Samurai-Leader

COMMUNICATION - How to Be a Great Communicator

2012-01-05T07:14:00.000-08:00

"Nothing can add more power
to your life than concentrating all your energies on a limited set of targets."

—Nido Qubein: is a businessman and motivational speaker

The ability to communicate is a rare and valuable skill.

Most people think "talking" and "communicating" are the same thing. Yet they are very different.

For those who learn to truly communicate, the rewards are great, both financially and personally.

Those rewards are real and well within YOUR grasp right now, regardless of your age, education, background, or job.

Dear Friend,

No matter how strong you are in other areas, if you are a weak communicator, you just can't expect to be successful.

If you can't get your thoughts and ideas across clearly, succinctly, and convincingly to others, how can you expect to advance... in your job, or in your personal life?

Poor communication skills are the reason why so many people never reach the financial and career goals they set for themselves, and why so many people never achieve their full potential.

But for those who can truly communicate, the rewards are tremendous:
Good communicators are able to exercise influence over others. They're able to get more people to like them and respond favorably to their requests.
Good communicators can help others to understand ideas and beliefs important to them.
Good communicators can lift the spirits of others, give them hope, and bring comfort and inspiration.
Good communicators become natural leaders.
It's time for YOU to master
the art and skill of great communication!

We offer a unique audio program by the remarkable and incomparable Nido Qubein titled How to Be a Great Communicator, that will teach you to become a master of this enormously powerful and highly advantageous skill. You'll discover:
How to get people to want to pay attention to you. (There are three surprisingly easy techniques.)
How to listen. (Most of us are so busy planning what we're going to say next, we don't listen.)
How to build charisma. (You may think you have the charisma of a clam, but the seven strategies you'll learn will turn you around 180 degrees.)
How to make an effective speech. (This one session alone could be invaluable because most people don't know how to speak effectively.)

All of this is organized into an impactful program that makes this critical skill easy to learn. As a matter of fact, you will astounded by how quickly you absorb so much immediately-applicable information.

That's because Nido Qubein has mastered the highest level of teaching. He is an extremely successful entrepreneur, business leader, investor, and currently the Dean of High Point University.

How to Be a Great Communicator gives you an extraordinary opportunity to learn a skill few people have. Learning that skill will give you a huge advantage in life and bring you rich rewards, both financial and emotional.
Get a head start on being a better communicator tomorrow, by ordering this transformational program today!

Sincerely,

Tragedy at Toyota: How Not to Lead in Crisis

2012-01-05T06:31:00.000-08:00

Tragedy at Toyota: How Not to Lead in Crisis
Posted by Bill George | 0 Comments | Filed in: 7 Lessons, Business, Crisis, Leadership

Originally Posted in Harvard Business School Working Knowledge on February 22, 2010

Toyota's ever-widening problems are a tragic case study in how not to lead in crisis.

Under the media spotlight, Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda, grandson of the founder, went into hiding and sent American CEO Jim Lentz to make apologies. (Editor's note: Toyoda has agreed to appear before a Congressional inquiry this week.) Meanwhile, he let serious product quality issues spiral out of control by understating safety risks and product problems. This left the media, politicians, and consumers to dictate the conversation, while Toyota fumbled the responses.

Disingenuous quasi-apologies and disjointed plans for resolution have been Toyota's substitute for crisis response. As accounts pour in about declining quality, the company parades out relatively unknown mid-level managers to quell the firestorm.

It won't work. "You live by the sword; you die by the sword." Toyota's weapon of choice has always been quality, a competitive advantage that prompted many Americans to stop buying GM and Ford brands. Toyota can only regain its footing by transforming itself from top to bottom to deliver the highest quality automobiles.

When terrorists laced Tylenol capsules with cyanide in the mid-1980s, Johnson & Johnson CEO Jim Burke understood his company credo challenged him to put the needs of customers first. Although J&J was not responsible for these problems, Burke nevertheless recalled every Tylenol product from the market.

This is not a crisis of faulty brakes and accelerators, but a leadership crisis. During Chrysler's 1980s crisis, CEO Lee Iacocca took charge, restoring consumer trust and prosperity. When General Motors emerged from bankruptcy last summer, Chairman Ed Whitacre became the trustworthy, determined face of the company's comeback.

Toyota needs a credible leader with a strong, cohesive plan. Mr. Toyoda is anything but. His uninspired words of optimism from Davos only unnerved customers and U.S. regulators. Meanwhile, Ford and GM are working hard to regain the market share they lost at Toyota's expense.

How can Akio Toyoda get Toyota back on track? I offer recommendations based on my recent book, 7 Lessons for Leading in Crisis.

1: Face reality, starting with yourself. Faced with multiple reports of accidents from sticking accelerators, Toyota blamed the problems on stuck floor mats and panicky drivers. Instead, Toyota should acknowledge that its vaunted quality system failed. CEO Toyoda should take personal responsibility by saying that he pushed too hard for growth and neglected quality. By admitting his errors, he gives every Toyota employee permission to acknowledge mistakes and to get on with correcting them, instead of denying reality.

2: Don't be Atlas; get the world off your shoulders. Toyoda cannot expect to solve problems of this magnitude himself. Instead, he needs a crisis team reporting directly to him, working 24/7 to get problems fixed—permanently. He also needs outside counsel, as he appears to be listening only to insiders who are defensive about criticism. He should add the world's top quality experts to his fix-it team and listen carefully to their advice.

3: Dig deep for the root cause. When Toyota's problems first surfaced, the company blamed a symptom—loose floor mats—and exonerated the accelerators. Instead, management should have required its best engineers to get to the root cause of this problem and every other quality problem being reported. This is basic engineering and quality discipline.

4: Get ready for the long haul. These problems won't just fade away. In fact, they are likely to get worse before getting better. Just as the seeds were sown over the past ten years by placing growth ahead of customer concerns and quality, digging deep into problems will likely uncover more quality concerns that will take years to resolve. Toyota must invest heavily in corrective actions while its sales shrink and profits implode, requiring major cash resources until its reputation can be restored.

5: Never waste a good crisis. For all the pain Toyota is experiencing, this crisis provides a unique opportunity to make fundamental changes required to restore Toyota quality. The crisis is melting away the denial and resistance that existed in recent years. Employees are ready for new direction, and they are willing to make radical changes to renew the company. With Toyoda's leadership, Toyota automobiles can be restored to the world's highest quality.

6: You're in the spotlight: follow True North. In a crisis, people insist on hearing from the leader. Akio Toyoda can't send out public relations specialists or his American executives to explain what happened. Having lost sight of his company's True North—its values and principles—Toyoda must come out of hiding, take personal responsibility, and subject himself to intense questioning by regulators and the media. Then he should make a personal commitment to every Toyota customer to repair the damage, including buying back defective cars.

7: Go on offense; focus on winning now. Coming out of this crisis, the market will never look the same. GM and Ford are rapidly regaining market share, while the confidence of Toyota's loyal customers is badly shaken. Toyota cannot wait until all its quality problems are resolved. It must play defense and offense simultaneously. To win, Toyota has to offer advanced features and superior quality, better value for consumers, greater safety, and improved fuel efficiency.

This is a challenging menu, and this crisis is the true test of Akio Toyoda's leadership. Is Toyota up to these challenges? I believe this is a great company that will resurrect its reputation and restore its leadership.

http://www.billgeorge.org/blog/category/7%20Lessons

Five Resolutions for Aspiring Leaders

2012-01-05T06:27:00.000-08:00

Five Resolutions for Aspiring Leaders
Posted Dec 31, 2011 by Bill George & John Coleman | 0 Comments | Filed in: Leadership

Originially Posted on 0 Comments
December 30, 2011

As the New Year approaches, people will be making resolutions to eat better, exercise more, get that promotion at work, or spend more time with their families. While these are worthwhile goals, we have a more important challenge for young people: Think seriously about your development as a leader.

These are tough times. Many leaders of the baby boomer generation have failed in their responsibilities by placing their self-interest ahead of their organizations. In so doing, they have failed to serve society's best interests. As a result, more young leaders from Gen X and the Millennials are being asked to take on major leadership responsibilities. To be prepared for the challenges you will face, we propose the following resolutions this New Year's:

Find a trustworthy mentor: Mentorship is a critical component of your development as a leader. A 2004 study showed that young leaders with mentors were more likely succeed professionally and experience career satisfaction. The essence of effective mentoring is developing a trusting relationship between the mentor and mentee. Identify someone with whom you have a genuine chemistry and who is committed to your development. Although many mentees do not realize it, a sound relationship is a two-way street that benefits both parties — not just the mentee. We suggest looking for mentors whom you admire for their values and character more than their success.

Form a leadership development group: Most of us have little time to reflect on the values and characteristics we want to define us as leaders, the difficulties we're facing, or the long-term impact we hope to have. Forming a leadership development group can give you the space you need to think deeply about these subjects. Leadership development groups are groups of six to eight people who meet to share their personal challenges and discuss the most important questions in their lives. Find people you can trust, and make a commitment to be one another's confidential counselors. Meet regularly, and share openly your life stories, crucibles, passions and fears, while offering each other honest feedback.

Volunteer in a civic or service organization: Have you served your community this year? In the Facebook era it's easy to lose touch with our real-world neighbors. Long hours often cause us to avoid volunteer opportunities. Participating in local organizations — from religious organizations to civic groups — can give you early leadership experiences, provide real connection to your neighbors, and offer opportunities to serve others. It adds a dimension to your life that work can't, and helps you develop and solidify your character while giving back to the community. You will find your time serving a community organization is highly rewarding while broadening your outlook on people and life.

Work in or travel to one new country: "The world is flat," as Tom Friedman puts it, so it has never been more important to get global experience. In the future cultural sensitivity will be a more important characteristic for leaders than pure intellectual ability. John's survey of more than 500 top MBAs found that on average they had worked in four countries prior to entering graduate school and expect to work in five more in the next ten years. Having a global mindset and the ability to collaborate effectively across cultures are essential qualities for aspiring leaders of global organizations.

Finally, ask more questions than you answer: With the high velocity of change in the world, it is impossible to have answers to all the important questions. Much more important is a deep curiosity about the world and the ability to frame the right questions in profound ways. The world's toughest problems cannot be solved by you or any one organization. Your role will be to bring the right people together to address the challenging issues you raise. Our research demonstrates that the biggest mistakes result from decisions made by people without deep consideration of thoughtful questions.

Young leaders will soon be asked to take on major leadership responsibilities in their organizations and their communities. We believe it is essential that they take steps like these in order to be prepared for the difficult leadership challenges they will face. There's no better time to get started than the coming year.

http://www.billgeorge.org/page/five-resolutions-for-aspiring-leaders

The Seven Learnable Traits Of The Fantastically Wealthy

2012-01-02T06:22:00.000-08:00

Written by Jonny August 12th, 2010

The wealthy all have some defining characteristics that have been responsible for their wealth. These are learnable.

Why Read (1000 Words)

The wealthy all have some defining characteristics that have been responsible for their wealth. These are learnable.

The Money Non Secret

I don’t think it is a secret that most people would like to own a lot of money. Most people would like to be rich, have lots of mulah, coinage or dough. However, there is a difference between being rich and being wealthy. The wealthy are indeed rich, but the rich are not always wealthy. Cryptic I know, but stick with me a few more sentences.

You can win the lottery, become famous or earn a huge paycheck and become rich, but not necessarily wealthy. Millions can easily disappear within a few years which is why most lottery winners return to their previous level of wealth within 5 years of winning and American football stars are, on average, bankrupt within 4 years of giving up the game . Britney Spears career anyone?

Having money is not the same as being wealthy, being wealthy is about being able to create money and look after money for many generations. You can be lucky and get rich, but it is unlikely, far better to learn how to become wealthy and ensure you become rich and that those riches will last. Here’s some traits of the wealthy to get you started.
Who You Need To Be

The Wealthy Are All The Same, The Poor Are All The Same

There is a mold for wealthy and successful people, a predisposition some would say. Wealthy and successful people are different from poor people. They think differently and they act differently. Many of us do not share the mold of the wealthy but it is one you will have to squeeze yourself into as money does not hang around the out of shape. The 7 essential attributes that all wealthy individuals, generally agreed by most that have studied the lives of the wealthy extensively, share are listed below.
The 7 Traits

Low Emotion: When it comes to money and wealth, emotions are going to get you into trouble. The wealthy understand this and learn to control their emotions and think logically when it comes to financial decisions. High emotions tend to lower your financial intelligence and it is your financial intelligence that ultimately makes you wealthy.

Immense Boldness – We all have self doubt from time to time. The difference between the wealthy and the poor is that the wealthy face it head on and conquer their fears, the poor run and hide from them. Boldness is not about having no fear, it is about what you do with that fear. Do you let it cloud your judgement and shy away from profitable decisions or do you use it to help clarify and take decisive action when a deal presents itself.

Great Salesmen – Sales and salesmen have negative connotations to most people but this is the very reason many talented and intelligent people do not see the recognition or success they deserve. Most people are just one skill away from wealth – sales. Wealthy people are great salespeople. No one becomes wealthy on their own, and so it is critical to sell your ideas well, whether this is for a company, a product or an investment.

Great Leaders – Great leaders are great inspirers and managers of people. Without exception, almost all wealthy individuals are great leaders of people – of their staff, of the people they work with, of the teams they create. If leading people fills you with fear then you need to find a way to control that fear. No-one creates great wealth alone and no one is going to follow you in your path to riches if you cannot lead them well.

Excellent Communicators – It is communications skills such as writing, speaking and negotiating that are crucial to a life of success. You can have the greatest ideas and the best laid plans but unless you can communicate them well to others and create and inspire teams to help you achieve your goals then you might as well be pushing against a brick wall. The wealthy are great people persons, that is one of the secrets to their success.

Failure Connoisseurs – No one likes to fail, not the poor and definitely not the wealthy. There are two ways you can react to failure, it can defeat you or it can help you to grow. Failure falls on both the wealthy and the poor but the fundamental difference is that it helps the wealthy to grow whereas it defeats the poor. If you wish to become wealthy then failure is part and parcel of the game. There is no wealthy person in history who has not failed and not lost money, it is part of the process. Failing is not the issue, not learning from failure is a problem.

Responsibility Takers – With great wealth comes great responsibility. The life of the wealthy is not all fun and games, they are responsible for many organisations, investments and most importantly people. The wealthy know that when the chips are down then it falls on their heads, they are there for everything, not just the successes. The wealthy don’t make excuses, try to shirk the blame or overlook their failings. They take responsibility for their actions and decisions, whether they turned out well or not. Taking responsibility and being a person of integrity is vital in becoming the person you need to be in order to be a good steward of money.
To Sum Up

If you currently can’t see yourself as one of these people that share these characteristics then some serious personal work needs to be done. These are the skills one needs to develop in order to become wealthy. It takes time, but the payoff is worth it.
Key Notes

The 7 Key Characteristics of the wealthy are that they Have Low Emotion, Have Immense Boldness, Are Great Salesmen, Are Great Leaders, Have Excellent Communicators, Are Failure Connoisseurs and Take Responsibility

Here’s to your foundation of wealth.
Choose: Master Of Money Or Slave To It

If you want to start on the road t
o being fantastically wealthy then look out for my new ebook. It launches shortly so here is a sneak preview on the goodiness you can expect. Click on the image for a larger view.

Help Me Out

I give all this advice out for free and so if you like what I write and it help you, please help me out by letting others know. On this site, it has been scientifically proven that by doing so you will become instantly twice as attractive to the opposite sex. Can’t argue with science.

http://thelifething.com/how-to-be-rich/the-seven-learnable-traits-of-the-fantastically-wealthy/

The Bamboo Oracle —-Chao-Hsiu Chen

2012-01-02T06:05:00.001-08:00

The Bamboo Oracle —-Chao-Hsiu Chen

leave a comment »

Sebutlah sifat bambu yang tidak memiliki bunga dan buah.
Tidak sama dengan pohon lainnya yang senantiasa sombong dengan bunga dan buahnya,
bambu tetap berdiri tegak tanpa sumber kesombongan terakhir.

Disamping berakar kuat ke dalam, bambu juga senantiasa hidup dalam keheningan dan kerendahhatian.

Lihatlah ketika angin bertiup, ia hanya bergesek-gesek kecil dengan sahabatnya dan kemudian menimbulkan suara desis yang hening.

Ketika angin lembut datang, ia berdesis hening,
ketika angin ribut datang ia juga berdesis hening.

Mirip dengan bambu yang kuat dan kokoh karena berakar ke dalam,
demikian juga kehidupan banyak orang yang berakar ke dalam.
Tidak ada satupun kekuatan dari luar yang bisa merobohkannya.

Berbeda dengan orang yang berakar keluar,
orang-orang yang didikte kesombongan dan kecongkakan,
amat dan sangat tergantung pada komentar,pendapat, pujian dan makian orang lain.

