. When they approach you during these times, they are looking to you to give them the solution to the problem. This is understandable with big problems that have significant monetary and time consequences, or that may have a detrimental impact on your company’s standing in the eyes of your professional community.

However, often the problems your employees bring you are neither this momentous nor are they so potentially damaging. Most of the time your staff members could come up with creative solutions on their own if encouraged to do so. The recurring problem I see is employees who do not take initiative in proactive problem solving. Why? Either they haven’t been told that this is preferable to bringing their problems to the supervisor, or they have attempted to be proactive in solving a problem in the past and have been told their ideas or solutions were irrelevant. When the latter is the case, what motivation do they have to continue coming up with ideas if the boss tells them their ideas are unworkable?

Often, the problems we experience with our employees are ones we unwittingly help create. In the case we’ve been discussing, if employees continually look to their supervisors to solve their problems it’s probably because the supervisors have solved their problems in the past. Rather than encouraging them to find solutions, these supervisors hand their employees solutions. This behavior drains the creativity from the employee and results in frustration, which leads to reluctanceand eventually refusalto even attempt to look for solutions.

Part of the reason many managers “solve” their staff’s problems for them is in the interest of time. Managers tend to have more experience with solving problems and have already discovered solutions that work. Rather than cultivating an employee’s ability to think creatively and allowing time for perhaps one or two unworkable solutions before finding a workable one, the manager will just fix it. The result is a staff that brings even the smallest problems to the manager and a manager who becomes frustrated because the staff cannot work independently. This may feel like parenting a group of small children.

Taking from the example of children, children experience a growing sense of confidence and autonomy when they are encouraged to work problems out on their own. True, not all of their solutions are successful; nor are they necessarily the most cost-effective. But when allowed to attempt to solve their own situations, these children can grow in confidence and experience a greater sense of willingness to try first, ask later. Ultimately, they generally grow into autonomous adults who can think creatively and find workable solutions.

While our employees are no longer children, they need similar encouragement to take a step on their own to find solutions. The most creative, entrepreneurial, and forward-thinking companies are those that are willing to find new ways of doing things rather than sticking with the tried-and-true of their competitors.

Cultivate Their Problem Solving Skills

If you experience frustration at the level of problem-solving ability of your staff, make a commitment to yourself to encourage each individual to find their own solutions first. Do this by asking questions. Questions that begin with how and what are excellent for drawing out an employee’s thoughts on a situation and encouraging that employee to think independently for a solution:

• What have you already tried?

• How would you like to solve this problem?

• What would you do if you were me?

These are excellent questions you can ask to begin encouraging your staff to think proactively. A huge element to making this strategy successful is that your staff must be able to trust you with their ideas. In other words, if encouragement to solve their problems independently is a new experience for your staff, they will probably be uncomfortable with it at first and reluctant to step out on their own. You must be willing to withhold your own suggestionseven if you know your way is the best wayand allow them to stumble. Encourage them when they do make efforts to solve their own problems, but resist the urge to fix it for them.

Encouraging them through asking questions and giving them time to come up with their own ideas will help increase their level of trust and ultimately reduce the number of times they bring problems to you without having first tried to solve them themselves.

About the author:

Dr. Tracy Peterson Turner works with businesses that want to improve communication among managers, staff, and clients. She is an expert in written and oral communication. Her presentations and workshops help individuals and corporations meet their communication goals. Find out more about Tracy and her company, Managerial Impact, by visiting http://www.Mgr-Impact.com

Purpose: Learn immediately if you are fostering leadership or ignoring it. Discover the power of nurturing your people.

It was an enormous redwood tree. And due to regulations the forest service had to go to incredible trouble and expense in order to cut it down. The cutting team had to start by climbing to the branches and removing them one at a time from the lowest to the highest. Once at the top they could cut two foot lengths off of the trunk at a time until they reached the ground. It seems absurd to us that they started with the branches and then disassembled the trunk, a process that took hundreds of thousands of motions instead of just cutting at the base of the trunk, which of course, would have affected the entire tree. Recognizing that the efficiencies of working with the trunk in order to influence the rest of the tree holds true when we wish it to live and thrive, we have the choice to take a different approach - yet, many are attempting to grow branches before the trunk.

Leadership is the trunk. Strategic initiatives are the branches. Benefits are the fruit. This is not philosophy; it is a simple statement of the truth.

- Trunk = Leadership

- Branches = Lean Systems, Sustainability, Decentralization, Agility, Customer care, More.

- Fruit = Profit, Market share, Efficiencies, Quality, Environment, Innovation, Compliance, Low turnover, Prestige, Influence, More.

Are you starting at the right place?

There is no other place to start. An idea in action means people in action. The very second someone exposes their desire for the accomplishment of an objective; the idea is in motion through people. The exposure of the idea is leadership in itself, then the actions of people, whether guided by proper principles or not, is leadership.