Ketika dipuji bersinar cerah , tatkala dikritisi gelap gulita mood – nya …

http://rezapuradiredja.wordpress.com/2009/12/24/the-bamboo-oracle-chao-hsiu-chen/

Innovative Companies Demand Innovative Leaders by Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen, and Clayton Christensen

2011-08-16T05:51:00.000-07:00

Innovative Companies Demand Innovative Leaders

2:49 PM Tuesday August 9, 2011
by Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen, and Clayton Christensen

Forbes recently published our list of the world's most innovative companies in which we ranked companies based upon their innovation premium. But why do some companies have a high innovation premium while others do not? During our study we learned that a leader's everyday actions are one of the most powerful signals to their team and organization that innovation truly matters.

Dozens of senior executives at large organizations revealed to us in interviews that in most cases they did not feel personally responsible for coming up with innovations. They felt only a responsibility to "facilitate the process," to make sure someone else in the company was doing it. But in the world's most innovative companies, senior executives like Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Marc Benioff (salesforce.com), and A.G. Lafley (Procter & Gamble) did not just delegate innovation; they kept their own hands deep in the innovation process.

Leaders at companies with high innovation premiums, in fact, landed at about the 88th percentile on our Innovator's DNA assessment, which measures the five skills of disruptive innovators: questioning, observing, networking, experimenting, and associational thinking. CEOs of average companies, in comparison, scored at about the 68th percentile. Because disruptive leaders excelled at the Innovator's DNA skills, they valued the same skills in other people. So much so that others within the organization felt that reaching top executive positions required personal innovation capability. This expectation helped foster an innovation focus throughout the company.

Apple's performance under Steve Jobs powerfully illustrates that point. During Jobs' first tenure at Apple from 1980–1985, he was personally involved in innovation and helped the company reach an innovation premium of 37%. Jobs, in fact, got key ideas for the Macintosh computer (mouse and GUI) during his visit to Xerox PARC. He recalled "being shown a rudimentary graphical user interface. It was incomplete, some of it wasn't even right, but the germ of the idea was there. Within ten minutes, it was so obvious that every computer would work this way someday." Jobs was so impressed that he took his entire programming team on a tour of PARC and returned to Apple hell-bent on developing a personal computer that both incorporated and improved upon the technologies he and his team saw. Jobs assembled a team of brilliant engineers, gave them the needed resources, and infused the Macintosh team with a vision of what was possible. That's what an innovative leader does.

In stark contrast, the executive team at Xerox lacked the discovery skills necessary to exploit technologies developed in their own company. As PARC scientist Larry Tesler observed, "After an hour looking at demos [Jobs and Apple's programmers] understood our technology and what it meant more than any Xerox executive understood after years of showing it to them." Jobs agreed with Tesler. "Basically they were copier heads that just had no clue about a computer or what it could do. And so they just grabbed defeat from the greatest victory in the computer industry. Xerox could have owned the entire computer industry today." No wonder Tesler left PARC and joined Apple. Innovators want to work with other innovators.

Not surprisingly, during Jobs' hiatus from 1985–1998, Apple's innovation premium plummeted to an average of about 30%. Apple quit innovating and investors lost confidence in its ability to innovate and grow. When Jobs returned and restructured his senior management team with more discovery-driven capacity, Apple's innovation engine ignited again. It took a few years to get things back on track, but from 2005–2009 Apple's innovation premium jumped to 52%.

Similarly, Procter & Gamble performed well as an innovative company — 23% average innovation premium from 1985–2000 — before A.G. Lafley became CEO. But Lafley's focus boosted P&G's innovation capability, and during his tenure from 2001–2009 he delivered on average a 35% innovation premium. Lafley's successor, Bob McDonald, carries on this innovation tradition, posting in 2011 a 33% premium and landing at the number 24 spot on our ranking of the most innovative companies. Lafley, McDonald, and other innovative leaders we studied, consciously set the example by modeling innovation behaviors to help make them matter to others.

As the data suggests, top executives who value innovation need to point their fingers not at others but themselves. They must lead the innovation charge by understanding how innovation works, improving their own discovery skills, and sharpening their ability to foster the innovation of others. Moreover, they must actively populate their organizations with enough discovery-driven innovators to make innovation a team game that translates into tangible and sustainable innovation premiums.

Learn to Speak the Three Languages of Leadership

2011-08-16T04:56:00.000-07:00

Learn to Speak the Three Languages of Leadership

2:24 PM Tuesday August 9, 2011
by Tony Golsby-Smith

I know a senior executive at a large corporation who has a big problem. John is smart and knows the business backwards, but people don't believe in him. They don't say anything directly to him. Instead, they complain to each other. Some say he is controlling; others say he is not a "people person."

John holds positional power, but he lacks the personal authority of a real leader. If you took away his title and his multimillion-dollar salary, nobody would follow him. He will probably end his career as a very wealthy man, but nobody will remember him as a leader who helped them grow.

Let's be kind and assume that John wants to inspire people, but he doesn't know how to do it. How can he get people to believe in him?

In ancient Greece and Rome, they knew what we seem to have forgotten: your job as a leader is to persuade people to do great things in uncertain contexts, using only one tool: your words. Compelling leaders, as Aristotle might say, have three qualities that they express through three "languages":

Agility (or "Logos"). This language is about reading situations and getting things done. John is fluent in this language, but he needs to demonstrate that he is a learner. Words like this will work: "When we made this acquisition it seemed a good idea, but as I reflect on what has happened, three things are changing on us..."

Authenticity (or "Ethos"). Followers need to know that you have deep values and dreams, and they need to hear you speak about hope. They also want to know that you are animated by some big beliefs. Authentic language comes from the heart. An authentic statement would be something like: "When I was a kid, a bully beat me up. I believe that bullies don't belong in our organization. Treating employees like 'resources' rather than people is a kind of bullying. Instead of laying people off, can't we find a way to unlock their creativity right now?"

Empathy (or "Pathos"). Caring for people is a quality John seems to lack. Do you chat with people in the hallways and reveal your own weaknesses to them? Do you invite people lower in the org chart to have a cup of coffee with you? Do you listen carefully? Are you helpful?

It's also important to tell stories about your own lessons in empathy. For example, a leader of a large professional services firm told this story: "We employed a male receptionist for ten years. Every day he left work at 4:45 p.m. on the dot. When he retired, I asked him why he left so precisely every day. He explained that he was the conductor of our national opera orchestra, and he had to leave to go to practice. For ten years we never asked this guy what he did, and we had a genius under our noses. That was wrong. How many other people with great hidden gifts are there in our company?"

In the end, John can become the kind of leader people will follow. But to do that, he'll have to work on sharpening his language skills.

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/08/learn_to_speak_the_three_langu.html?cm_sp=most_widget-_-blog_posts-_-Learn%20to%20Speak%20the%20Three%20Languages%20of%20Leadership

Keeping Great People with Three Kinds of Mentors

2011-08-16T04:52:00.000-07:00

Keeping Great People with Three Kinds of Mentors
10:45 AM Friday August 12, 2011

Anthony Tjan

Anthony Tjan is CEO, Managing Partner and Founder of the venture capital firm Cue Ball. An entrepreneur, investor, and senior advisor, Tjan has become a recognized business builder.

To attract and retain great people, several things need to coalesce. From the extrinsic reward of a salary to the more nuanced (and more important) intrinsic reward of people feeling that they have a meaningful role, it requires thought and a proactive approach to keep talent once you've got it.

One of the most critical elements in retaining great people is effective mentoring. But what does that really mean? The word "mentoring" is too general to capture the specifics of what people need through the different stages of a career. It is akin to saying that people need to be educated — and then implementing a teaching curriculum that is the same every year for everyone. Like education, mentorship requires different things at different stages, including different types of skills and advice, and different types of teachers and learning styles.

Few firms think as carefully about mentorship as they should. So for most companies, a wake-up call on the basics of mentorship is in order. The first step, of course, is just having mentorship as part of your people development strategy. This does not need to be a complex, bureaucratic HR-department process. It should be something people know is embraced as part of the ethos of a firm. It can start simply by having existing employees volunteer to be mentors to newer staff members. And while it can and probably should be communicated out to staff and emphasized top down from leaders, people will believe it more when it is a "show, don't tell" process.

Mentorship, delivered in an authentic manner, shows that you care about employees' professional progression. This basic "I care about you" culture is the foundation for effective mentorship. It requires knowing a mentee's ambitions and capabilities, their successes and challenges towards, and the ways you can help push their ball forward. I've already written about how the best mentors are able to get a mentee snap-shot in five questions. But to put in place a more systematic and thoughtful mentorship program across any size company, it is helpful to differentiate among three types of mentoring:

1. Buddy / Peer Mentoring
2. Career Mentoring
3. Life Mentoring

1. Buddy / Peer Mentors This is the starting point for mentoring, where it is less about mentorship and more about an apprenticeship. During the entry-level, early stages of a career, or when "on-boarding" to a new job, what really benefits someone is a "buddy" or peer-based mentor who can help one get up the learning curve faster. This type of peer mentor is focused on helping with specific skills and basic organizational practices of "this is how it is done here." This can happen to some extent informally, through social and professional networks online and offline. But assigning a buddy day one on someone's new job is a great "I care" practice. This is a high frequency mentor who interacts as needed in those first couple of years.

2. Career Mentors After the initial period at a workplace, employees need to have someone who is senior to them to serve as a career advisor and internal advocate. A career mentor should help reinforce how the mentee's job contributions fit into the bigger picture and purpose of the firm. People don't contextualize the purpose of one's career enough. When people feel that they understand their current role, its impact and where it can take them next in a company, it leads to higher levels of satisfaction and motivation. Note that a career mentor is not necessarily the manager who may be doing the mentee's performance evaluation reviews. In fact, it may be better if it is not. Think of your most respected managers and rising stars — your real people people — who enjoy and are willing to spend the extra time to provide counsel as go to career mentors. In a career mentor, an employee should feel that they have an "I've got your back" advocate and advisor inside the company. Career mentors should look to meet with their mentee semi-annually or quarterly.

3. Life Mentors These may be the most important mentors to have. They can be people inside the mentee's company, but also outside. As people reach mid- and senior stages of their careers, they need to have someone in whom they can confide without feeling that there is any bias. This is someone who can be a periodic sounding board when one is faced with a difficult career challenge, or when is considering changing jobs. A company's alumni network is often a good place for life mentors, but employees should be encouraged to find these mentors outside of a firm's affiliation as well. The senior folks at a company should make it a part of their objectives to be a life mentor to rising stars, and to put younger associates in situations where they can meet some of the firm's institutional relationship network. Most of the better strategic consulting firms do a decent job of this as they make regular efforts to expose current employees to their firm's alumni and other relations. Retention would likely go up in many companies if employers demonstrated that they openly and fearlessly tried to do what is best for the employee — that they saw their employees as being as important as their customers. Companies should want to do what is best for their employees even if that means helping look for a job elsewhere. Life mentors do not supplant career mentors or peer mentors (and in some cases may be one and the same), but they are there to impart career wisdom. And whatever your employer does, you should look for at least one life mentor (if not a small council of them), and ideally set an annual dinner meeting with her, him, or them.

Beyond this mentoring taxonomy, there are many other aspects of mentoring, people development, and retention that could fill a book. In future blog posts, I'll touch on other key people themes and strategies. But start by making mentoring a priority in your company culture, and consider this simple three-part structure to help match the right mentorship to the right stage of professional development.

http://blogs.hbr.org/tjan/2011/08/keeping-great-people-with-thre.html?cm_sp=most_widget-_-blog_posts-_-Keeping%20Great%20People%20with%20Three%20Kinds%20of%20Mentors

Nine Things Successful People Do Differently by Heidi Grant Halvorson |

2011-08-16T04:39:00.000-07:00

Nine Things Successful People Do Differently
by Heidi Grant Halvorson |
8:58 AM Friday February 25, 2011

Why have you been so successful in reaching some of your goals, but not others? If you aren't sure, you are far from alone in your confusion. It turns out that even brilliant, highly accomplished people are pretty lousy when it comes to understanding why they succeed or fail. The intuitive answer — that you are born predisposed to certain talents and lacking in others — is really just one small piece of the puzzle. In fact, decades of research on achievement suggests that successful people reach their goals not simply because of who they are, but more often because of what they do.

1. Get specific. When you set yourself a goal, try to be as specific as possible. "Lose 5 pounds" is a better goal than "lose some weight," because it gives you a clear idea of what success looks like. Knowing exactly what you want to achieve keeps you motivated until you get there. Also, think about the specific actions that need to be taken to reach your goal. Just promising you'll "eat less" or "sleep more" is too vague — be clear and precise. "I'll be in bed by 10pm on weeknights" leaves no room for doubt about what you need to do, and whether or not you've actually done it.

2. Seize the moment to act on your goals. Given how busy most of us are, and how many goals we are juggling at once, it's not surprising that we routinely miss opportunities to act on a goal because we simply fail to notice them. Did you really have no time to work out today? No chance at any point to return that phone call? Achieving your goal means grabbing hold of these opportunities before they slip through your fingers.

To seize the moment, decide when and where you will take each action you want to take, in advance. Again, be as specific as possible (e.g., "If it's Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, I'll work out for 30 minutes before work.") Studies show that this kind of planning will help your brain to detect and seize the opportunity when it arises, increasing your chances of success by roughly 300%.

3. Know exactly how far you have left to go. Achieving any goal also requires honest and regular monitoring of your progress — if not by others, then by you yourself. If you don't know how well you are doing, you can't adjust your behavior or your strategies accordingly. Check your progress frequently — weekly, or even daily, depending on the goal.

4. Be a realistic optimist. When you are setting a goal, by all means engage in lots of positive thinking about how likely you are to achieve it. Believing in your ability to succeed is enormously helpful for creating and sustaining your motivation. But whatever you do, don't underestimate how difficult it will be to reach your goal. Most goals worth achieving require time, planning, effort, and persistence. Studies show that thinking things will come to you easily and effortlessly leaves you ill-prepared for the journey ahead, and significantly increases the odds of failure.

5. Focus on getting better, rather than being good. Believing you have the ability to reach your goals is important, but so is believing you can get the ability. Many of us believe that our intelligence, our personality, and our physical aptitudes are fixed — that no matter what we do, we won't improve. As a result, we focus on goals that are all about proving ourselves, rather than developing and acquiring new skills.

Fortunately, decades of research suggest that the belief in fixed ability is completely wrong — abilities of all kinds are profoundly malleable. Embracing the fact that you can change will allow you to make better choices, and reach your fullest potential. People whose goals are about getting better, rather than being good, take difficulty in stride, and appreciate the journey as much as the destination.

6. Have grit. Grit is a willingness to commit to long-term goals, and to persist in the face of difficulty. Studies show that gritty people obtain more education in their lifetime, and earn higher college GPAs. Grit predicts which cadets will stick out their first grueling year at West Point. In fact, grit even predicts which round contestants will make it to at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

The good news is, if you aren't particularly gritty now, there is something you can do about it. People who lack grit more often than not believe that they just don't have the innate abilities successful people have. If that describes your own thinking .... well, there's no way to put this nicely: you are wrong. As I mentioned earlier, effort, planning, persistence, and good strategies are what it really takes to succeed. Embracing this knowledge will not only help you see yourself and your goals more accurately, but also do wonders for your grit.

7. Build your willpower muscle. Your self-control "muscle" is just like the other muscles in your body — when it doesn't get much exercise, it becomes weaker over time. But when you give it regular workouts by putting it to good use, it will grow stronger and stronger, and better able to help you successfully reach your goals.

To build willpower, take on a challenge that requires you to do something you'd honestly rather not do. Give up high-fat snacks, do 100 sit-ups a day, stand up straight when you catch yourself slouching, try to learn a new skill. When you find yourself wanting to give in, give up, or just not bother — don't. Start with just one activity, and make a plan for how you will deal with troubles when they occur ("If I have a craving for a snack, I will eat one piece of fresh or three pieces of dried fruit.") It will be hard in the beginning, but it will get easier, and that's the whole point. As your strength grows, you can take on more challenges and step-up your self-control workout.

8. Don't tempt fate. No matter how strong your willpower muscle becomes, it's important to always respect the fact that it is limited, and if you overtax it you will temporarily run out of steam. Don't try to take on two challenging tasks at once, if you can help it (like quitting smoking and dieting at the same time). And don't put yourself in harm's way — many people are overly-confident in their ability to resist temptation, and as a result they put themselves in situations where temptations abound. Successful people know not to make reaching a goal harder than it already is.

9. Focus on what you will do, not what you won't do. Do you want to successfully lose weight, quit smoking, or put a lid on your bad temper? Then plan how you will replace bad habits with good ones, rather than focusing only on the bad habits themselves. Research on thought suppression (e.g., "Don't think about white bears!") has shown that trying to avoid a thought makes it even more active in your mind. The same holds true when it comes to behavior — by trying not to engage in a bad habit, our habits get strengthened rather than broken.
If you want change your ways, ask yourself, What will I do instead? For example, if you are trying to gain control of your temper and stop flying off the handle, you might make a plan like "If I am starting to feel angry, then I will take three deep breaths to calm down." By using deep breathing as a replacement for giving in to your anger, your bad habit will get worn away over time until it disappears completely.

It is my hope that, after reading about the nine things successful people do differently, you have gained some insight into all the things you have been doing right all along. Even more important, I hope are able to identify the mistakes that have derailed you, and use that knowledge to your advantage from now on. Remember, you don't need to become a different person to become a more successful one. It's never what you are, but what you do.

Heidi Grant Halvorson, Ph.D. is a motivational psychologist, and author of the new book Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals (Hudson Street Press, 2011). She is also an expert blogger on motivation and leadership for Fast Company and Psychology Today. Her personal blog, The Science of Success, can be found at www.heidigranthalvorson.com. Follow her on Twitter @hghalvorson

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Mitch McCrimmon 5 months ago

Good points but I would suggest a 10th: Review and celebrate successes, even small ones. This is a discipline of regularly, say weekly, listing all the small steps you took that worked well or that you are pleased about. One problem with highly motivated people, in my experience, is that nothing they do is ever good enough, so they are always beating themselves for what they haven't managed to get done yet, while they are actually getting a lot more done than most people. To avoid getting discouraged, I think it helps to rigorously list all the positive steps you have taken. We need a sense of making progress, not just a feeling that there is so much more to do.

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Deep-thought 4 months ago in reply to Mitch McCrimmon

Success, however you define this term, is measured at a snapshot in time! That is normally 'now' yesterday is history and tomorrow is a mystery. Successfull people are without exception problem solvers. Really sucessful people are planners, problem solvers and have a talent to look beyond the horizon. They know they have something good and nobody else can see it yet.. but they can.. it might only be in their minds eye but they are going to make it tangible. Remember you can either catch the wind or blow your idea along using your own. If your ship hits the rocks, swim ashore, look for another treasure map and start digging again. Out of the numerous success stories I have studied Carnegie, Edison, George and Robert Stephenson, Parsons, Armstrong, Charles Goodyear and many many more the abiding quality they all had was indomitable self belief and vision. They could look into the future and see demand for their products and inventions because what they had was the future and a logical step, even if to start with they were the only ones to see it! Bill Gates created an operating program for a computer before the creation of a computer that it could run on. The most important ingredient they all needed was a 'turn on a dime' piece of good luck and without exception they all had one! Don't let your friends pull you back. Most people are selfish and are reluctant to congratulate others on their success. Don't look upon set backs as failures they provide valuable experience and insight that will help you in the future, as long as you learn from them. think of the first person to try and ride a bicycle. Why didn't they give up? What sort of determination must they have had? balance on you wheels somehow and do your best to keep the momentum going. As long as you start your enterprise and can take the knocks and tack your 'yacht' in your wind then you are on the journey of a lifetime. You might just amaze yourself as to where you can go and the experiences you can have. Look for the opportunity in the difficulty and not the other way around! Anyone brave enough to start such a journey is brave in my eyes. don't sell your soul for peace of mind. Be the person your heart tells you you can be! deep-thought@hotmail.co.uk

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Robert Lewis 4 months ago in reply to Deep-thought

A brilliant addition to the original blog. Your most catching phrase for me was,. "don't sell your soul for peace of mind." I think that is really deep, really relevant in today's world and worthy of more debate.

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Mark 2 months ago in reply to Robert Lewis

What is this "Soul' Crap? Not into moral superiority to feel good bro

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Computer Consultant. 2 months ago in reply to Deep-thought

Nice thoughts...but never let the truth ruin a good story...Bill Gates didn't invent or create an operating system...He purchased it and then convinced IBM to license it. His real vision was "A computer on every desktop".

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Oldtimer 2 months ago in reply to Computer Consultant.

Deep-Thought said "operating program" not "operating system". I believe he was referring to Gates' MIPS Basic which was written when the machine was essentially just a prototype. Microsoft was a successful company well before the PC-DOS phenomenon. I'm not a big MS fan, but there's no denying that Bill Gates is something special.

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Deep-thought 2 months ago in reply to Computer Consultant.

Oldtimer is correct. It is important to have attention to detail and to read what is actually said. I said program not system.... I deal in recorded facts.

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Sharmabinay4 2 months ago in reply to Computer Consultant.

I think person didn't think about vision first, they think about mission.

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Base Board 2 months ago in reply to Deep-thought

Chemistry. Everyone on the planet is a slave to chemistry and how it affects the human condition. Aside from all the external issues of pollution and processed food, we have an engine, the body, and it is still a mystery. People react to situations, good or bad, fight or flight and a million other words of description. The point is that words dont capture the reality of the chemistry of the human body. Why does one feel good, or bad, chemistry, or the effect of the release of endorphins, and other chemicals in our body can enhance or tear down a good idea, or a good day. Some consume little bottles of chemicals, a 5 hour jolt, or soda with sugar or fast food with even more sugar. I think that many good ideas and thoughts find their way to the human garbage disposal wrapped in these chemicals.

People do drugs of all kinds in search of a HIGH. The most powerful drug is the one that we create internally and it is natural. We seek for that high by adding chemicals to the mix that have a down side far worse than anyone wants to discuss.

I wished I understood this subject better, and could offer more but I am sure that the people in this discussion can add more to the concept and thoughts.

You are what you eat, breathe and consume. Business, ideas, projects are done better when humans are clear, have the ability to focus and have the power to nurture that internal chemical that can push us to a good natural high and achieve more than we might even imagine we could.

Better living thought chemistry, I heard that someone in the past. So far, it has not worked out. A few hundred years ago the Oxygen environment that our ancestors lived in was amazingly rich, many times greater than we have today. Imagine with our technology that we have, what we could do if we just had real oxygen to breathe, I wonder what marvels would be on our doorstep for tomorrow. Humans need air, water, food and shelter. We have pretty much messed up the first three and the banking system is trying hard to mess up the fourth one. I am not a tree hugger per se, but maybe a few more trees and a walk in the park could do more good than a bag of fries.

comments

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Tmal 1 month ago in reply to Base Board

The better our nutrition is the better our thoughts are.

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isnextmktg 3 weeks ago in reply to Base Board

I can agree with this to an extent as I'm a firm believer of "premium fuel in, premium results out" when it comes to physical performance however; if you look at some of the most successful and driven people in the world, they are constantly pumping their bodies full of garbage.

The mental aspect of one's game - as far as I'm concerned - is influenced by chemistry but not driven by it.

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Lloyd2410 3 months ago in reply to Deep-thought

I really enjoyed reading your piece which contains some warm and wise insights about success and is very encouraging for anyone who has ideas of who they can be and what they can achieve in their lives.

From my experience of having a small consulting business, persistence and determination are incredibly important when you feel like giving up because it's just too hard and you need to pay the rent this week!! If we remember that one piece of luck such as meeting the right person could be just around the corner and only one minute away....keep up your deep thoughts and excellent writing, cheers from Brisbane, Australia.

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Syeda Arooj 3 months ago in reply to Lloyd2410

Yeah precisely, SELF-ESTEEM is very significant.

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capasa 6 days ago in reply to Lloyd2410

indeed, luck could be around the corner, but ... success is when luck is meeting preparation.

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R Branch 3 months ago in reply to Deep-thought

Excellent addition to the article. I love your mention of self-belief and vision. The key is to not get discouraged.

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Rohit Khandelwal 4 months ago in reply to Deep-thought

Brilliantly articulated, shows your clarity of thought on the subject.

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Dianna Howell 1 week ago in reply to Deep-thought

I believe in the process but always keeping the big picture goal in focus. Then each step of the way when you are making decisions they are focused not just on the immediate results but on your long term goal.

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Sharmabinay4 2 months ago in reply to Deep-thought

really nice thought

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Deep-thought 3 months ago in reply to Mitch McCrimmon

"ONE > TWO!"

Are you sick of looking forward whilst always just behind?
Never having quite enough no matter how hard you try?

Still chasing that extra second that's so impossible to find?
Why look outside for answers it's there inside your mind!

It will be your time to shine if you grab it from within
Have belief in yourself and confidence will help you win!

One thinks I will but two never seems to know
One is always focussed but two just lets it go

You must find another second to make another second
Find that second from within and exchange it for a win

So go chase the wind through your hair
Show the whole world, feel the glare, earn their stares

It’s not beyond any of us to make it
If we can just reach deep inside and take it!

Yes you can it’s not about them
it’s about you believe in yourself!

deep-thought@hotmail.co.uk

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Mila Araujo 5 months ago in reply to Mitch McCrimmon

I agree, except I think this is something one can do on a daily basis. Every day take a moment to reflect upon what worked & what didn't. Knowing daily where you are at.

I think this is a great practice. Even the smallest success builds into the big picture. Daily reflection allows for the opportunity to see your success every day and to plan what you can do tomorrow..

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prabhusathya 5 months ago in reply to Mila Araujo

I fully agree. However , adding an additional layer of a weekly review of all the actions and results will have better results. Behavioural patterns can be best understood by dynamic review of events of a longer time period than just a day.

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Cyrus Golkar 2 months ago in reply to Mila Araujo

Awesome suggestion. Thanks.

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Jonathan Main 2 months ago in reply to Mitch McCrimmon

Hi Mitch,

This is a great point and one that I can say wholeheartedly I agree with. Having worked for a number of years with Deloitte in Australia, their current CEO encouraged this behavior; and as such the Australian firm has 7 signal (maxims), the last being "Have fun and celebrate". This signal was described as follows:

We acknowledge the great results achieved each day by the people
around us; we build the Deloitte community and contribute to the
community outside the firm.
To do this we:

- always take the opportunity to celebrate accomplishments- bring a positive attitude to everything we do- catch others doing something right and reward achievement- seek opportunities to contribute to the community.
http://www.deloitte.com/view/e...

I think that Deloitte is a perfect example to highlight what you have said and would be a exceptional case study.At Deloitte they had many opportunities to celebrate success such employee of the month, financial recognition for passing CA/CPA exams, public recognition of staff who had been with the company 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 years etc. These achievements both small and great was always recognized through an end of month meeting of the whole firm (otherwise known as "End of Month Drinks") where these staff were publicly recognized in front of their peers.

"Have fun and celebrate" along with the other signals were also recognized at the end of the year where all the staff voted on their colleagues as to who typified and lived each of the signals - and they were presented with a small trophy as reward! It may seem kitschy, but these intrinsic motivators were a significant driver of the company's successes.

Another point to note is that programs like the one at Deloitte will work best when driven from the top. It worked because the CEO had/has all nine; no all ten of these attributes. And so he would end all of his firm wide voice messages by saying "Have a bit of fun today"!

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Heidi Grant Halvorson 5 months ago in reply to Mitch McCrimmon

Thank you for that insight Mitch - I think that is a great way to keep yourself feeling realistically optimistic, confident that you can make success happen because you do in fact have a track record of success.

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Mitch McCrimmon 5 months ago in reply to Heidi Grant Halvorson

I am pleased that so many people like my comment. But celebrating success takes regular discipline or we forget to do it. Managers can apply this idea by asking employees in all meetings, group or individual, what went well since we last met before moving onto issues. Too many meetings focus only on what didn't go well or what has yet to be done, thus creating a negative, failure mentality. See my article on how to engage employees for more: http://www.lead2xl.com/how-to-...

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Rohit Khandelwal 5 months ago in reply to Mitch McCrimmon

Great article, Mitch. Especially liked your point about focusing on strengths rather than weaknesses of your employees. A few years back I had read the book 'First, Break All the Rules' by Buckingham and Coffman. And since then, their 'don't generalize' theory has stuck with me and helped me in umpteen situations. Your article just refreshed my entire experience with that concept! I recommend that every manager here should read that book, a real management-myth-buster! Cheers

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Patricio Vittori 2 months ago in reply to Mitch McCrimmon

I started to apply this "celebrate success" sessions on my PMs scrums meetings every morning and the results were excellent! You really start any new day with the right foot.

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Samaila 3 months ago in reply to Mitch McCrimmon

Yeah, Mitch. Apart from that, most management texts advocate management by exception: meaning that managers should concentrate on the reasons for not meeting targets and expectations. Which is really not wholly good. As you canvass, we need to know and celebrate what "went well since we last met (even) before moving on to (other) equally important issues. Thanks.

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Manaek Simamora 1 month ago in reply to Mitch McCrimmon

Great point, Mitch! Thank you for reminding. I also have read your article entitled "How to Engage Employees" which is very practical and useful. I will simply starte practicing them at work.

Please keep sharing your insights!

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Ken Rea 4 months ago in reply to Mitch McCrimmon

Nice article, Heidi, sparking off a great discussion. I’m coming at this from the point of view of someone who trains actors in a top British drama school (Guildhall). Over the decades I’ve trained about 1,000 actors there, but only a handful have gone on to become A-list internationally famous names. What fascinates me is: what were they doing that the others were not? You cover some of the answers in your article, Heidi, and Mitch, your ‘celebrate successes’ is of course very important.
What I’ve also found effective, elaborating on your first point, Heidi, is to visualise your goal as vividly as possible. That gives it an emotional as well as an intellectual connection. For example, if you wanted to play Hamlet at the National Theatre, you might mock up a poster with your name on it. I’m sure you all have lots of anecdotal evidence to prove the effectiveness of this approach. I’ll share one with you. One of my acting students had just been awarded Guildhall’s Gold Medal by the Lord Mayor of London. After the ceremony she told me, “From the first day I came in the building I looked up at the honours board and said to myself, ‘One day, my name’s going to be there.’ And here I am.“

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Garcia Janie S 5 months ago in reply to Mitch McCrimmon

Your suggestion to the 10th step was a big Aha! moment for me. Celebrating sucess, however small it may be will enable us to continue the challenge of getting better every day.

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Rachael Olajide 1 month ago in reply to Mitch McCrimmon

Quite Right. I have been reading the new book from The Business Leaders Book Club titled Lessons learned from the recession. In it 60 business leaders from all around the world talk about their recession experience and the strategies that helped them survive and thrive.

One of the things they mentioned was how imprtant it was to SMILE, LAUGH and rember LIFE GOES ON and that sometimes its BEYOND YOUR CONTROL.

Here is a link to it http://bit.ly/mUDyhY

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Pang Hongtu 5 months ago in reply to Mitch McCrimmon

Hello,I am a Chinese student and I am not good at Engish.I am not sure whether it is right or not that I think your comments are similar to the 3th.I can't tell the differences between" regular monitoring of your progress"and" Review and celebrate successes, even small ones"

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Mitch McCrimmon 5 months ago in reply to Pang Hongtu

Pang, My point is that regular monitoring of progress must first review what has worked well. Too many such reviews over emphasize what hasn't worked, what is going wrong and what remains to be done. The danger of such one-sided, negative reviews is that they demoralize people and create a failure mindset. I am saying that both are needed but that a special effort should be made to list all of the positive steps achieved as they are too easily taken for granted and overlooked. What we find easy to do, we discount, thinking it was just part of the job or that anyone could have done it. We say it was nothing, thus discounting our successes and over emphasizing our failures. We are told to play to our strengths but these are things that are so easy for us to do that we think they are really nothing to feel especially good about. This is distorted thinking that leads us to discount our strengths and over emphasize our weaknesses.

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Pang Hongtu 5 months ago in reply to Mitch McCrimmon

Thanks for your explanation.Can I understand that for"Each of the progress is the foundation of success,but what we should do is to focus on those meaningful successes and ignore negative emotions so that we can have an optimistic attitude and be better to succeed"?

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Mitch McCrimmon 5 months ago in reply to Pang Hongtu

Pang, I am not saying we should ignore what went wrong. We need to learn from our mistakes, not to mention take corrective action. I'm just saying that we should avoid focusing ONLY on mistakes, thereby ignoring successes. It's a matter of striving for a better balance between the two.

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Pang Hongtu 5 months ago in reply to Mitch McCrimmon

I see,thank you.

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Smarika Chhetry 4 months ago in reply to Mitch McCrimmon

i absolutely agree with Mitch...

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MARIO NOWOGRODZKI, CPA/CITP 4 months ago in reply to Mitch McCrimmon

Great point here, Mitch. Especially the problem with highly motivated people, that nothing they do is ever good enough, so they beat themselves for what they haven't done. And this happens no matter how much others point out that they are actually getting a lot more done than most people.

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Elias DRIOUCH 5 months ago in reply to Mitch McCrimmon

Thank you for this addtional and important key success. Celebrate a success, even small one, helps us to maintain the dynamic. Also it a proof that our project progresses. It is a very important point in building a self-confidence, the key of any success.

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Linda LaBrie 5 months ago in reply to Mitch McCrimmon

Thank you Heidi and others. I've embraced many of these habits in my own long career (still climbing that greased pole) and in my work as a coach (of lawyers). #1, IMHO, is most critical but I would add - write it down and share it with others - this is how you move from talk to action! Behavior change - small/significant; private/public; personal/professional - is damn hard and a slippery slope. How many individuals do you know who have tried to quit smoking? And, how many times? So, as Mitch and others advise, rejoice and celebrate every inch you move away from comfort to your new "can" zone.