There is a misconception that leadership is always positive. It is not. Leadership is setting the example. That example can be good or bad. Either way, that example will be followed. In their book, Built to Last, Jim Colllins and Jerry Porras say, “Top management will have an impact on an organization - in most cases, a significant impact. The question is, will it have the right kind of impact?” A manager sitting in his office all day, not interacting, not supervising, not inspecting, not involved, is setting the example for others. And yet, even if there is a low level use of positive leadership principles, there will still be a certain amount of good fruit.

These results, though limited, will usually follow from the power and validity of the idea, the existing infrastructure and manpower, and the mandate from the boss. The compulsory need to interact with others to accomplish a goal for mutual benefit means that a certain level of leadership capability exists and is needed in every person. The trunk of your business is leadership. Your company’s leadership, with its latent capacity, will piggyback the initiative and produce fruit.

In normal conditions of competition and growth, this present level of leadership is sufficient to produce enough fruit to keep everyone happy and focused on marginal periodic improvements. Due to the fact that the ability to produce quantum leaps in leadership capabilities has escaped corporate America, the incremental improvements created through books, seminars and tapes have sufficed.

Ignore leadership development at your own peril - Apply common sense

We have settled for the less involved leadership development approach and the nebulous results because we feel the need to do something without expending the resources that would then demand a measurement of ROI. In a Society for Organizational Learning supported survey, it was identified that one of the current challenges to leadership is that the “pressure is on for leaders to deliver and sustain measurable results and deliver results through others. (however) Focus of results is ROI, yet there is no measurement of ROI for leadership.” Though there is ample evidence to support the positive affects of properly principled leadership, many organizations are unmoved unless they have internal numbers to justify the expense. The cost of getting the numbers, however, is a barrier in itself and leads to an abandonment of a serious program and reliance on the marginal results of “what everyone is doing.”

Are you fixated on line items and task lists?

Our concentration, therefore, moves to the power of the ideal. Sustainability and Lean Manufacturing are the way to go, or it is our ability to be responsive to the market that is important, or by decentralizing we will produce the fruit we want. No matter the complexity of the strategic initiative it lends itself to a task list and line items. We can assign a person; put it in a pert chart and schedule meetings six months in advance. This black and white constitutes our corporate comfort zone.

We are darn good at it, and it predictably produces results - though marginal. We are spending time on the branches, squatting at the end waiting to see the fruit. We are lavishing attention on the branches, pruning, watering and talking to them. If a leaf sprouts, we know it. If a leaf falls, we know it. We mark it in black or red and continue to stroke the bark and fluff the leaves. All the while, the trunk is left to nature for its water, sun and soil.

The growth of the trunk is out of our comfort zone. Dean Hohl, the President of Leading Concepts Inc. explains that, “The objectives associated with leadership, teamwork, and communication, don’t lend themselves to task lists and line items.” They are nearly impossible to quantify and track. It is easy to rest on our experience that the trunk was here when we arrived and it will be here when we leave. We’ve build hundreds of branches, but never a trunk. We then rely on the latent soft-skills of our people to implement the ideals.

Today we find ourselves in an unanticipated predicament, which is pressing us from several different directions and threatening our viability. Foreign competition, new technologies, and ideals that require a shift in corporate culture all seem hard to keep up with and out of our control.

Acknowledging that we can have minimal impact on our competitors, especially those overseas, and that new technologies are something that are requisite for all to grasp, our greatest opportunity for advantage comes from a superior ability to implement the reigning corporate ideals. Many strategic initiatives, particularly sustainability and lean manufacturing, have drawn us in with promises of incredible fruit and their adaptability to black and white. However much these initiatives look like branches, they are actually part of the trunk.

These initiatives necessitate a sea change in corporate culture. Successful implementation requires the buy-in of nearly everyone in the company, which demands a purposeful approach to changing people’s values; a soft subject. The objective of changing people’s behaviors forces us to enter an arena parallel to that of soft-skill development. Our situation demands that we get out of our comfort zone and figure out how to effectively nurture the trunk.

In order to best control the situation our focus must go back to influencing people’s values. Along with helping people understand and value the power of the continuous improvement of lean thinking or the financial impact of sustainability, we have the complimentary opportunity to develop the soft-skills of teamwork, leadership and communication. If we are going to legitimately jump into this arena and do it correctly, not only is leadership complimentary, it is an imperative.

Leadership is the trunk. Implementation of these strategic initiatives cannot be successful with the existing level of leadership. We’ve reached a point of necessity, which compels us to develop the ability to achieve quantum advances in leadership capability. As necessity is the mother of invention, and invention at this level will be dramatically different, prepare for a method that is as different from standard “leadership and teamwork” development as the telephone is from the telegraph.

Jamie Flinchbaugh, an expert in lean manufacturing transformation, questioned, “How is it that such a low percentage of companies that know about lean can turn it into a success?” His answer was, “because the leadership, cultural, organization and implementation challenges are bigger than most people anticipate.” I will reinforce his message by saying that in order to achieve ideal results you have to put ideal resources towards their accomplishment. Don’t try to put out a house fire with a garden hose.