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John_oleson 5 months ago in reply to Mitch McCrimmon

Where do you suggest the celebration ... Morton's or someplace like that?

Forced to be serious, great comment ... johno from tropical Michigan.

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Pittsburghguy 5 months ago in reply to Mitch McCrimmon

Impressive Mitch! Big heads up. As long as people stay focused on the main task at hand, the reward system works wonders. Insentive goes a long way in moderation.

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Npugl 5 months ago in reply to Pittsburghguy

Incentive

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Writ2joy 2 days ago in reply to Mitch McCrimmon

celebration bonds people and they help to remove any form of animosity

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Bhavna Sapra 3 weeks ago in reply to Mitch McCrimmon

Mitch I agree....its important to pat your back saying well done even in small successes. It gives immense energy and will power to accomplish even tougher goals...

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isnextmktg 3 weeks ago in reply to Mitch McCrimmon

Excellent point and I agree wholeheartedly. I am curious though, would you consider the reverse true? In other words, do you find it equally important to conduct a similar exercise after each failure?

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Umar Zia 1 month ago in reply to Mitch McCrimmon

Well very said, I also believe that successful people never loose sight of their goal and consistency with patience is vital for any undertaking!

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Krishan Kumar 2 months ago in reply to Mitch McCrimmon

Mitch added very nice point, when you take retrospective and see what went well it brings smile on face and and gives a moral support...

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Keshabrajjoshi 2 months ago in reply to Mitch McCrimmon

I agree with Mitch. It's a good habit to reward yourself. This make himself/herself feel that s/he has done a significant work.

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Adalumos 4 months ago in reply to Mitch McCrimmon

You really hit the point and should be given kudos for this. I know of a man in my organization, though is a performer, but is never satisfied with that. He keeps scaling up in all he does.

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Michael Corleone 5 months ago in reply to Mitch McCrimmon

Mitch:

The list of nine things..... did not seem too insightful to me. Then I read your 10th idea and it's makes great sense. Simple logic that is so easily forgotten or never realized because how some of us are wired. Thanks. Enjoy the sun.

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Mitch McCrimmon 5 months ago in reply to Michael Corleone

Michael, thanks. Your comment prompted me to re-read the list of 9 things and it occurred to me that the title of this post might better have been "9 steps to goal achievement" rather than talking about success, which is much broader. For example, if success for you is becoming a well known politician, one thing you should do is develop relationships with key influencers. Or if you want to be a great pianist or golfer, you need to practice incessantly. So, the 9 things listed in this post are really about how to stick to your guns to achieve goals rather about achieving success in a broader sense.

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VIBRANTINFOSYSTEMS 2 months ago

I found this conversation inspiring. I recently attended a sponsored breakfast with a motivational speaker and he spoke about goal setting. He suggested each day you put together (in writing) your "To Do" task (no more than 5 - allowing an hour for each - the rest of the day allows for interruptions and quick responses). Then he suggested you number the items by priority. He then suggested you put a $ (dollar sign) next to the items that helped to generate income (for he suggested these are the items one should focus on first in succeeding (be sure to re-check and match the $ sign(s) up with hopefully the first 3 or 4 tasks you prioritized). (NOTE: This breakfast consisted of self-employed/entrepreneurs who's goal was to make X amount of dollars each year). He then suggested as you complete a task you take the time to line through the task (for that would provide a sense of accomplishment and assist in measuring progress) and finally when you completed the task/tasks that helped you to generate income as part of your goal setting you reward yourself in a small way - celebrate when the goal is obtained. At the very end the speaker provided everyone with a 72 inch paper ruler. He asked us to tear off how old you are (some attendee's hesitated - funny!). Then he asked you to decide at what age you to plan to retire and tear off the inches to that age. Those inches remaining represented how many years you had left to accomplish your goals! Real eye opener! I hope you found this worth sharing for I found this conversation energizing, thought provoking and inspiring. Thank you.

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Liju Thomas 2 months ago

Excellent piece of article. Nicely articulated and clear
line of thoughts. I also wanted to add an attribute called
"Stick-to-itness". I have learned the hard way. If you keep getting
exited for each new idea that pop in ur mind and try to get that materialized,
then it’s not going to work. If you have started something know that it’s a gr8
idea then stick to it. Fruits from the labour will come. Be patient.

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Linda Stubbs 3 weeks ago in reply to Liju Thomas

Liju, thanks for your input. I have many ideas running through my head, but never materialize into anything. Articulation of words and thoughts is a struggle for me working at the master level in school. Thank you for reminding me of the "stick-to-itness idea.

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Cathleencgraham 5 months ago

Excellent piece. Optimism and measured ability to focus on things one can do have long driven sucess. Someone told me this past week there is no such thing as CAN'T, but several levels of CAN. Focus on what you CAN do, and then push harder to increase your range of CAN.

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Heidi Grant Halvorson 5 months ago in reply to Cathleencgraham

I love "push harder to increase your range of CAN." Thanks for sharing that.

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melanie 5 days ago in reply to Heidi Grant Halvorson

Rather than "push harder", i like "do your best", and always come from the heart, and we really dont know how long we are here for,.....

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Samir Mishra 5 months ago

Planning the course of Action does help. Before I take a major Task. I prepare a list of things TO DO. Be it travelling overseas, taking a big/small project. This helps me to keep my mind focussed on things that are important (to be done) and not worry about what Not To Do.

I would like to add one to the list:
Keep a Journal. Record even smaller notes in it. That way we can offload our worries to the journal and get on with doing something that matters for our life.

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Mick 5 months ago

Thanks Heidi.

Number 9 really makes sense to me as I believe the mind tends to work most efficiently on images and, as such, finds it difficult or impossible to store a picture of a non-entity or non-action. For example, in telling yourself to visualize not over eating, your brain will strip out the 'not' part and end up storing an image of over eating, thereby enforcing your bad habit rather than reducing it.

My resolution now: stop reading such intelligent, yet addictive, articles that take me away from my work. I'm visualizing that I will get up from my computer and get back to my work :)

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Heidi Grant Halvorson 5 months ago in reply to Mick

Thanks Mick - I think you are right that it's much easier to focus on action than non-action, and far more effective. I hope your resolution worked :)

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Kevincollins_1 5 months ago in reply to Mick

Thanks for that Mick. I read the list and loved it and even forwarded it to a friend.
Then I scanned some of the responses down here until I saw yours and was reminded to stop and get back to three other tasks that are waiting for me.(I just had to take an extra few seconds to write this thank you Mick!)

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Lloyd Fassett 2 months ago

I think this is misleading and potentially harmful because it doesn't talk about how to set goals, what resources you have access to now or over time, or external factors. Are you going to blame the people who have lost their homes for committing to mortgages that they shouldn't have and for falling short of financial goals because of that?

1. There is no context for if your goal is worthwhile. Not being successful in a bad goal is a good thing.
2. The post misses what resources you have access to including preferred connections, resources or a lifestyle that isn't of the grinding poverty type. 3. Most importantly, it lacks external forces that can effect your lack of success, such as a new entrant into your market or team members that sabotage your project, or if you are part of a minority where people who control resource allocation don't like your affiliations.

Frequently, but not always, it's external factors that cause us to fail that we were unrealistic about, were not predictable, or were predictable but the reward was worth the risk. Your 9 points are all fine, after more important decisions are made though.

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Sharon 5 months ago

Thank you for this information which I Stumbled upon. At 56 years old I have finally realized what I want to do with my life and am in the very beginning stages of taking the steps towards that goal. When I look at the big picture I get doubts that I can complete the schooling and also posess the ability to be succesful when done and this post reminds me to break it down into bite-sized pieces. The postings from other people are helpful too. I like the idea of rewarding sucess and journaling every step of the way.

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Cedric B Johnson, Ph.D 3 months ago

As a psychologist I recognize and affirm your observations about the path to success. But the further I go on this journey called life I continually ask myself 'what is success anyway?' To a large degree we define it as productivity of one sort or another. But is it not also fruitfulness, that manifest quality that flows from our true and inner being (soul)? Heidi, the 'nine things' surely will help us reach that goal but the focus has to change from only productivity to fruitfulness. I explore this topic in my blog at cedricj.wordpress.com

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Belinda Epperson 3 months ago

I found this conversation inspiring. I recently attended a sponsored breakfast with a motivational speaker and he spoke about goal setting. He suggested each day you put together (in writing) your "To Do" task (no more than 5 - allowing an hour for each - the rest of the day allows for interruptions and quick responses). Then he suggested you number the items by priority. He then suggested you put a $ (dollar sign) next to the items that helped to generate income (for he suggested these are the items one should focus on first in succeeding (be sure to re-check and match the $ sign(s) up with hopefully the first 3 or 4 tasks you prioritized). (NOTE: This breakfast consisted of self-employed/entrepreneurs who's goal was to make X amount of dollars each year). He then suggested as you complete a task you take the time to line through the task (for that would provide a sense of accomplishment and assist in measuring progress) and finally when you completed the task/tasks that helped you to generate income as part of your goal setting you reward yourself in a small way - celebrate when the goal is obtained. At the very end the speaker provided everyone with a 72 inch paper ruler. He asked us to tear off how old you are (some attendee's hesitated - funny!). Then he asked you to decide at what age you to plan to retire and tear off the inches to that age. Those inches remaining represented how many years you had left to accomplish your goals! Real eye opener! I hope you found this worth sharing for I found this conversation energizing, thought provoking and inspiring. Thank you.

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Raj 4 months ago

Great list of "personal" actions/attributes. But I'd like to mention the social context for success. My observation is that your support group is also vital: spouse, friends, colleagues, and mentors. These form your "cheerleading team." So my #11 would be to pick the right support group, most importantly your spouse and mentor.

How many times have we watched awards shows where the recipient says, "I would like to thank my husband/wife without whose support I would be standing here." It has taken me many years to realize the significance of these words.

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Mabbayi 2 months ago

It's all about "continous" determination to attain a goal.

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Guest 2 months ago

Brilliant article for those who are not that decisive in their life.

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Angela McCullagh 4 months ago

'Have grit' resonates well with the Affirmation 'I have a backbone not a wishbone' and supports tenacity and Focus.

Focus then reminds us to be Fixed On Coure Until Successful.

Fixed on what will be achieved rather than what needs to be avoided
e.g losing 5 lbs instead of not putting on more weight ....
creates an anchor statement

"Where focus goes ... energy flows"

Thanks Heidi - inspiring post

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Jeffrey Manu 3 months ago

Thank you Heidi. One more thing successful people do is Give. Whether it's praying for others, giving their time or resources, successful people are great givers. Stay blessed people

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Ljmitro 5 months ago

I think #9 should really be #1. I am a strong believer in avoiding negatives. When I was younger our coach would always say, if you think "don't fall" then you are more likely to actually fall than if you think "stay up." That sticks with me in everything I do.

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Brad Trice 2 months ago

I think the comments have outshined the original
article. The article lacked any precise or even correct information (IMO), and was an
establishment piece as written by a Harvard mind lacking real world experience.
Success is not measured 5 lbs at a time, and there is no way to define a structure.
Success is in a vision, a belief, and hard work. Either you have it or you don’t.
Success is not something that can be taught or learned. Success is the belief, and
blind faith is the only driving force.

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Ayan Ray 2 months ago

Helpful and motivational ;)

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bradm 5 months ago

An excellent read! Having that ultimate specific goal provides great focus, but I think I'd add have an adaptable plan to the list. Setting milestones and celebrating successes along the way are extremely important. But there's the risk of getting discouraged, or losing sight of where you're going, because you didn't do each and every little step along the way. It's not necessarily those specifics that matter; it's the will to stay focused, plus the strength to tweak your path and adapt your approach. Or as Eisenhower said: "Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable"

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Puneet Pandey 2 months ago

It will surely help. I have always believed that we can be lot more than what we are today, that's precisely what this article talks about. We know who we are but know not what we may be.
Striving to become better makes the journey of life so interesting. Learnt so much from this article, will try to use these learning in daily life.

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Lisasperow 2 months ago

Grear article, and all of the points are valid... however, suggestions 1 (have a clearly defined goal) and 6 (have grit) are, in my opinion, two of the most important. As you mentioned, how do we know what "success" looks like unless we've clearly defined it? Not only does writing it down help to clarify what you're trying to achieve, but it somehow makes us feel more committed to achieving it once we're written it down. I call it The Power of the Pen. I have a little goal notebook that I keep, and I religiously write important goals in it... some are short-term, some are longer-term, and I take a ridiculous amount of pleasure in highlighting the goals in my book once I've achieved them. It's kind of a joke in our house when I put a goal in the book, because everyone knows that if it goes in the book.. I am serious about achieving that particular goal! And then... that's where the grit comes in. Most worthy goals require effort from us when we don't particularly "feel like it." Grit gets the job done.
Thanks for the great article!

Lisa Sperow
www.StartYourOwnSmallBiz.com

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Neo 2 months ago in reply to Lisasperow

Excellent and thanks for sharing.....:)

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Trennie 5 months ago

This is a wonderful article. Be sure to share more. Right in the middle of the nine is #5: "Focus on getting better, rather than being good." How important this must be, especially since people worst enemy is self. Instead of trying to maintain a goodness and feeling the anxiety of doing so or when matters are less than best, know that all have fallen short at times. Getting better may help some people accept flaws and failures as a sense of learning and becoming wiser. Enjoy the day!

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Gerhard 3 months ago

wow! great stuff . after this i was feeling like standing on the shoulders of a giant!

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Sumit Jha 5 months ago

As always, quite motivating piece. thanks Heidi. A common problem though is intermittent arrival of negative thoughts and i read somewhere to constantly ignore it-the moment negative thoughts come into your mind, consciously and constantly try to think its opposite i.e. the positive thought. Initially, it is very tough but soon one gets adjusted-I tried successfully to some extent.

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Sal Pellettieri 5 months ago

Great article! I think a lot Malcolm Gladwell's writing confirms this as well. People tend to think success is natural or inbred, but anyone can improve their situation with practice, patience, determination, emulation and study.

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Deep-thought 2 months ago in reply to Sal Pellettieri

Well said Sal. Having a goal and smaller goals like stepping stones to the larger goal is important. like booking a holiday you have to have a destination in mind. It would be no good saying take me to somewhere hot but I don't know where, the person would be laughed out of the place or persuaded into going somewhere in haste and under pressure that they really dont want to go. You have to decide where you want to go having decided upon your own set of options. Sadly in life it is easy to become complacent and for the mind to go out of focus rather than tune it in. Don't start to drift, you set the agenda and the goals. deep-thought@hotmail.co.uk

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Naomi 5 months ago

#5 has my name on it! thanks Heidi for this simple and profound list!

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liferox23 5 months ago

i really enjoyed reading this. recently ive been thinking about small businesses and maybe in the future starting one... but its just a budding idea so far.

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Varimakako 5 months ago

it makes one to be different from wind as it blows anywhere without a direction. that's quite cool as i am looking forward to read the latest book.

Pascah Ngwarati ,Zimbabwe

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Øyvind Frøland 5 months ago

Good points, indeed, but I believe #2 should be "Create the moment to act on your goals" rather than "Seize the moment to act on your goals"? Just as you should hammer your iron hot, not hammer your iron while it's hot; create the moments for when opportunities arise, don't wait for them to happen.

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Clkalluri 5 months ago

Excellent article, thank you!!

I used to think that things would come easily and naturally to me, if I simply set my mind to them. Ever since I realized the power of planning, I've been working towards my goals in a more deliberate fashion, and going about achieving them as well. :)

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Michael 2 months ago

Great post, self improvement check for any and all individuals who seek and dream of goals to achieve during their lifetime. Most importantly, these checks need to be done daily during an individuals rat race, weather the goals are short, medium or in long terms.

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Deep-thought 2 months ago in reply to Michael

The simple truth is in life we are all held in chains of our own making. We hold ourselves back but it is easier to blame others for our failings rather than taking responsibility for our own lives. We blame the ‘diet’ rather than ourselves when we fail to lose weight.. It’s easier that way!Self doubt and fear of the unknown keep most people living lives they would not have chosen. Routines are the adult versions of comfort blankets. We feel comfortable being able to see (9-5 repetition, knowing how to do a boring job inside out under a boss/surrogate mother) and have a powerful fear of darkness.(Taking personal responsibility for our own destiny and financial well-being /orphan).Planning is the most important thing to do when stepping out of lifes cart tracks and attempting to escape from the invisible cage we have made for ourselves - Our comfort zone. Don’t become a daytime ‘sleeper’ on the job.As long as you don't stop trying nobody has the right to judge you if you are being true to yourself and acting in an honourable manner.
Evolution teaches us that inertia is our enemy and that there is no future in standing still. Keep up your planning and doing and never stop searching. Curiosity ultimately overcomes fear.Don't end up as driftwood floating aimlessly about upon someone elses tide. Work out how to make it beneficial for others to further your plans. In helping others to help themselves you will be helping yourself. Their financial gain becomes your greater financial gain. Its called a business!You win by enabling others to win. Helping them ultimately benefits you and can lead to powerful friendships and peace of mind! deep-thought@hotmail.co.uk

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Vesper 4 months ago

Very nicely articulated post. I read through these articles, but loose track somewhere in the middle. Now, i know where my problem is: "Get Specific". That is my main issue.