We no longer have the latitude to rely on an as-is trunk of leadership. We cannot expect that branches of revolutionary strategies can be managed and implemented with existing leadership capabilities. Decorating the leaves will not pass for results. We have to purposefully move the values of people, help them change their behaviors, and work together with them to grow the desired fruit.

By altering our concentration from the branches to the trunk, we are enhancing every ability of our organization. A healthier trunk, means the capacity for, and increased health of, our branches, which in turn produces a greater quantity and quality of fruit.

Now that we are focused on the trunk, we can begin to look at the opportunity of taking quantum leaps forward in the soft-skills of our people. The solution lays in immersion leadership training.

To learn more about how immersion team building and leadership training can help you visit: http://www.leadingconcepts.com

Copyright 2005 Brace E. Barber

Brace E. Barber works extensively with Leading Concepts, Inc. (http://www.leadingconcepts.com) in the field of immersion soft-skill training with a focus is on how to develop leaders, who are prepared for and can succeed under stressful circumstances. He is the author of the book No Excuse Leadership. (http://www.noexcuseleadership.com)

Confronting the issues that hold us back is useful in managing time. We all have fears, doubts, failures, inconsistencies, illnesses, accidents, incidents, and so on. There is no way to escape these negative truths in life. Therefore, what can we do to contribute to our time, is manage it accordingly to life’s limitations and inabilities. If you think you are going to walk through life without something happening to you or someone you love, you had better rethink, since you are letting yourself down and wasting time doing it.

Life is REAL! It is not a game of truth and dare, it is a matter of what we face each day, and sometimes we have no clue what we will face. Time is one of the most valuable gifts that we have and we can use it wisely or waste our time relentlessly. No matter what our current situation something is going to happen and we must learn confrontation skills to avoid complete failure. We can look at many examples in our life, or in our past.

Let’s say we had a time management plan and it was working smoothly, but one fatal day a terrorist attacked our neighborhood, or a storm blew our hard work out the door. What are you going to do? Did you calculate in your time management plan a solution for disaster? If you are not getting off the ground in a short time after these disasters hit then the answer is obvious. What do you do when you fall and break your leg? Does you time management scheme have a solution? If it doesn’t you are going in to set back mode which is obviously going to take longer to rebuild. Regardless of the situation, confronting the reality is the main key to surviving the realities of life. In order to confront life, we must look at all angles of realities that may impose themselves in our time management plans.

In order to achieve a healthy level of confrontation is to understand what it really means to confront your problems. Most of us have natural abilities to face what is put in front of us, but when it comes to situations out of our control…this is when we often loose control. Loosing control is obviously a step backwards in our time management plans. Control on the other hand is having the ability to work toward a future and at the same time realizing that the future promises, us nothing and that anything can happen at any given moment in time. This is reality!

Once you face reality, confrontation will come easy.

After studying human beings for the most part of my life, I observed closely as people denied there faults, feared risks and challenges, intimidated by their mistakes, reluctant to stand up and tell another person they were wrong, and failed to allow them self to control their own being. The source I found was FEAR. Fear seems to play a large role in all aspects of human beings. If we are constantly afraid, how can we allow our selves to manage time? We can’t because our time is being wasted on what we may or may not have control of. Therefore, the solution to diverting a good time management scheme is stepping back and looking in.

Confrontation is telling our selves that it is ok to make mistakes. When we make mistakes, we learn and can move ahead. Confrontations is letting us know that we have the right to confront any problem that steps in front of us, and we have a degree of power to change what has happen to us or someone we love. We have the right to tell someone that there influence is provoking our thoughts, and we need them to stand back and take a look at what they are saying to others. We have the right to stand up for our own beliefs and hold firm in our power to resurrect our selves when accidents, incidents, illnesses, failures, or other negative connotations arise. We have the power within us to move forward. There is nothing in life that can stop us from reaching our goals in life, but our selves and God.

For more great free resources on how to manage your time visit Gabae Time Management.

Also for more informative articles on time management visit Gabae Time Management Articles.

Workplace violence has become a tragic reality today. From minor instances of harassment to homicide today’s workplace is littered with danger.

Violence can be described as the unjust or unwarranted use of force and power. Many people in their workplaces are the victims of violence, including verbal abuse, threats, harassment, physical assault, serious bodily injury and death.

We know that violence can occur in any occupation and in a variety of situations. It can be internal to the workplace, or external, such as from a client or visitor.

We appear to live in a society that experiences queue rage, road rage, work rage, a distinct lack of matters and courtesy, unkindness, indifference and anger.

Violence includes acts of verbal, physical and psychological intimidation.

We seem to live on the edge! Incidences of violence against women have dramatically increased.

Do you have an obligation to protect your Workers?

Most government places a requirement on Employers not to place workers, members of the public or volunteer workers at risk.

Managing Potential Workplace Violence

You business must consult with your workers and other parties to the workplace to develop violence control strategies.

Identifying sources of violence

Identify the tasks, work areas, instances and environments where people are likely to be exposed to some form of violence.

Procedures for identification may include:

1. performing a workplace violence audit

2. reviewing existing accident and incident reports

3. gathering additional information from people at the workplace

4. gathering information from the industry on potential incidents

5. disseminating information to staff to increase their awareness of violence as a hazard and to encourage the reporting of violent and potentially violent incidents.

Risk Reduction Strategies

Some of your risk reduction strategies may include:

1.setting up a system for alerting coworkers that urgent help is required.
2.selecting a sufficient number of staff so delays which may raise stress are minimised and support is available when needed.

You can find more information on risk reduction strategies at www.biz-momentum.com

What to do if you experience violence in the workplace

Any person who is being subject to violence at work must inform management at the first reasonably available opportunity.

There are regulations that require your business to report these workplace incidences.

Your reporting duty generally involves reporting mechanisms to the authorities and government bodies, usually workplace health and safety.

You must be able to demonstrate that you take our responsibilities seriously to protect workers and other visitors at the workplace.

For more information on workplace conflict and violence visit us at www.biz-momentum.com

We haved asisted a number of businesses with workplace violence prevention including up to threats of serious violence against workers.

Protect your business and worker today. By incrementally introducing change, policies and procedures you can move your business a long way toward minimising risk.

Philip Lye is Director of Biz Momentum Pty Ltd. He works with small to medium businesses to help them cut through the maze of people matters. Clients get specific actionable strategies to protect their business interests. For more information on Philip, visit http://www.biz-momentum.com and subscribe to his free monthly e-zine.

Does this sound familiar? You were hired for the new management position. You were tasked to turn the numbers around. You take some time reviewing the current situation. Now it’s time to take a look at the current processes and get your staff together to analyze the data. You tell them that you want to brainstorm; work on a few mind maps, whip out a couple Ishikawa’s to get started and then have them bring Pareto charts relative to their respective functions.

One of your department heads looks at you and asks “Ishiwhat?” “You know,” you reply, “a fishbone diagram.” Still blank stares. “Cause and effect?” you say as you scribble out a trout carcass on your white board. Still nothing. You’re starting to think the elevator doesn’t go all the way to the top. You’ve got your work cut out for you. So you decide to punt. “Ok, let’s just start with the Pareto charts,” you concede. “Sir, what is a potato chart?” asks another supervisor. “Let’s take a five minute stretch break and then meet back in here so that I can welcome you to the world of Pareto charts.

A Pareto chart looks similar to a bar chart. It has columns and it also has a line graph. Generally number of occurrences (frequency) is listed on the left side and percentage on the right. This type of chart is used to graphically summarize and display the relative importance of the differences between groups of data. For example, perhaps you have determined, or at least speculate that your widgets are being rejected due to - improper fittings, defective sorting machine, too large or too small, or other. If you look at the reports or studies and gather data on each of these reasons for failure, you can then plug the numbers into a chart. You may have assumed the reason for rejection was because the widgets were too large to fit through the tunnel. However your numbers may actually show (the data will validate) that indeed there was nothing wrong with the size of the widget, but rather the sorter was bent, thereby causing the good pieces to bounce into the reject bin.

Typically you isolate five categories to measure. A Pareto chart can be constructed by separating the data into categories. Let’s look at another example. If your business was investigating the delay associated with processing mortgage applications, you could group the data into the following categories: No signature, address not valid, illegible handwriting, existing customer and other.

The left-side vertical axis of the Pareto chart is labeled Frequency (the number of counts for each category), the right-side vertical axis of the Pareto chart is the cumulative percentage, and the horizontal axis of the Pareto chart is labeled with the group names (categories) of your response variables. Are you getting the idea? Your bottom row will be labeled: No signature, address not valid, illegible handwriting, existing customer and other. Each title will have a corresponding column associated with it.

Next determine the number of data points that reside within each group and construct the Pareto chart in a spreadsheet program; Excel works very well for these types of charts. The difference between a Pareto and a typical bar chart is that the Pareto chart is ordered in descending occurrence importance.

Once you have your Pareto constructed and you can visually see what the data is telling you, and you will be able to answer a few questions. You will be able to determine the largest issues facing your team, department or business; you will be able to see what 20% of sources are causing 80% of the problems; and lastly you will know where you should focus your efforts to achieve the greatest improvements.

No more guess work. You won’t be needlessly wasting more time and money trying to fix problems that weren’t broken. Call a staff meeting and get to work on your potato, er a Pareto Charts!

Martin is w well-known speaker for Business Management and Event Planning Management. He always hold talks and was always visited as a guest speaker at Event Planning and Business Management. Get more info at http://event-planning.eclicksoft.com

Leadership is any influence relationship that brings about
change…this can be a teacher/student relationship, a
parent/child relationship, a politician/citizen relationship, a
business owner/employee relationship, a community
leader/volunteer relationship and peer/peer relationship. These
ten guiding principles can support leaders in becoming trusted
by their followers and for withstanding the challenges of
today’s ever-changing world.