Thanks for the document.

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Ashleyscwalls 4 months ago

Creating a life plan is also extremely important to success. Although some people try to avoid planning, it is a good practice! Life plans help to ensure that your actions align instead of contradict.

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Terri S. Turner 2 months ago

Great list to live by - personally and professionally. Sounds like successful people build and update their own personal strategic plan. After all, successful strategic plans don't sit and collect dust on a credenza. They are organic plans that include realistic goals, specific benchmarks that mark progress and outline the path ahead as well as accountability and timeline measurements to stay on track. Guess it's time to move my plan from thought to paper (or screen!) Watch out successful people - here I come.

Terri S. Turner, Business Growth Specialist, Writer, Trainer
TST Business Strategies, LLC
terristurner.com

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Josephryeon 2 months ago

Good idea where is coming ~ good read.

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mischastik 4 months ago

Great post!

Thanks!

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Ghaith 2 months ago

Really while reading this valuable article , I start feeling the differences beteen the sleeping brain & the fully busy brain . It encouraged me
To refresh . And get use of each and every minutes am living .
100% if you decide to success u will, & u can ....

Thanks

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U_Pushpahas 5 months ago

A nice nine fold strategy to success . In practical life , I have actually seen these qualities differentiating between people and making a sucessful part stand out.

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Usman Adil 2 months ago

Great article indeed. Very helpful but needs a bit of discipline and determination to implement.

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Prasanna Kumar FCCA(UK)7 4 months ago

HI Heidi

A thought provoking piece of information. Wonderful tips for people to become leaders. Thanks a lot for giving such highly valuable tips.

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Rokchet 5 months ago

very motivating write-up. Many thanks - Jonah Kangogo, Kenya

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Dmunene 5 months ago in reply to Rokchet

Kumbe wewe pia ni member? Danson

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Mahesh Chimankar 2 months ago

Very helpful

Regards,
Mahesh Chimankar
Infoz Software Solution
http://www.theinfoz.com | http://www.infozshop.com

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nikki luna 5 months ago

I saved this. :) Such a great reminder for us everyday. Pretty basic and simple but we tend to forget these things. Awesome list.

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Birendra Raturi 4 months ago

I am quite impressed with the nine steps and the 10th one as suggested. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

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Japhetsimon 2 months ago

Just recently had a troubled time at work...... and I am glad I did, because I have learnt a lot from it and glad I took the time to log on today.

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Julie Rbailey 2 months ago

How about ... Have dessert first ?

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Manjusha 2 months ago

Two more thing is very important for success is
1. break the big task into tiny manageable task bits.
2. complete one small task-bit at a tim. If task is difficult, be ready with 2-3 alternative ways to complete it.
Manjusha Bhave

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John Kwijuka 5 months ago

Amen.

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Krisna Flum 5 months ago

LOVE IT!

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Rastogisac 5 months ago

worth reading, Please Publish more..

Sachin

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The Secret 5 months ago

Reminds me of the book The Secret - power of positive thinking...
Good read.

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Thobimas 5 months ago

this is just awsome...

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PoulAndreassen 5 months ago

Thanks for the kind words. Another golden article Heidi ....

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Rupesht 5 months ago

Thanks Mitch, the 10th point is really the AHA moment to know from you. Point No3 as mentioned by Heidi is too "too" good, monitoring the entire process is very veyr important. Thank you for writing such a reat article!!!

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Salil 5 months ago

It was really worth reading the set of points and I thoroughly appreciate the 10th point that Mitch shared. Its very important that you celebrate every moment of success however small it is. It keeps you lively and gives you a more positive boost towards your goal. I have bookmarked this site and am just about to share it to all my FB friends. Thanks again from the heart.
-Salil

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rosemarykb 5 months ago

Thanks. I got a lot out of this piece. Many of the points resonated: e.g improving rather than proving!

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Susanotrl 5 months ago

Similar to Mitch's idea, I have written "Done" lists to record accomplishments (whether for the year or month). This is particularly useful when I feel like the "To Do" lists are too numerous or when my self-esteem needs a boost. I've also developed strategies to work on long projects like my dissertation, including having a dissertation pen-pal to share bi-weekly goals and progress, identifying a motivating theme song, scheduling writing time, and coming up with rewards for small inches of progress (e.g., if I write 3 pages by this weekend, I can see a movie).

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nupurmaskara 5 months ago

All set now to do, not rue!

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Ambashankar 5 months ago

Hi Heidi,

A great insight, truly a thought provoking article, I wish you could have included ' intellectual honesty' while appraising oneself.

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Deepak Malhan 5 months ago

Good Article by any standards ,keep it up !!

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Edie Patterson 5 months ago

So helpful-and in my case, timely. Thank you, and the others whose posts are also excellent. As someone who works semi-solo, this is a great boost.

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parthi 5 months ago

Good Read !

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Julie-Ann 5 months ago

Fantastic and thought providing piece! You really point out the traits that make successful people stand out. In the service world, thinking as a “we” can also set one apart. As this article (http://www.upyourservice.com/l... suggests, it’s all in the attitude.

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Diva 5 months ago

I'm adding Mitch's #10 to this excellent list. Heidi's article reframes the way to approach challenges both big and small, both personal and work related. Thanks you to both of you.

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Steinar Knutsen 5 months ago

This is a great list. #1 and #3 are really powerful and often overlooked. Personally, I've found that documenting my goals and tracking progress not only helps me achieve my goals, but often leads to quicker turnaround and better results than expected.

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mindfulsafety.com 5 months ago

Nice read Heidi.

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Halima 5 months ago

Hi Heidi,

Really worth reading!

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danielleharris 3 months ago

What about finding balance? And what is your definition of success?

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iamdm 3 months ago

I love number nine! Understanding that action is the key ingredient to success, innovation, improvement and change, doing is therefore more powerful than not doing. In my experience finding the gaps in a process is only effective when the "Gap" is filled by proactive, productive action.

Thank for the rest of the list to... Great article!

David Mount
http://coretrainingsolutions.n...

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Simple Chief 3 months ago

My favorite part was the statement "detect and seize the opportunity when it arises, increasing your chances of success by roughly 300%." Chance favors the prepared mind. The insight is that if you don't prepare, you won't detect your chance. Brilliant.

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Giuseppe 3 months ago

I'm very pleased I came across this post as I recently wrote a shorter blog post on my site on the differences between an opportunity seeker and an entrepreneur. My view is simple in that one wants to make money off other people's efforts and one will have long term success from their own efforts. You can visit my post at http://www.giuseppe-saieva.com...

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saif 4 months ago

nice work. anyone who want to succeed must adopt these nine things n i assure that he wouldn't fail in his whole life.....

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Matt 4 months ago

Yes. Nice read. Is it bad form to mention that I wrote something similar 3 years ago? http://blog.tsheets.com/2008/b...

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Loraine Antrim 4 months ago

Success comes easier if we not only set specific goals, but realistic ones as well. Sometimes in our zeal, we set an aspirational goal that is so aspirational, it dooms us to failure. Don't set out to change the world as your goal or you'll be doomed to failure, but it could be a nice aftereffect! Loraine Antrim

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Archgone 4 months ago

Hi:
I'm pleased to see another forum that discusses something, rather than another classified-ad string that says 'Hi, I work from XXX to XXX and I'd be glad to make money doing whatever I do, at your expense", but you could add some body to the discussion especially in view of your 'Harvard' reference in the heading. I'd be interested in the responses from capable colleagues.

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Sutej 4 months ago

very enriching!
wondering if someone here can help me on focusing and concentrating while studying.
I am currently doing my undergrads,unable to overcome this hurdle, maybe looking back, some of you could offer worthwhile solutions.

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Ed 2 months ago in reply to Sutej

Sutej - #1 worthwhile solution - don't say "unable to overcome this hurdle" - as long as you think this, it will be true for you, and no other advice you receive will have as much impact as your "redefining" that. Once that is gone your paths will start to open up......not to oversimplify, but getting started is that simple - deciding that you are able to overcome this immediately. # 2 - have a big enough why - if your purpose is unclear, it's much tougher to focus and concentrate. You have to clearly relate your actions to a purpose that really moves you - then it will start to make sense and come together. Let me know how things work out....

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Ajoy Vakil 4 months ago

What a wonderful statement Heidi - "Be a Realistic Optimist" Excellent article - wit!h so many practical / implementable tips!

Ajoy Vakil

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zoltan 5 months ago

Great post. I think goal setting is important in order to get things done. You have to set realistic, but challenging goals though. And, you have to set your priorities and do first thing first. In our society we have so many distractions so we have to really focus on what we are doing to get back on track.
http://www.selfesteem2go.com

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Rajesh 5 months ago

Really good points,tenth point I suggest is Measure your success.

RajeshWalecha
CEO-K MIND MEDIA

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Mr. Sathasivam 5 months ago

This article is an active reminder to caution you at what you do.

Sathasivam, Bahrain

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Saurabh 5 months ago

After reading this article , i can feel a value addition in myself ! However, doesn't it resemble few habits from Steven Covey's "Seven Habits of Highly effective People" :)

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Tarapada Pyne 5 months ago

Thanks Heidi, excellent serious reading!

Just a say (may not sound brilliant in front of so many management experts here) - We have always another track available for derailment in every moment of our life, as wants and successes are very dynamic and moving targets. Human as a whole, with few exceptions, are not flexible enough to conceive, realise and direct self towards his goal to taste success even some in his lifetime. Its again in relative terms given the changing environment of one's search for excellence.

Pyne

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Cathy 5 months ago

Worth reading! Number 5 people are contagious! They are enthusiastic in the pursuit of excellence by engaging in worthwhile acitivities. Number 3 is a good roadmap to track one's progress even better if you have an accountability partner. A thunder of applause to the 10th suggestion of Mitch to Review and celebrate successes. After the delayed gratification comes pampering:)

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genehammett 5 months ago

Great article. I especially like the examples.

Gene Hammett
http://www.linkedin.com/in/gen...

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Reeram 5 months ago

Great artcile

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Rvashisht 5 months ago

This is a great list but there is something more that successful people like Steve Jobs do - challenge the status quo and follow up with their actions. Here are my thoughts on it

http://techceo.wordpress.com/2...

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fajas colombianas 5 months ago

Its all about will power, the more will you have, the more you will exceed in life.

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KBihr 5 months ago

Good insight into how to set goals and achieve them. I would like to see more on how to translate that same philosophy into the business/work setting, with specific examples as well.

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Sanjay Gurnani 5 months ago

A good practical list. Thanks

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Rajan Murti 5 months ago

Thank you Heidi for your insights. An extreme pleasure in refining our knowledge. I believe that success is all about choices one makes in life. Humans, however have an everlasting urge to seek happiness thus the need for us to reward ourselves in each step as mentioned earlier by Mitch.

Cheers

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DS 5 months ago

A very timely piece. Internet has an ugly side. And that is to make you loose focus. Such advises are required, more on regular basis now....Atleast this is how it goes with me.

Deepak Sharma
Sapperworks Consulting
India

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Coachpeg 17 hours ago

The 10th "thing" is to confidently speak to your achievements. Know where you have made an impact in your career and your life and say so. To some it may seem like bragging. To others, those that count in your life, it will expressing your passion!

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Stephen 21 hours ago

Good article! It is true that successful people even if they know it or not will do things differently than the average person,it may be that they take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves or that they make goals and stop at nothing to achieve them!

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Jonyaq 1 day ago

Overly, I also perceive over several below points are of crucial and succeeding motors:

1. realize one's strength both mentally and physically, values and self existence that all can be done if wished and wanted for so strongly.Almost in every single effort, human is lagging behind the pillar and stone;

2. think and plan of what all can do based on potentiality, emotional strength, measure all posibilities and options to select best choices. The more difficult one is the most competitive option and having great benefits later on. This should open one head and eyes to see all options-visionary profile;
3. find ways and approaches to achieve that as well as key resources, both softwares and hardwares. This will bear a very tight schedules and work plans ahead;
4. against those tight schedules, time divide is very crucial one because one will share times amongst so many listed activities/plans/actions;
5. take every timely and quick actions and initiative to implement and work all out;
6. check and monitor all works and plans, programs, activities closely and tightly;
7. get time to take rest, leisure activities to refresh energy, minds, cure some problems;
8. creat large networks, groups discussions;
9. re-do all and repeat all cycles with certain new changes and development. Tnx.

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integritive 6 days ago

Number one jumped right out at me - Get Specific. This is probably one of the easiest, and yet, often overlooked ways to achieve your goals. We use goal cards to set down in writing our personal and professional goals, and then we have something tangible to remind us of what we're working towards. It's also a great reward mechanism for once you reach a goal, you have that card as proof of what you've accomplished!

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Terry Schmidt 1 week ago

There is much to be said about letting go of dusty, obsolete, and inappropriate goals. When I left the Harvard Business School my career goal was to become Secretary of Defense or a senator from Washington state. And I started that quest in Washington DC. But funny thing --- after a few years, the appeal of this goal declined as I discovered new arenas for adventure. So it was clear that was not the goal to put my passion into. However a nagging voice told me that somehow I blew it, failed, copped out. So what had one been a motivating goal now became an obstacle to moving forward. All of which is a reminder to scrub your lists on occasion. Forty years later, my goals are more modest, and have to do with supporting others and giving back to the system which has been so good to me.

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Subbarao Ganaparthi 1 week ago

yeh i agree with what writter addressed on how to be successfull with nine insightfull things.and moreover i like one quote that success should be celebrated even whether it is small .apart from that i dont know precisely the information which has been printed on bill gates giant ms.eventually what i learnt from the above is keep knowing is not enough but keep doing to achieve we want is enough thing.meanwhile we must be aware of what to do and not to do.however i heartly congratulate you sir.

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Mr M.R. 1 week ago

Given that the Roman Empire lasted what around 500 years and the British Empire say nearly 300 years why is it that the American empire is on its last legs in less than 70 years? Could it be because of all these self-deluding Harvard Business School platitudes. For an empire to postulate so dynamically and freely yet bring itself to its knees through its own failures so quickly surely takes a rare kind of mindset. Might it be that all this Business School think is blinding Americans from the reality of how the real world works.

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Davidb 1 week ago

Nice blog. However, the most important thing that I have learned from successful people in business is this: Don't try, Do. It is alright to fail as long as you learn from your failure, but to try, is just an excuse to fail.
How many times have you given a difficult task to an employee and heard from that employee, "I don't know, but I will try."
Those are the employees that will remain employees, while the employees with a can do attitude will succeed.

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Jeremy L. Hamilton 2 weeks ago

Excellent article.... If you dont go you will never know

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Y S Ganesh 2 weeks ago

Very good article nice investigation. Good guidelines to inculcate. To keep grit what motivates the successful people.In pursuits where end results are not predictable (say an new venture/ occupation/ new study/ new project ) where more ifs are seen how to develop grit ?
needs little substantiation.To take risk what kind of grit is needed?
Old adage " Have patience to be courageous". Have courage to be patience. This is enough or anything more when it comes to grit?
Good wishes,

Y.S.Ganesh

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Dsprenkle 4 weeks ago

I have noticed in my sales experience that probably the hardest but greatest skill for me to really encompass the meaning of: Active Listening. Whether it be out in the field with current clients, potential new business or with my sales team. To activly listen has changed how I respond to every conversations.

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DragonLeaders 4 weeks ago

Great article: sound advice with grounded principles. Particularly like: "hinking things will come to you easily and
effortlessly leaves you ill-prepared for the journey ahead, and
significantly increases the odds of failure." This should make those self-made "gurus" in self-help think more carefully.

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Shyam Panchavati 1 month ago

Switch off and indulge

Pursuing goals is a stressful experience, and carrying it forward to the next day often adversely affects your capacity to deliver.Night sleep doesn't exactly make you fresh, it is not a break mentally or psychologically.

To rejuvenate your energies, you need to switch off and indulge.Earmark a time (an hour) early in the day to do things that in no way compliment you goals.Just be indulgent to yourself.celebrate being yourself.do things that you enjoy doing,do things that make you happy.let not rules inhibit you, break them.Emote in a way that best suits you do it everyday preferably at the same tiem and see the difference.

You will find your energies elevated to the levels unimaginable.And the results will speak for themselves. You will find more details in my article.

IF ETERNAL IS YOUR DESTINATION, THE PATH LIES WITHIN....

http://capacitybuildingdevelop...