(1) Leaders must be willing to be highly visible during crisis.

Enron, WorldCom and Martha Stewart…Their greed and fraud have
further eroded trust in people around the world, and as a
result, corporations and business owners are now operating with
a brand new set of rules. Building trust requires a special
effort on behalf of the CEO or Business Owner to communicate
openly, honestly, and often…especially during crisis or tough
times. During a crisis, the stakeholders want to hear from their
leader…they don’t want to hear from his or her spokesperson.
They not only want to hear from the person at they top…they want
to engage in open communication that involves the sharing of
information and ideas, and they want to know that their voice
has been heard. During turbulent times, it is important to take
advantage of all types of opportunities for communication,
including open forums, task forces, breakfast meetings, the
media, one on one meetings, and stakeholder surveys. More formal
forms of communication strategies include the 360 degree
feedback assessment or a full communications audit (which may
take 2-6 months to complete.) The goal is to communicate openly
and often and to continue assessing your communications program
every day to insure that a culture of trust is being maintained.

(2) Leaders must be willing to take a stand- based on their
vision and their values.

This does not happen in a vacuum…leaders must be willing to
admit that they need strong support from an executive coach or a
strong mentor who can guide them to doing the tough internal
work required to shift their thinking and to get off the ego
trip that many leaders live . They must be willing to carefully
explore their values and how they can move their companies in
the direction of a vision that is unwavering. This takes
boldness, and a leader’s stand must be nailed into the ground
and secured with cement…the stand must be so strong that the
leader does not become “wishy-washy” during tough times and in
the face of controversy. Consistency is key, and the leader must
know and believe in his or her stand on a very deep level…from
the heart…not because the public relations director or Chief
of Staff told him or her what to do or say. This is a genuine
stand that is driven by the leader’s authentic value system that
never changes.

(3) Leaders must be willing to be fully engaged with the four
focus areas of their being: physically, emotionally, mentally
and spiritually.

These areas of being must also be congruent with the leader’s
environment. Leaders of today must be willing to be fully
engaged…physically fit, emotionally balanced, mentally tough,
and spiritually centered. Leading a strong life is a quest that
many leaders run from, because it can be tough, but it is
crucial if he/she wants to engage followers in a way that is
trusting. I cannot help but think about Tiger Woods when I think
about leaders being fully engaged. He is an example of a world
leader who is a model of what I am describing. His body is fit,
his mind is sharp, his emotions are solid, and his spiritual
presence is inspiring. He is being followed by young men from
all corners of the world and viewed as an inspiring model and
mentor in the world of golf.

In addition to strengthening the four areas of being, leaders
must be willing to create a strong environment…one that is
congruent with leading a strong life. The environment must be
clean, clutter-free and optimized for speed, efficiency, and
effectivness. The people and network surrounding the leader must
be moving forward and fundamentally strong, and the activities
leaders choose must point to a life that is built for change and
is rock solid. If the environment is not congruent with the
goals a leader seeks, her resources, energy, and effectiveness
will become drained over time, and people will no longer be
willing and loyal followers. They will seek a stronger leader to
turn to for direction and hope.

(4) Leaders must be willing to build deep pockets of social
capital by designing a network based on diversity.

In the book “Achieving Success through Social Capital”, author
Wayne Baker advocates the building of networks based on
diversity, In chapter 2, he states: “Diversity provides the
benefits of multiple perspectives on problems, protection
against groupthink, and enhanced ability to collect, process,
and digest information. Management teams with members from
diverse functional background, for example, perform better than
homongenous management teams.” Building a diverse network is a
crucial step in leaders being able to build a strong business
and personal life. It is not uncommon to see leaders develop
homongenous networks…known commonly as cliques. This is a
dangerous approach, because the network does not develop the
arms and legs it needs to reach the four corners of the globe,
to get the resources and knowledge it needs, and it can actually
cave in on itself, pulling the company down with it. By reaching
into different cultures, ages, geographical locations,
educational backrounds, and belief systems, leaders can build
networks that will yield the biggest results and that will be
sustainable over time.

(5) Leaders must be willing to overcome the growing tide of
cynicism in the business world and define an upbeat style of
leadership.

In the article “A Prescription for Leading in Cynical Times”
authors James Kouzes and Barry Posner, authors of the Leadership
Challenge discuss this in detail. Cynics are evident in every
company in the world. They usually believe that human conduct is
motivated by self- interest, and they have a disbelief about the
integrity of others. They have high expectations of the world,
and they are continually disappointed when the people in their
lives don’t meet those expectations. To begin working with this
challenge, leaders must be willing to drop their own cynical
“The World Stinks” attitude and develop the qualities that
others say are important to leadership such as integrity,
competency, the ability to relate, visioning, inspiration and
the drive the build a thriving and cohesive team.

(6) Leaders must be willing to push the edges of innovation.

I want to begin by talking about the difference between
innovation and creativity. William Coyne, senior vice president
for R&D at 3M once described the difference: “Creativity is
thinking of new and appropriate ideas whereas innovation is the
successful implementation of those ideas within an organization.
In other words creativity is the concept and innovation is the
process.” Innovation always involves treading into uncertain
waters, and entering a new territory can be challenging, even
for the most creative of thinkers. Yet falling behind can be a
great deal worse than taking the risk to stretch and grow into
new markets with new ventures. If companies are to move into the
future, leaders must be willing to push the edges of innovation
each and every day. Executing an experimental venture requires
planning, and it requires revisiting ideas that your company may
have put on the shelf years ago, and whose time has now come. It
is about zeroing in on the best possible strategy, discovering
what systems are needed and what processes will be required to
get the job done and to come out on the profit side of the
venture. Your new offering should meet the demands of your
customers and should be an improvement over the way things are
currently being done. As Nike says “Just Do It.” Start today to
begin the process of innovation, and see what comes about for
the future of your company…you may just be surprised!

(7) Leaders must be willing to show their employees that they
love and care for them.

There is one truth in life that I firmly believe: With the
showing of love and concern, people begin to feel wonderful and
more worthy, and their productivity will triple in an
environment that is loving. The book “Love is the Killer App” by
Tim Sanders focuses on what it takes to create a true “Love Biz”
by the giving and showing of compassion, resources, and
knowledge without the expectation of anything in return. People
will do business with people they like, and this “Love Cat” way
of doing business often strikes an uncomfortable chord with
leaders who are insecure about their own abilities or who view a
show of love, empathy, and compassion as a sign of weakness.
People have to know on a very deep level that their leaders care
about them, their future, and their growth. With this loving
approach to leading, the talent in organizations will grow, and
a sense of self confidence and commitment will inspire
individuals at every level of the company.

(8) Leaders must be willing to listen to the grapevine and then
build a sense of community based on what he/she hears in the
grapevine.

One of my favorite leaders in my local community is Dan Landis,
the Director of Sales and Marketing for St. Joseph of the Pines,
a life care community in North Carolina. He is one leader who I
see as truly being bold…he actively places himself every day in
the middle of the firing line. He spends much of his day talking
to residents, sitting down and eating lunch with them, and
stopping them in the hall to simply ask “How are you…What can I
do for you today? What are the problems you are having? How can
I help? ” He does not stop with the residents. He goes on to
exercise this same approach with employees of St. Joseph of the
Pines. Dan is a leader who is developing a very deep
understanding of the collective issues and desires of the
customers of St. Joseph of the Pines…both the employees and the
residents. He is building a sense of community based on shared
values, and he is taking people to places they have never been
before. Not only does he listen…he acts, bringing quick
solutions to the problems he hears and the desires he knows are
in the hearts of the people he leads.

Every company has a grapevine, and it is not uncommon for
companies to have a grapevine that spreads negative messages,
complaints, and rumors. These messages and rumors can seriously
undermine the morale of any company. Leaders must be willing to
do as Dan Landis does…listen to the grapevine, and use it as a
feedback mechanism to highlight key issues that customers and
employees consider relevant enough to whisper about at the water
fountain and in the community. Leaders can also use the
grapevine to monitor which employees and customers are more
likely to pass information along, so that the impact of the
grapevine can be reduced.

(9) Leaders must be devoted to continuous improvement.

Leadership development is mandatory for CEOs and Executive Team,
but it is also a necessary part of training for every person in
the organization. So many business leaders of today see
leadership development as “fluff” and “soft” but the truth of
the matter is that leadership development can improve bottom
line profits and productivity. By listening to an employee who
is on the front line, and acknowledging her value, a leader can
create loyal internal customers and can bring innovative ideas
to the table which can grow a company by leaps and bounds. By
strengthening team communication, a leader can create a sense of
purpose, loyalty, and long-term commitment to the organization.
One thing to know about leadership development is this: Leaders
must not ask her followers to do what she is not willing to do.
. Many leaders will hire training for their company and will
then refuse to attend the training because they “don’t need it
or think they are beyond it.” This is, in my opinion, completely
out of integrity. The leader must first be a model of what is
expected in the area of training, development, and improvement,
and must be willing to fully participate in a training that the
front line is asked to attend. The leader must develop a culture
that sends the message that leadership development is not
another undesirable task but a new and fresh way to go about
work.

(10) Leaders must have a plan.

The late Christopher Reeve once said “If you don’t have a
vision, nothing happens.” Strategic planning is about the future
impact of decisions made today, and leaders must have a plan
that examines the necessities of today and tomorrow in light of
the organization’s vision, mission, values and goals. It is not
uncommon to find organizations that either don’t have a strong
strategic plan, or they have a plan that is sitting on a shelf
collecting dust. This makes absolutely no sense to me. Leaders
must realize that to fully implement change, to satisfy
customers, and to promote teamwork from the top to the bottom of
the organization, strategic changes must be made that are driven
by a clearly articulated vision, mission, and purpose. Once the
strategic plan is written, leaders can then take the steps
necessary to insure that all stakeholders are in alignment with
the strategic plan and that they are moving cohesively in the
direction of fulfilling the vision and mission of the company.
Many organizations will buy a “canned strategic plan” written by
an expensive consulting company, and they will try to fit their
round peg in the square hole of the canned plan. This is a BIG
MISTAKE! Leaders need to understand that the strategic plan is a
collaborative process implemented by key stakeholders in the
company, and the CEO or Business Owner must be involved in this
process. With a strong commitment and an experienced strategic
planning coach or facilitator, a company can create a solid plan
which meets the needs and demands of all stakeholders.