Shyam

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wwespot 1 month ago

Great to read this article, thanks for sharing this. This is true that "Winners Don't do different things, but they do things Differently - by Shiv Khera"

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Search_census 1 month ago

9 things to success, 10 things to leadership, 50 ways to independence, 22 steps to integrity, all those crap, i wonder if this is self actualization for authors who write these. or they just want attention. -.-

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Stanley 1 month ago

One major thing I have read about success or reaching a goal is this; winners are willing to endure pain and suffering to reach their goals. I have read Gordon Ramsay's and Marco White's autobiographies and these great chefs when they were starting out would show up early for work and leave late, show up for work on their days off to become better chefs, and stand out in the cold and do a job when no one else would. This would demonstrate their absolute seriousness, a thing I have termed " signaling ". This would attract the attention of their head chef, and they would be given advice and opportunities that other workers wouldn't.

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Socialalertz 1 month ago

This a great read, I am making changes based on this article immediately.

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Craig Hohnberger 1 month ago

Great article Heidi and great additional comments. Grit is huge! I know so many people with so much talent that give up and move to the next great idea before fulfilling the promise of the thing they are working in now and they end up spinning their wheels for another cycle. And yes, Mitch, celebrating successes is extremely important. I do a "gratitude journal" in the evenings as I plan my next day and have to have at least 7 things I am grateful for that happened that day. Forces me to look for the good throughout the day, no matter how challenging the day is.

Craig Hohnberger

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Rachael Olajide 1 month ago

I like this article. It all makes perfect sense. Often what we need to adapt from successful people is the way they think and the way the methods they adopt.

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Nani1052005 1 month ago

really nice one........please post goood articles if anybody have.....

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Billionaire 1 month ago

Heidi is quite right as are most of the posters when it comes to getting the keys to unlock success.

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MyCollegesandCareers 1 month ago

Great list, I especially agree with #9. Focusing on what we can do to improve will help us look forward optimistically rather than dwelling negatively on our shortcomings.

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Halil Özgür 1 month ago

Extremely useful list. I especially like speech if it provides something both new and practical, combined with nice wording (e.g. Build your willpower muscle). We are neither powerless nor absolutely powerful. Everything is normally gradual.

As usual with such lists however, its utility only grows as you follow more and more points from it.

PS: I'm not a native English speaker and I don't want to be a smart-a** but, shouldn't there be a "how" or something in the last sentence of the point #8?

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Binnybhogal 2 months ago

worth reading,,,this article motivated me when i really wnt it

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Frehiwot tamru 2 months ago

Frehiwot from Ethiopia,

Thank you so much it is very helpful. All the nine points contribute for our success and failure one way or the other. we may not necessarily fulfill all the nine points to be successful, they are nice checklist to ease our progress towards to success....

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Katrina 2 months ago

I agree with the points discussed in this article--especially the first one (get specific). Many people fail to realize that they are not being very specific about their goals in life. I personally found most of my goals very vague until this was brought to my attention.

Katrina Bea
Internet Marketing Personnel
New Media Services Pty. Ltd.

Web and Mobile Support Services Provider
http://www.newmediaservices.co...

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Gil Pizano 2 months ago

A really refreshing article! I personally never tire of reading such posts. What can be tiring is when people attempt to "short-cut the short-cut" and not do some of the basics that can be done in order to achieve success in whatever they are attempting to do. Those very basic items are what this article talks about. Thanks for sharing this post with us Heidi!

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uvtlv 2 months ago

good!!! like it
you sould read this blog about "the list" a tool for good life
http://the-list.co.il/en/?page...

and here...
http://the-list.co.il/en/?phot...

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Munish 2 months ago

Hi,

Sorry for being contrarian! But, I do not entirely agree with too much emphasis being on success that too by "being focussed", especially through 9 points like stratgies (or 5 points, 6 points, 7 points....). We all know, "being focussed" and "getting things done" come at the cost of "sustainability" and "leaving someone behind through illegitimate/unethical ways( others may or may not be aware of them). I request the authors not to propound "one sided reality" as it is creating more harm than good, when we start looking at things at macro level: both in space and time.

Sorry for being contrary words but felt like expressing!

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Eric Bonnici 2 months ago

This is an awesome article! I feel bringing the last point into your conscious awareness is critical. That's because it's easy (and often done without thinking) to focus on what you won't or don't want to do. I also like the idea of keeping things realistic. This article is definitely going into my bookmarks of favorites. Have a great day and thanks.

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Charles Oh 2 months ago

Good Job

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Mmelihh 2 months ago

Very nice & effective suggestions, thank you

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Vivek_nair25 2 months ago

I am pretty impressed and motivated the way the writer had jotted things

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Richard Hawkins 2 months ago

Good article and comments. In addition to what was said I find that successful people focus on their strengths. They accept the fact that they can't be good at everything and surround themselves with people who have complimentary skills. Great technicians don't try to sell. Great sales people don't try to write code, and so on.

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Sujata Aghor 2 months ago

Wonderful Article!!!
I myself follow many things from this, but i get inspired to improve more with these guidelines.

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Mzmazad 2 months ago

Recommended to read....it's a nice one.

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Tharindu 2 months ago

Good post. Also i would agree on "Mitch McCrimmon" 10th suggestion : Review and celebrate successes. Its really help you to achieve more big goals ahead in the future. When you appreciate, celebrates your inner mind always be willing to drive you to that goal.

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Roger 2 months ago

Nice Post!! Enjoyed reading it!!! Will try to put it to practice.

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Saket Vohra 2 months ago

Its good piece of thoughts put together..i must share being specific in your conversations does help in yr persnl n professional front as well.

Good Post!

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Gosh89 2 months ago

The problem of today's society is that we are having too many goals. Most of them bigger than achievable or even realistic. We know it in back of our mind and we think it might happened if we only wish for it. The reality is that we are living in a real world and if we take two steps forward we will only go two steps forward while our feet is on the ground.

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Rizwan Qureshi 2 months ago

very nice, well researched article....

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Dave Smith 2 months ago

I'm not an advocate for goal-setting. It doesn't work for most of the people, most of the time..it's fine for competitive people, but what of those folks who feel no need to compete? What of those folks who have ambition in life that cannot be measured?

For example, if your 'goal' is to become a better father, how can you quantify that? What if your 'goal' if to live a peaceful life? How can you measure that? This competitive/win/overcome/beat attitude only exists in about 15% of the population. For them, goal-setting is fine, for the rest, it's just an unwelcome distraction from living a cool and fulfilling life.

"There is only one true success. To be able to live your own life, in your own way.
-Christopher Morely

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Bholland 2 months ago in reply to Dave Smith

Goals which might help you be a better father (from my personal observation that the biggest issue most men have with children is that they do not pay attention to their children when the children ask for attention, but when they themselves are 'ready' to attend to their children):
- As soon as I get in from work I will kiss my children- At dinner, at least once a week, I will ask my kids 'what was the best thing which happened to you today?' and I will listen to the answer and contribute at least two more comments / questions
- I will do one activity a week / month with my children which I will let them choose. (even if I have to set limits on costs etc...)For living a more peaceful life, it may depend on whether you are causing the loss of peace or whether you are letting other people disrupt your peace. But possible options include:- as per original article, 'I will not shout, I will breathe deeply three times'
- I will not discuss politics (religion, child-rearing philosophies, whatever...) with Person X
- I will limit my meetings with Person Y to no more than 45 minutes (since whever we spend longer than that together we annoy each other)
- If Person Z shouts at me, I will not shout back, I will say 'I do not want a fight so I am going now' and I will go.
...goals do not have to be competitive with someone else, or about an achievement, they can be about changing your own behaviour.

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Craig Hohnberger 3 weeks ago in reply to Dave Smith

I agree with Bholland's comments Dave. You can quantify subjective goals if you want to and he gives some great suggestions how to do so. The cool thing is it's your life so whatever goals you choose to have, and in whatever format you define them, that's fantastic.

Craig Hohnberger

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Raju Muralidhar 2 months ago

Amazing stuff..Was helpful specially the muscle part was great.

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Irfan Suleman Chohdry 2 months ago

very well written, helped me to clear a lot things

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Shravan Kumar 2 months ago

Very Nice Suggestion, I like this thank u very much for suggestion

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Neeraj Rohilla 2 months ago

very nice comments. I liked the most which says one should not think that his abilities fixed and he can not do that he has never done. So always get rid of this feeling and try to improve your skill and abilities. : ...... Neeraj Rohilla

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Anthony H. 2 months ago

Very helpful, Thanks!

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Iamaditigaldesigner 2 months ago

11. Don't waste time reading articles or books about being successful
12. Be born male - far less hurdles, however it's probably better to be your own boss as a women as the chances of being promoted there in someone else's business are far slimmer

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gatot siswanto 2 months ago

I think it is a new paradigm of what factors enable us for succesful. the most important thing is a patient and commitment to succes itself

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Shekar AR 2 months ago

9 steps are +ve motivation, one who act they will achieve

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Henri Behari 2 months ago

looks like running a startup

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Guest 2 months ago

Thank you Krishan...my thoughts exactly!

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K Mohan 2 months ago

Good It is self assessment of self to improve.It is an on ongong possess to improve oneself

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Krishan @OCW 2 months ago

I love most of your blog posts but somehow it feel like the things are getting repetitive and novelty is lost somewhere. Hope we can change the track and bit to more specific business problems and real life ideas of goodness. If you may wish :-)

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Mary Elise Chavez 2 months ago

Fantastic, great post. I'll be sharing this with my team @BFMWeb.

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Mike DePaoli 2 months ago

Great post. Sounds like Kaizen for self-improvement and goal achievement

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internet fax 2 months ago

I think that having realistic goals and expectations is the main thing. Too many business owners have pie-in-the-sky goals without the means to achieve them.

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Prateek 2 months ago

Great Thought........ With Deep understanding...

Should Definitely Implement in our life.........

Prateek

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Jay 2 months ago

Persistence!

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Naeemsolangi 2 months ago

Nice & very Constructive. thankssss HBR

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Sebastian Font 2 months ago

Lots of comments, with many adding their 2 cents.
For me, the essence is what is important, and that is a framework of items that help get us out of the box and improve our progress. You don't need an all inclusive list to improve your results, and its possible that you need to tweak some of the 9 steps to make them work for you. But again, at the end of the day, its about using some sort of reasonable framework of 6, or 8 or 10 steps to help pull you out of mediocrity.
http://criticalperformancellc....

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Olivia Lane 2 months ago

The list is great. I learned the lesson some time ago, that celebrating the little things that we accomplish really is critical to any success. The recognition of the small things that each of us must overcome is the only we can see the before and after in the present moment. Even animals get treats for obeying their masters ... don't we all like treats, too!

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Success 3 months ago

Great thread! thanks to all who contributed!

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Rammohan 3 months ago

Can we add 'Building a team of like minded people'

Thanks
Rammohan

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MendelsonConsulting 4 months ago

One additional thought on Heidi's article is that perhaps she purposely listed only nine in an effort to encourage all of us to fill in and provide the tenth!

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Rahim 4 months ago

Nice Article ....

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Nick Tarazona 4 months ago

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... The Power of Failure. JK Rowling is keynote speaker for Harvard University Commencement June 5, 2008.

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Abdulla Al Babul 4 months ago

Really, I feel better after reading this. However, We should think positive then we can overcome the problem easily.
Thank you, Heidi Grant Halvorson.

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Mehul 4 months ago

Very practical points... Thanks for sharing and Thanks those people in discussion as well.

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Trivakenny 4 months ago

Am at a peak of my dreams,thinks get though when you almoslt there.but one thing i just leart now is you have to keep pushing to the limit till we hot the goal.

thanks alot for the article.

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Marketers to Experts 4 months ago

Any peer-reviewed evidence to support these claims?

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Marketers to Experts 4 months ago

Oh please, is there any research or data to support these platitudes?

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Heidi Grant Halvorson 4 months ago in reply to Marketers to Experts

Marketers to Experts,

In short, there are boatloads of peer-reviewed research to back up "these claims."

For work on specificity, see anything by Locke and Latham (e.g., Locke, E. A. and Latham, G. P., (2002), “Building a Practically Useful Theory of Goal Setting and Task Motivation”, American Psychologist, Vol. 57, No. 9, pp. 705–717.) I believe at last count there are over 1000 studies demonstrating the importance of specificity.

For work on the importance of seizing opportunities through if-then planning, try Gollwitzer, P. M., & Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation intentions and goal achievement: A meta-analysis of effects and processes. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 69-119. Or, perhaps one of mine: Duckworth, A. L., Grant, H., Loew, B., Oettingen, G., & Gollwitzer, P. M. (2011). Self-regulation strategies improve self-discipline in adolescents: Benefits of mental contrasting and implementation intentions. Educational Psychology,31, 17-26.

In the interest of space-saving, for the remainder of the points I made, I refer you to following highly-regarded academic handbooks of scientific psychology: The Psychology of Goals (Guilford, 2009, which I co-edited), The Psychology of Action (Guilford, 1995), and the Handbook of Self-Regulation (Guilford, 2004).

Or, you could just buy a copy of my new book, Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals. It is practically bursting with citations, if I do say so myself.

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psychology student 4 months ago in reply to Marketers to Experts

Why so skeptical? Try it and see for yourself!

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Steel_cutlass 4 months ago

I doubt anybody cured their anger problem through "deep-breath replacement-behavior" activity.

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Guest 4 months ago

Love it! I always reward myself after a show with a nice Margarita and a pat on the back...as long as I sell something! Ha ~Denise

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Vishal Modi 4 months ago

Excellent post Heidi. many thanks. Point # 3 is something that I was challenged with as to how do I measure the progress towards my goals. One thing that I put in to practice is at end of the day, I ask my self the question what do I know today that I did not yesterday and I keep a track of those. And many times the answer were not fancy at all.I am surprised how much help this has been and how through these daily learning I made minute changes to my plans/strategies so as to achieve the end goals.Now when I now look back at my daily logs, I feel I have progressed and it just motivates me to keep going on.

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P K Singh 4 months ago

nice tips...but seldom it is obseved that very typical business situation - when one go for big change thru applied knowedge/latest technology deployement..."why there is huge resistance to change" when every one know that it is good for the economy. How to overcome with this type of buiness situation?

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Zachi 5 months ago

This is a really enlightening article. There some similarities that successful people share. Quite thoughtful.

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DancewithChaos 5 months ago

I've always been searching for feel good and motivating articles like yours Heidi. Lucky I found it.

For me goals are there for us to have a purpose to live for and give meaning to our lives. We may not necessarily reach all the 101 goals written on our list but at least we get to learn something along the way and become better persons as well.

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David Kaiser 5 months ago

Overall, I agree and this these are sound ideas. One question, though, how is "grit," as you define it, different from "willpower?"

David Kaiser, PhD
Executive Coach and CEO
www.DarkMatterConsulting.com

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Nutflipped 5 months ago

I imagine that this what Kaddafi was doing for the last 40 years but must have lost focus recently.

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Dipendra Thakur 5 months ago

Excellent piece........

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Mailbandaru 2 months ago in reply to Dipendra Thakur

Good article and great people discussing it. As mentioned in the article, take one step at a time with the key as " though small, something sustainable".

Ten characteristics of natural leaders

2011-08-10T15:17:00.000-07:00

Ten characteristics of natural leaders

Leadership exists on a continuum from managing self to managing others to managing the organization. Natural leadership does not mean that you either have it or you don't. It does mean that you are willing to assess your style and behavior, and that you are willing to learn and grow.

1. The only person you can change is yourself.

Self-management comes before managing others or managing an organization. Understanding the impact of your behavior is crucial to leadership.

2. You must feel comfortable being in a leadership role.

Leadership calls for authenticity. If you are not comfortable with the role, others will sense it and withhold the full measure of whatever it is they have to contribute.

3. Being a natural leader involves being able to adjust your style to the skill level and commitment of others in any given situation.

Reading the people/task mix requires skill, flexibility and intuition.

4. Natural leaders develop other leaders

Leaders of today must share skills, insight and power to bring along others who have the potential to lead. This includes giving others the opportunity to lead. Someone once said that leadership is like manure. Left in a pile it starts to smell really bad and does no good. Spread around evenly it promotes growth and doesn't smell bad at all.

5. As a leader, you must make sure information flows freely in all directions.

The culture must be such that withholding information to strengthen one's own power or for any reason is absolutely not tolerated.

6. Leaders have to be accessible.

You have to create a culture in which people feel they can tell you the bad news as well as the good news. You cannot isolate yourself or let others isolate you.

7. Leadership in modern organizations means sometimes fading into the background . . . when it is natural to do so.

You do not have to plan every tactic or lead every charge. Hire good people who can articulate your vision as well as you can (maybe even better) and then let them do it.

8. Leaders need to provide support.

Become a sponsor for someone else's idea or project. Make sure you provide the resources and structure others need to succeed.

9. Leaders must create a culture that encourages risk and tolerates mistakes.

In these times, playing it safe in business is the riskiest strategy.

10. Leadership skills can be developed.

Natural does not mean born with. Leadership skills can be learned and this learning circles back to self-management.