To be successful you must have a clear and exciting vision of the future. Clarity of vision today will significantly impact your life tomorrow. Olympians in the sporting arena and Olympians in life are people with an incredible personal vision. They wholeheartedly believe in the truthfulness of the old Japanese proverb which states that “vision without action is a daydream and action without vision is a nightmare” so they act on their vision in a very meaningful and significant way. The first step in turning your vision into reality is to set goals. This is such a vast and important subject it is impossible to do it justice in just one issue. My goal is to present to you the most salient points on goal setting and have you setting powerful goals that will catapult you to the life of your dreams.

Goals-The building blocks to your dreams

Goal setting is considered the master skill of life. It is a vital ingredient to living a successful life and your life will always be limited to the extent to which you master this skill. In other words you may be a good, decent hard working person however your level of success will be limited to the extent that you learn to effectively set goals. If you never learn to drive a car or use a computer it doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to live a good life; it simply means that you will be limited to the extent that you can do those things. The same way you can learn to drive a car or use a computer and get better at it through repeated practice; you can learn to set goals and attain higher levels of proficiency by doing it over and over again. Goals are the building blocks to the life of your dreams. Each small goal set and achieved serves as a platform and then a launching pad to increasing levels of success. It is impossible to fulfill the entire vision with one massive flurry of activity however by setting smaller short term and medium term goals you would have put in place the building blocks that lead to the life of your dreams. For example, your vision of becoming a college graduate, depending on the degree you chose to pursue will take between two to five years. It is the act of choosing the college and the courses you will do each semester that form the building blocks that will make that dream achievable and ultimately fulfilled. It is inconceivable to eat an elephant with one big gulp but you certainly could get the job done with many tiny bites.. So it is in fulfilling the vision you have for your life. Yard by yard life is hard, inch by inch life’s a cinch!

Goals- Chose your own

A few months ago my seven old son Brandon, came to ask my advice about what he should be when he grows up. Apparently his cousin, who happens to be round about his age his grandmother and think that he should become a doctor. At this age the little fellow has a liking to red fire trucks and sees himself as a fireman. I once asked why he wanted to be a fireman and he told me that it is so that he can save me if there was ever a fire. How can you not just love a son like that! At any rate he was in a quandary as to what he should do. I reassured him that he can do, have or become anything that he chooses but it was important that it was his choice. In the same way we must not allow others to craft our vision and define the limits of our success, we must be careful not to allow someone else to choose our goals.

Subconsciously, many of us are influenced by a dominant personality or someone we simply want to please. When I graduated high school I wanted to enlist in the Officer Corps of the Jamaica Defence and eventually attend the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in England. My father wanted me to go the local university and study “chemistry or something like that”. I didn’t even like chemistry. I stuck to my guns. I am pretty sure that had I folded and pursued my father’s goals for me I would have missed the opportunity to be a part of Jamaica’s first Olympic bobsled team. So, whatever your goal is be careful that is something that YOU truly want to do. Don’t try to please anyone else because you will spend the rest of your life wondering what would have happened f you had pursued your own dreams. There is nothing worse than looking back at your life with regret.

Goals-Steer you in the right direction

Imagine that you are on a cross-country trip to Florida. If you happen to live in Florida, imagine you are coming to visit me in the Big Apple. You would no doubt have a tank full of gas, some of your favorite snacks and of course the exact address of where you were going. However if you have never made the trip before and didn’t have a map, there is no way you could get to your destination in a timely fashion. Undoubtedly you would eventually get there but only after a long exhaustive trip plagued by detours, going around in circles and retracing your steps. Does this sound familiar? Isn’t it true that this is how some people live their lives? This is a true indication of a life lived without goals. They see the vision and take off without planning their route and end up frustrated and dejected, sometimes even giving up on the dreams because the road is just too difficult. Most people spend more time planning a vacation -making the hotel reservation, booking the airline tickets, renting the car, buying the clothes, (the list goes on) than they do planning their life. Which is more important to you?

Those with goals aren’t guaranteed a nice easy road ahead but at least they are always able to take their bearings because they planned their route. Even if they have to take a detour(we all do every now and then) they know how to get back on track because their goals serve as a road map. Someone described goals and dreams as magnets that pull you towards them but I prefer to think of them as a compass that points along the path to success and ultimately to life you have envisioned. Having a sense of direction and ultimately the opportunity to march in the opening ceremony of your dreams and to live the life you have envisioned is one of the great benefit of goal setting.