Food For Thought
The biggest obstacle standing between you and anything you want, is your lack of belief that you can have it. Once you truly believe it is possible, once you can see yourself doing it or being it or having it, the rest is just details. With belief, plus the commitment to follow through and do whatever it takes, anything can be yours.
Everything you need to get there is available to you, when you believe and when you commit to getting there. Know that you can do it. Nothing can hold you back once you have belief and commitment. You will find a way. You can. Do it.
Pleasure is a matter of conditioning. A teenager smoking her first cigarette doesn't enjoy it at all. She's almost certainly doing it to "fit in" and it probably even makes her a little sick. After a while, though, she likes it so much she finds it hard to quit.
Strategy for achieving your success: Choose the pleasures that move you toward your goals.
For example, there is just as much potential for pleasure in jogging 2 miles as there is in eating a bag of potato chips. The person who is trying to get in top physical shape would be well advised to find his pleasure in the jogging rather than the chips. Just like everything else in your world, your pleasures are under your control. Use them to your advantage.
What is it that you truly want to do? You can do it. Realize that you are as capable as any person. See yourself doing it. Touch it. Hear it. Taste it. Walk inside of it. Drive around in it. Believe in it and believe that it is yours.

http://www.belgotec.com/sb-tips/tips76.htm

Leadership From the Inside Out

2011-08-10T15:12:00.000-07:00

May 27, 2010, 7:59 PM ET

Leadership From the Inside Out — Part I

By Gary Hamel

In a pair of recent posts (Part I, Part II) I argued that many of us have lost our faith in large institutions. We increasingly feel ill-used by our employers and ill-served by our elected representatives. More troubling still, many of us have also lost faith in faith-based organizations. In this regard, the Church of England (CoE) stands as Exhibit A. Founded 476 years ago when King Henry VIII broke with papal authority, the Church of England has in recent years been fractured by a contentious dispute over the ordination of gay and lesbian clergy. As thorny as that issue may be, it is not the most vexing problem facing the “mother church” of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Today, less than 3% of the British population attends a Church of England service in a typical month—this according to a recent CoE report. That’s down by nearly 50% from 1968. A survey by Tearfund, a Christian charity, found that a third of Britain’s population is now “de-churched.” These are former parishioners who no longer attend weekly services. The fact that more than 50% of UK residents still describe themselves as Christians makes the decline of Britain’s “established” church all the more perplexing. As one website put it, “If the Church of England was the national football team, we would have sacked the manager long ago.”

The fact is, the Church of England has become irrelevant to most British citizens. At this point I should declare a personal interest. During the ten years I lived in the UK, I frequently attended an Anglican church just outside of London. I enjoyed the energetic singing and the thoughtful homilies. And yet, I found it easy to be a pew warmer, a consumer, a back row critic. After all, the only thing the vicar seemed to want from me was a kind heart and a generous hand. Like the other congregants, I was asked to donate time and money to the church’s programs—and that was it. None of the clergy seemed eager for me, or others, to actually take the initiative and start something. I was never challenged to lead—only to “serve.” If it sounds like I’m justifying my indolence, I am—but it’s hard to get excited when there’s little scope for initiative, or when the categories of contribution have already been defined by others. Though inclined to faith, I struggled to find my niche in a top-down, pulpit-led model of “church”—and still do. In this regard I’m not alone—well, not if the experience of Drew Williams is anything to go by.

I met Drew last autumn, 15 years after I’d moved back to the U.S. Drew, I learned, had recently made his own transatlantic move—to take up the role of senior pastor at a church in Greenwich, Conn. Ten years earlier, he had also changed careers. Trained as a corporate litigator, Drew practiced law for ten years before deciding to pursue a “higher calling.” After finishing his theological training in Bristol, he was appointed assistant vicar of an Anglican congregation 25 miles northwest of London, in Chorleywood, England.

Drew e-mailed me after hearing a talk I had given on “management innovation.” During my exposition I argued that organizations should be built around “communities of passion.” Apparently Drew agreed. In his note he told me, “I wanted to jump up and clap when you made that point, but since I’m English, I didn’t.” When we finally connected by phone, I learned that Drew had helped pioneer a radical new “management model” during his tenure at St. Andrews—one that was led from the pews rather than from the pulpit, one that fit programs to people, rather than the other way around. Wow, I thought, there’s something to learn here. Maybe there really is a way to reconnect individuals and institutions.

When Drew arrived at St. Andrews in 2003 as assistant vicar, he joined a church that had 500 members, a full roster of programs and a top-notch worship service—a church that was, by UK standards, large and successful.

Problem was, as Drew put it, St. Andrews had a back door that was bigger than its front door. Each year enrollment was shrinking by about 10%. Drew was bothered by what he saw as a “come to us” model of church—where the worship service and the physical building were the center points—both physically and spiritually—of the church’s mission.

“There was a lot of excellence in worship,” recalls Drew, “but we were pretty weak at making disciples. People would look at those leading from the front and say, ‘What could I possibly offer here? Everything is done so professionally.’ We had a congregation that saw themselves as an audience.”

St Andrews’ vicar, Mark Stibbe, was also troubled by this reality, and asked Drew to take charge of developing a new church strategy. Believing that the real mission of St. Andrews was to bring hope to those outside of the building and beyond the congregation, Drew started to think about how he might build a “go-to-them” church—one that would encourage the spiritual growth of its members while multiplying their impact in the community around them.

As he struggled with this challenge, Drew was hit with another realization. While St. Andrews had small groups (typically 3-4 believers who’d meet during the week to chat and pray), and a really big group (the entire congregation), it had no mid-sized groups—nothing that was the equivalent of an extended family—more than three but less than fifty. This struck Drew as odd since the early Christian church had been built around communities of just this size.

So Drew went out searching for some in-between models of church—and found one in Sheffield, England. There, Mike Breen, the vicar of St Thomas Crookes, had been experimenting with programs built around “mid-sized” groups of 20-50 members. Intrigued, Drew drove up to Sheffield and spent several hours interviewing Mike about his novel approach. During that conversation, Mike planted the seeds for what would become a bold experiment at St. Andrews.

Drew saw several advantages to organizing around medium-sized groups—what he would later call “Mission-shaped Communities” or MSCs.

First, they would be more open and inviting than the small groups. Over time the small groups tended to become cliquish. Often, when Drew tried to help a new member connect with a small group, he’d be told that the group was full, or be asked whether the newcomer was “needy.” A mid-sized group was big enough that a newcomer wouldn’t stand out, yet small enough so he or she wouldn’t get lost.

Second, there’d be a lot more room for members to exercise their leadership gifts in intermediate-sized groups. A group of three or four wasn’t really big enough to tackle significant projects—and thus wasn’t very good at exploiting the leadership talents of its members. On the other hand, few lay members were eager to volunteer for large-scale, church-wide projects.

And third, Drew hoped the MSCs would strengthen the social fabric of the church by creating new opportunities for members to interact with one another.

Despite these potential advantages, Drew had doubts—and faced some tough, practical questions . . .

How, exactly, could he transform passive followers into active leaders? Was this even possible? How could St. Andrews exploit the power of self-organizing communities without creating a bunch of cliques and factions? Where would the cohesion come from? What role would he and Mark need to play in supporting this new strategy? Could they actually “lead,” if they weren’t leading from the front—and if so, how?

With just a month to go before he had to stand in front of the congregation and outline his strategy, Drew knew he needed answers to these questions—and fast.

So, dear reader, what advice would you give to Drew? What have you learned about turning followers into leaders—and then leading the leaders? And is it possible to dis-integrate an organization without fragmenting it?

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June 17, 2010, 5:19 PM ET

Leadership from the Inside Out — Part II

In my previous post, I introduced you to Drew Williams. For seven years Drew served as assistant vicar at St. Andrews, an Anglican parish in Chorleywood, England. When he arrived in 2003, Drew found a church that was big but not growing, and a congregation that was loyal but not energized. Mark Stibbe, head vicar at St. Andrews, challenged Drew to develop a plan that would change this.

On a blustery November night, just a few short months after taking up his post, Drew stood in front of a nearly-full church and presented his strategy. Those hoping for a grand vision were disappointed. Instead, Drew pointed back to the early church. In the first few centuries after Christ, the church had been organized around small, local communities. Drew noted that those early believers had typically met in the biggest house they could find, and when they ran out of room, would subdivide and form a new community.

Drew admitted he didn’t have a precise plan for how to put his idea into practice, but he asked everyone present to think about the kind of difference they thought they could make if they were part of a more intimate community. He challenged his parishioners: What’s your passion? What service-oriented program would you want to start or join if you had the chance?

At the end of his talk, Drew announced that he’d hold a follow-up session a month hence, on December 6. He invited anyone who thought they might be willing to lead an “MSC” – or “mission-shaped community” — team to come along. In his heart, Drew was hoping 12 volunteer leaders would show up, and four weeks later, that’s exactly the number that did.

Some of those who came had a passion for children, others were eager to help the disabled, or the elderly. Drew encouraged his newbie leaders to start talking to others in the congregation, to start recruiting other volunteers and laying out plans, but provided very little direction. When a lay leader would ask him, “How often should we meet?,” Drew would say, “I don’t know, why don’t you pray about that.” When someone would ask, “Where should we meet?,” or “What should our strategy be?,“ he’d give the same answer: “Just pray about it.” Again and again, Drew pushed the responsibility for making the new model work back onto the parishioners—and (Drew believed) onto God.

Drew was clear about one thing, though—every group had to have a purpose that went beyond merely meeting up. Each week Drew met with all of the nascent teams, praying for them and encouraging them to take risks and fail forward.

The first MSC got up and running in January. It brought together a group of members who lived in Watford, a large town near Chorleywood. The group met in a home to hash out their mission, and soon realized that a gaggle of children were playing football in a park across the road. Parents were standing around the frozen pitch, cheering on their kids. Standing on the sidelines were a few dozen younger siblings, obviously cold and bored. Maybe, someone ventured, we could run a club for the all the kids who come out each week and don’t get the chance to play. That plan was rapidly turned into action. Word spread, and soon the freshly-hatched MSC was being asked to run an after-class club at a nearby school. At every stage the MSC members were upfront about their intentions. “We’re going to talk about Jesus, is that OK?” Virtually all of the parents said “yes.”

Another MSC formed up to help people coming out of night clubs at 4 in the morning, when many were a bit worse for wear. Team members would offer the bleary-eyed revelers a cup of coffee or a ride home.

One MSC bought a double-decker bus and turned it into a mobile coffee bar. They’d park the bus in a disadvantaged neighborhood and invite folks in to sip a warm latte in convivial surroundings.

Video was key to making these early successes viral. Drew would film the MSCs at work, play the videos at church on Sunday, and encourage other parishioners to get involved.

In addition to their community work, MSC members were encouraged to gather at least once a week outside of church to worship and plan. In setting up their worship space, most groups arranged their chairs in church-like rows. When they did so, Drew would remind them, “You don’t have to do it this way. You can ‘do church’ however you like.”

Drew’s mantra, borrowed from Mike Breen, was “low control, high accountability.” Every team was free to set its own mission, but members knew the whole church was expecting them to do something that would make a noticeable difference in the lives of others. One rule, though, was sacrosanct: once an MSC grew to fifty members it had to subdivide.

Initially, the MSC project had no budget. Drew says that’s part of the reason the program didn’t run into a wall of resistance—he wasn’t pulling resources out of other programs.

For the most part, the MSCs raised their own money—though eventually they were able to draw on church funds for minor operational expenses like renting a hall. At one point, Drew was supporting 30 MSCs on an annual budget of £30,000 (about $45,000).

Despite those early successes, Mark and Drew believed even bigger things were possible. Even as the MSC program was taking off, they were praying that God would put some dynamite under their church—to shake off the last cobwebs of complacency.

The TNT came in the form a major refurbishment that would close the church for 9 months. Rather than find an alternate space, Mark and Drew told the congregation that if they wanted to continue worshipping together they’d have to hook up with an MSC, if they weren’t already part of one. Dissenters warned Drew that this move might slim the church rolls by as many as 200 members. But over the next 9 months, St. Andrews grew from 500 members to nearly 1,000—as fence-sitting parishioners and got infected by the MSC virus.

There were other doubters who worried that giving would go down. When meeting outside the church, MSC leaders weren’t keen to take up an offering. So instead, the church set up a program that allowed members to set up a standing order for a weekly direct debit—funds would be drawn from the member’s bank account and deposited in the church’s coffers.

There was one fact, however, that no one could argue with. The new, community-based approach to church was getting folks off the sidelines and into the game. It was also unleashing a ton of latent leadership talent. Here’s how one MSC leader, a woman who was profoundly deaf, described her role:

I can honestly say that leading an MSC for the last eight months has been the hardest and most challenging thing I have ever done – parenthood aside. In running the MSC I have discovered a lot of things about myself. Some I knew already and others are fresh revelations. I am not a brilliant administrator, neither am I a preacher. I don’t think I am a worship leader or a kids ministry leader but I have had to do all these things and more at some stage or another and I discovered that I can passably lead prayers, make OK coffee, improvise a kids session, preach if necessary, [and] impart difficult decisions.

Once the church re-opened, Mark and Drew realized St. Andrews had now grown too big for its building. For their part, many of the MSC members had secretly hoped that the renovation work would never be completed, since they were enjoying the adventure actually doing something, rather than being “nailed to a pew.” By this point, most MSC teams were meeting twice a month for worship and at other times to carry out their mission work. When team leaders asked Drew, “Do we really have to come back to church?,” he told them, “Pray about it and do whatever you feel led to do.” Everyone, though, was encouraged to show up on the fourth Sunday of each month for a time of “celebration.” To accommodate the entire congregation, the service was repeated four times during the day.

Turns out, there’s a month each quarter that contains five Sundays, and these, too, became occasions for church-wide meet-ups. Typically, the format was conference-like, with guest speakers and presentations focused on the practical challenges of doing good in the world. Church services are held at St. Andrews on other Sundays, but there’s no expectation that everyone will attend. Whatever the agenda, though, MSCs leaders are always welcome to stand up and pitch their project.

While the MSCs multiplied opportunities for leadership and service, there were those who feared the new model might undermine the unity of the church as a whole. There was a risk that as members became more tightly knit together within their teams, they might also become less connected to the larger congregation. Mark and Drew wanted communities, not splinters.

A weekly newsletter was one of way connecting members. Each week Drew sent out a note updating MSC leaders and asking for prayer requests. Periodically he also brought all the leaders together to set priorities and identify new opportunities. Over time, many of the MSCs set up their own websites and this became another mechanism for keeping people informed.

Other common touch-points included a church-wide teaching guide used by all the MSCs in their weekly worship discussions, and a compulsory training courses for MSC leaders and members.

There were, of course, hiccups. Occasionally an MSC leader would fight tenaciously for a project that was only marginally effective. Another source of friction came from neighboring vicars. The CoE is divided into geographically-defined parishes and some vicars raised objections when they learned that a St. Andrews team was operating outside its local franchise. In hindsight, Mark and Drew admit that they might have done more to anticipate these objections and smooth feathers along the way. Nevertheless, after witnessing seven years of growth and impact, there are few at St. Andrews who would opt to undo the MSC experiment.

As Drew says, “this is a radically different model of doing church. It’s one where not every program gets established and blessed at the center. It’s one where the authority doesn’t trickle down, and where the spokes of control don’t run out from the center.” It is, though, a model that has been amazingly effective. In once representative month, more than 106 outreach projects were conducted by the MSC teams.

By the time Drew left St. Andrews, in 2009, the congregation had grown to more than 1,600 members. Drew contrasts this with the “before” snapshot: “In 2003, we did back-to-back carol services at Christmas, with a great orchestra and a gifted speaker. At both services we invited people forward for prayer, and everyone stayed seated—no one came forward. I thought, this is as good as church is ever going to be. It was an exemplary piece of ‘attractional’ worship. We had drained every church within 40 miles, but it was all transference, no new growth. Everyone who was sitting there was already a Christian. I thought, we would have been better to break the congregation up and send them out caroling. It was just clear that this model wasn’t working.”

Drew goes on: “Before we started the MSCs, we had a whole Sunday devoted to children’s work, and the point was to get more volunteers. People wept at the end of the service. And yet we had zero response. It was so depressing. When we started doing the MSCs, people had to step forward. And suddenly, people realized that they had a gifts, unexploited talents. In the culture of excellence, people felt under-qualified. Once they were in an MSC, they had folks they could work with, other amateurs who said, ‘Come on, we can do this.’ These were friends rooting for you.”

There are many lessons that could be drawn from this experiment in management innovation, but for now, let me suggest just two. First, if you’re a formally appointed leader, and you want to turn sheep into shepherds, you have to step out of your leadership role and say to people, “I don’t have a plan, what’s yours?” This is humbling. But only by doing this will you release the latent talents within your organization.

Second, you have to let people find the work that best suits them—this is the key to building a community of passion. If you force people into pre-determined slots, you’ll get slot-shaped contributions; you won’t get bold and innovative contributions. It’s pretty simple, really. If you want the unexpected, you have to give people the freedom to do the unexpected.