Goals - The motivation to achieve. Investing the time and energy necessary to do the soul searching to determine your goals will reap handsome rewards in the powerful swell of motivation it produces. This incredibly powerful tool for success flow naturally when you set goals, compelling you to do everything you can to get better, withstanding distractions and temptations and staying focused on the outcome you have envisioned. When you set powerful goals they live and breathe inside of you. You will get up early and work late. Throughout your day you’ll be constantly aware of what you need to do and you will have boundless energy and an envigorating sense of control over your life because you have the motivational energy.

Action Steps

1. Armed with a note pad and pen set aside about 25-30 minutes of quiet time for yourself. No cell phones or other external distractions.

2. Close your eyes and as deeply and clearly as possible picture what you would like your life to look like in the next 5 to 10 years.

3. As quickly as you can begin to list one below the other all the things you would like to have, do or become. Give no thought to whether you think its feasible or not, just list EVERYTHING

4. Repeat the exercise until you think you’ve got it all down on paper

Keep On Pushing!

Copyright (C) 2005 Devon Harris
All rights reserved worldwide
www.devonharrislive.com

The contents of this E-zine may be copied, reproduced, or freely distributed for all nonprofit purposes without the consent of the author as long as the author’s name, copyright notice, and contact information are included.

For 15 years I’ve taught trainers and leaders and instructional designers the importance of making any learning event more fun. I’ve given them reasons and ways to do it. I’ve written about it many times including

All of the things I have taught and techniques I have used are valuable and helpful.

And they aren’t enough.

The training techniques and ideas all focus on the learning process. And while the process is important; when we focus too closely on a process we can lose sight of the result.

It is like when you tell someone their form is wrong and ignore that they still out bowl you by 30 pins. Or when you tell someone they hold the pen wrong when they write, but they still have pretty handwriting. Or they seem to do something in an unconventional but successful way.

In all of these cases, the focus on process keeps our sight away from the desired result.

So it is with fun and learning.

Will our learning be deeper and more lasting (as well as more enjoyable) if we do things to make the process fun? Of course.

But as I already said, that isn’t enough.

If the person leading the training doesn’t understand why those techniques work, or believe that they will work, they will just be “using techniques” and it will feel just like that to both the teacher and the student. It will be like putting a band-aid over a wound far too big - helpful perhaps, but not really a solution.

So what is the deeper connection?

The Deeper Connection Between Fun and Learning

It is simple. The result of learning is:

• Satisfaction
• Happiness
• Success
• New skills
• Greater confidence
• More security
• Enjoyment
• Fun

The result of our learning something new is supposed to be fun.

This fact is largely why the techniques work - they are putting the process of learning in alignment with a deep human truth. When we learn we are expressing a deep human need and exercising our greatness. When we learn we are doing what we know subconsciously we are supposed to be doing. And when we put our actions in alignment with those needs, it makes us happy.

The result of learning is deep fun, enjoyment and satisfaction.

Too often we forget this - both as students and as teachers. Learning is fun.

Perhaps this article helps you understand why the best trainers seem to make the learning process fun and engaging. Perhaps now you understand why you use those types of ideas. Perhaps you even see ways you could teach coworkers, peers and your kids things more effectively.

I hope so.

But my real hope in sharing this article with you is that you think about your personal experiences and beliefs about learning.

This deeper connection between learning and fun matters to us - and not just because we might be teaching someone else - but because we are learners too.

And we’ll be more effective learners, more productive learners and more successful in our lives when we recapture the joy and yes, fun that inherently comes from learning new things.

Kevin Eikenberry is a leadership expert and the Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group (KevinEikenberry.com), a learning consulting company. To receive a free Special Report on leadership that includes resources, ideas, and advice go to www.kevineikenberry.com/leadership.asp or call us at (317) 387-1424 or 888.LEARNER.

A “first” woman for president in a male dominating (for not saying — a macho) South American world. This is actually happening in Chile to be more precise and her name is Michelle Bachelet. Is this an incident or a trend?

Actually, I shouldn’t write this being from Mars, but how many others would serve this topic here on ezines? And then, the link with management is obvious. If we talk about organizing and different styles, the man - woman topic shouldn’t be left unspoken.

In normal textbooks you will not find this presented. Men and women are said to be equal. But isn’t the saying: “there is a woman behind every man’s success.”

Without digging into academic studies, let’s just observe (recent) history. Not mentioning the facts, just the main “incidents” of the last decades. How many of the involved leaders were male? How many of them were women? Why are women only scarcely at the top? Although…? having men at the top, but knowing that women are behind their success…?

So far, the world has been leading by men. A change on this matter would be very welcome, I think. I have a dream. “There is a man behind every Women’s success.”

Let there be more women leading us. And just see what happens.

Come on Hillary, you are next!

Hans Bool is the founder of Astor White a traditional management consulting company that offers online management advice. Astor Online solves issues in hours what normally would take days.
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