Now, can you run an airline this way, or a semiconductor fab line? I don’t know, but I bet you can run parts of it like this. One thing I’m sure about: if you want to fully take advantage of the extraordinary talents that exist in your organization, you’ll need to ask yourself each day, “What can I do to make this place feel less like a hierarchy and more like a community?” And here’s the good news: you don’t have to be the Archbishop of Canterbury to get started.

So, dear reader, a few questions. Do you think Drew’s ideas have any relevance for your organization? If so, what would you do to build some communities of passion where you work? How would you start? What levers would you pull?

http://blogs.wsj.com/management/2010/06/17/leadership-from-the-inside-out-part-ii/

The Purpose of Power

2011-08-10T15:10:00.000-07:00

May 11, 2011, 3:54 PM ET

The Purpose of Power

By Gary Hamel

Courtesy of HarperBusiness

Power has long been regarded as morally corrosive, and we often suspect the intentions of those who seek it. Indeed, the lust for dominion is so unseemly that few of us would openly admit to a craving for clout.

Hence, it might surprise you to learn that one of the world’s most distinguished management thinkers has recently produced a detailed manual for the power-hungry.

It often seems that the mendacious and egotistical have a particular talent for accumulating (and abusing) power—and at some point, most of us have probably been out-maneuvered by a more adept political infighter. But in Power: Why Some People Have it and Others Don’t, Jeffrey Pfeffer, a professor at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, gives nice guys and gals the tools they need to even the odds, by summarizing more than 30 years of research and teaching on how to get ahead.

Recently I talked with Pfeffer about why he’s written a book on power at a time when most management gurus are talking about collaboration, community and “open leadership.” Pfeffer’s argument is disarmingly simple: It takes power to get things done. Without power, you’re impotent—irrespective of your talents or the righteousness of your cause.

Pfeffer started our conversation by reminding me of a disagreeable fact: Power is largely independent of intelligence (emotional or otherwise) and job performance. All of us know individuals who are brilliant but who punch below their weight when it comes to office politics. Conversely, we all know dim bulbs who’ve somehow found their way to the top of the tree. Cunning power players can even slough off failure. Think, for example, of all those executive vice presidents and board members who dithered while the banking system burned and yet managed to hold on to their positions, or even grab better ones in the wake of the collapse. It’s not that IQ and value-added aren’t important; it’s just that they’re no substitute for power.

So what’s Pfeffer’s advice for those eager to take charge?

First, you have to recognize that power is mostly taken, not given. Jeff quotes Peter Ueberroth (who organized the 1984 Summer Olympics and went on to become Major League Baseball’s Commissioner and head of the U.S. Olympic Committee), as saying power is 80% taken and only 20% given. In other words, if you want power you have to grab it. So when you see opportunities to extend the scope of your influence, seize them, and when you spot a power vacuum, fill it.

Second, you need to understand the importance of your personal network and work relentlessly to improve it. Pfeffer recounts a conversation he had with Chip Conley, CEO of Joie de Vivre hotels. Conley pointed out that most people think of networking as a task, like taking out the trash. But no one tries to get better at taking out the trash. You can, however, get better at networking, and it’s important for people who are trying to gain more power to do so. With this in mind, Pfeffer recommends you think of networking as a skill “like speaking French or playing the piano.”

Third, if you want power, you have to work to stand out. Growing up, we are often taught to be timid: Ask permission; Wait your turn; Stay in line; Don’t attract attention. But to get power, you have take the risk that comes with raising your head about the parapet. “Risk,” says Pfeffer, “is just as important in human capital markets as it is in financial capital markets. No risk. No reward.” Early in your career, it can help to volunteer for a task that others have shunned, or jump into a newly created role. The logic? It’s easier to stand out when you have your own niche and easier to get ahead when you don’t have to expend a lot of energy fending off rivals for a coveted post.

Fourth, the pursuit of power requires persistence. Too often, Pfeffer argues, we look at powerful leaders and assume they got there without stumbling. But every great leader, from Abraham Lincoln to Steve Jobs, has encountered failure. The difference between those who go on to become powerful leaders and those who don’t, rests in how they react to reversals. If they accept failure as a verdict of fate, they will sink into anonymity. If, on the other hand, they learn from the blow, if it strengthens their resolve and prompts them to search for lessons, they will rise higher. Pfeffer cites the example of Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank, co-founders of The Home Depot: “That story begins with two words: ‘you’re fired.’” In 1978, Marcus and Blank were fired from Handy Dan Home Improvement Centers in a dispute with the largest shareholder—this despite the fact that as president and CFO, the pair had led the business to record earnings. The setback proved to be the impetus Marcus and Blank needed to chase their dream of building an entirely new sort of super-scale DIY chain.

If you want to hang on to power, Pfeffer argues that it’s better to be aggressive and unapologetic than bashful and contrite—even when you’re wrong. In his long-running MBA course, The Paths to Power, Pfeffer shows his students two videos. In each, the CEO of a beleaguered company is getting grilled on Capitol Hill. The first features Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs’ Chairman and CEO. When challenged over his bank’s role in the financial meltdown, Blankfein is pugnacious, unrepentant and in no mood to cede points. In the second video, BP’s Tony Hayward, who was unlucky enough to be CEO at the time of the Deepwater Horzon oil spill, comes across as meek and penitent. When the videos conclude, Pfeffer notes dryly that while Blankfein still has his job, Hayward was forced to resign less than six weeks after his congressional testimony. The meek may one day inherit the earth, but Pfeffer doesn’t think it’s going to happen any time soon.

Pfeffer concedes that the quest for power demands a certain degree of selfishness. When asked whether a would-be leader should put company ahead of career, Pfeffer is unequivocal: “I’m not sure you should worry over much about the effect you behavior has on the organization overall, because there’s lots of data that suggests the organization doesn’t care much about you.”

But what about the (very real) risk that power becomes an end in itself—that principles and prudence get jettisoned as excess baggage in the clamor to the top? Pfeffer’s advice: Put together a “personal board of directors” comprised of capable and honorable mentors. These shouldn’t be close friends or competitors, since you’re looking for honest and objective counsel. They should be people, though, who care enough about you to hold you accountable, and conversely, you should care enough about them to take their advice seriously.

Like all of us, Pfeffer wants leaders who aspire not only to power but to goodness. The virtuous don’t always win, but Pfeffer believes a meritorious cause can be a signficant force multiplier. As an example, he cites the case of Dr. Laura Esserman, a surgeon at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center. For years, Esserman waged a tireless campaign to make the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer more humane and patient centric. Her ultimate success, Pfeffer argues, was due in part to the nobility of her cause. While the meek may never inherit the earth, it’s heartening to know that the selfless may have a slim advantage in accumulating power.”

Having updated Machiavelli for the 21st century, does Pfeffer believe that everyone will soon become an accomplished power hound? Nope. Most people, it turns out, just aren’t willing to put that much into achieving the power they think they want. “There’s a price for power,” Pfeffer says. “I know very few very successful people who don’t devote a lot of time and a lot of energy and a lot of effort to their careers. Successful football coaches, for example, spend a lot of time in the film room watching games. When you’re watching the films, you’re not with your wife or your kids or your friends or whatever. So there is definitely a price to be paid, and not everyone is willing to pay that price. In the end, people have to figure out how much work they’re going to put into this.”

Like most of us, Pfeffer wishes large-scale organizations were paragons of meritocracy where competence and influence are always perfectly correlated, but he knows that’s not the case—at least for now. Hence his advice to anyone who’s itching to turn their company into a post-bureaucratic nirvana: You’d better first equip yourself with the armaments you need to beat the partisans of power politics at their own game.

So dear readers, a question: Do you believe you can succeed in an organization without explicitly working to acquire power? And if you answer “yes,” please explain your thinking, or provide an example.

http://blogs.wsj.com/management/2011/05/11/the-purpose-of-power/

Nine Ways to Identify Natural Leaders

2011-08-10T15:08:00.000-07:00

Nine Ways to Identify Natural Leaders
By Gary Hamel

May 14, 2009, 11:54 AM ET

The need to empower natural leaders isn’t an HR pipedream, it’s a competitive imperative. But before you can empower them, you have to find them.

In most companies, the formal hierarchy is a matter of public record—it’s easy to discover who’s in charge of what. By contrast, natural leaders don’t appear on any organization chart. To hunt them down, you need to know . . .

Whose advice is sought most often on any particular topic? Who responds most promptly to requests from peers? Whose responses are judged most helpful? Who is most likely to reach across organizational boundaries to aid a colleague? Whose opinions are most valued, internally and externally? Who gets the most kudos from customers? Who’s the most densely connected to other employees? Who’s generating the most buzz outside the company? Who consistently demonstrates real thought leadership? Who seems truly critical to key decisions?

A lot of the data you need to answer these questions is lurking in the weeds of your company’s email system, or can be found on the Web. Nevertheless, it will take some creative effort and software tweaks to ferret it out.

A few suggestions . . .

1. Establish a directory of key words corresponding to critical skills and competencies within your company, and then see who generates or receives the most emails on any particular topic.

2. Add a small box at the end of every incoming email that lets the recipient grade the sender’s response: was it timely, was it helpful?

3. Analyze internal email flows to see which folks are most likely to respond positively to emails from colleagues in other divisions—who’s collaborating across unit boundaries?

4. Create a system for ranking the frequency and value of each employee’s contributions to internal wikis or communities of practice.

5. Encourage employees to write internal blogs, and to rank posts and comments.

6. Using key words, analyze company emails to see who’s had the most to say about important corporate decisions, and to see how widely those views have been disseminated and discussed.

7. Identify emails relating to key projects and then identify the individuals who were the most critical “nodes” in the project team—the folks who seemed to be in the middle of every email exchange.

8. Review incoming emails from customers to determine who’s getting the most requests for help, who’s been most responsive and who’s receiving the most praise. Or, give customers the ability to immediately score the email responses they get from company personnel.

9. Use Google Alert and news tracking to find out which employees are getting quoted most often online, and who’s showing up most often in the press.

There are other types of data that might also be useful—but you get the idea.

Sure, there are some practical challenges in collecting and analyzing this sorts of data. But ultimately, it should be possible for a company to create a multivariate leadership score for every employee.

Obviously, the old top-down hierarchy isn’t going to disappear any time soon. What would happen, though, if every employee had the chance to compete for leadership “points,” whether or not they had a management job? What would happen if everyone’s leadership score showed up in their online profile—so everyone knew how their colleagues ranked on expertise, helpfulness, collaboration and thought leadership? What would happen if anyone could attach a public comment to a colleague’s leadership score? What about including highly rated “natural” leaders in every important decision meeting? And finally, what would happen if leadership points were considered in compensation and promotion decisions? I’m not sure, but I bet it would do more good than harm.

One thing’s certain, though: we can’t invent Management 2.0 without inventing some new ways for people to accumulate and exercise authority. In the tempestuous seas of today’s creative economy, top-down leadership structures are fast becoming a liability. We need is a new currency of power—one based not on titles, but on every individual’s capacity to lead, every day. We need fewer zero-sum battles for plum positions, in which Machiavellian maneuvering wins the day, and more positive-sum competition to increase one’s personal leadership score—by delivering real value to colleagues and customers. We need a system that forces titled leaders to justify their positional power by competing in an open market for leadership esteem. And finally, we need organizations that aren’t built around a single, dominant hierarchy, but are comprised of many soft hierarchies, each corresponding to a critical skill or issue.

A few years back, two of my colleagues at the London Business School posed a cheeky question in the title of their leadership book: “Why,” they wondered, “should anyone be led by you?” If you reflect on this question every morning, your leadership score is bound to go up.

So, readers, here are some questions to ponder: How would you find the natural leaders in your company? And once found, how would you help them expand their influence? Can you imagine other alternatives to traditional power structures? If so, what might they be?

http://blogs.wsj.com/management/2009/05/14/nine-ways-to-identify-natural-leaders/

FIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF WEAK LEADERS

2011-08-08T16:21:00.000-07:00

FIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF WEAK LEADERS

Sometimes you learn from positive role models. Often you learn from negative ones. This is one of the reasons I love to read history—you inevitably get both.

For the last week or so, I have been reading Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. It is a page-turning account of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency and his political genius.

At the beginning of Lincoln’s first term, he appointed each of his former Republican rivals—those who had run against him for his party’s nomination—to cabinet posts. The narrative demonstrates his amazing ability to tap into a broad array of perspectives and create alignment among those who often disagreed violently with one another.

Unfortunately, Lincoln’s leadership was not perfect. He occasionally selected men for public service who were unworthy of his trust. One such individual was General George B. McClellan, commander of the “Army of the Potomac” and, eventually, first general-in-chief of the Union Army.

General McClellan had significant character flaws that I believe serve as warning signs to anyone in leadership. Ultimately, these cost him dearly: He lost Lincoln’s confidence, his job, and a run for the White House (against Lincoln). Worse, they prolonged the Civil War and cost the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides of the conflict.

Here are the five flaws I jotted down as I read the book:

Hesitating to take definitive action. McClellan was constantly preparing. According to him, the Army was never quite ready. The troops just needed a little more training. In his procrastination, he refused to engage the enemy, even when he clearly had the advantage. He could just not bring himself to launch an attack. When Lincoln finally relieved him of his duties, he famously said, “If General McClellan does not want to use the army, I would like to borrow it for a time.”
Complaining about a lack of resources. He constantly complained about the lack of available resources. He didn’t have enough men. His men weren’t paid enough. They didn’t have enough heavy artillery. And on and on he went. The truth is that, as a leader, you never have enough resources. You could always use more of one thing or another. But the successful leaders figure out how to get the job done with the resources they have.
Refusing to take responsibility. McClellan was constantly blaming everyone else for his mistakes and for his refusal to act. He even blamed the President. Every time he suffered a defeat or a setback, someone or something was to blame. He was a master finger-pointer. Great leaders don’t do this. They are accountable for the results and accept full responsibility for the outcomes.
Abusing the privileges of leadership. While his troops were struggling in almost unbearable conditions, McClellan lived in near-royal splendor. He spent almost every evening entertaining guests with elaborate dinners and parties. He insisted on the best clothes and accommodations. His lifestyle stood in distinct contrast to General Ulysses S. Grant, his eventual successor, who often traveled with only a toothbrush.
Engaging in acts of insubordination. McClellan openly and continually criticized the President, his boss. He was passive-aggressive. Even when Lincoln gave him a direct order, he found a way to avoid obeying it. In his arrogance, he always knew better than the President and had a ready excuse to rationalize his lack of follow-through.
President Lincoln had the patience of Job. He gave General McClellan numerous opportunities to correct his behavior and redeem himself. But in the end, McClellan either could not or would not do so. He left the President no choice but to relieve him of his duties.

These same character flaws afflict many leaders today. The best safeguard is self-awareness.

Question: Do you see any of these flaws in your own leadership? What can you do to correct them now—while you still have time?
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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Book Notes: Derailed by Tim Irwin

What Keeps You Going When You Want to Quit?

POSTED ON OCTOBER 28, 2009
In: Leadership

http://michaelhyatt.com/five-characteristics-of-weak-leaders.html

The CEO of The 21st Century Author: Mark Goulston

2011-08-08T08:37:00.000-07:00

The CEO of The 21st Century

Author: Mark Goulston

Mark Goulston is Senior Vice President of Emotional Intelligence at Sherwood Partners, a Palo Alto, California-based turnaround and growth consulting firm.

Author of 'Get Out of Your Own Way: Overcoming Self-Defeating Behavior', Goulston is also a professor at UCLA. In his work, he helps leaders and teams quickly recognize, accept, correct, and learn from mistakes.

Mark can be contacted through his website www.shrwood.com, or by email at mgoulston@shrwood.com
What are the qualities and characteristics that help create successful leaders ? Consider this four-point plan.

With business leaders' public - and private - behavior coming under increasing scrutiny, it's becoming nearly impossible to avoid getting caught in a lie. Few things detract more from your credibility and the respect of your colleagues and peers than being called on the carpet to deflect accusations and defend an untruth. Can leaders who lapse learn how to be truthful in words and honorable in deeds ? Of course they can.

If you're fortunate, you'll meet people over the course of your career who exceed your expectations in every way. When you work or spend time with them, you find yourself wanting to be a better person. You put a lid on your neuroses ( which might cause you to coax others to go easy on you because you are wracked with worry ) and on your sense of entitlement ( which can drive you to manipulate others into doing what you want through intimidation ). And you work well.

Why do we try to be the best that we can be with such people ? Given the choice between instant gratification and the lasting satisfaction of earning the esteem of someone you respect and admire, all but the most myopic of us would choose the latter.

What would happen to your leadership effectiveness if you became more like the people from whom others actively seek acceptance and support ? How productive would your teammates and peers become if they all felt that having you as a leader represented the rare opportunity to work with someone that people inside and outside the company admire ? How much harder would people work if they were inspired and motivated by the privilege of your adamant faith in their skills ?

If you answered anything less than an enthusiastically positive response to those questions, imagine the effect on people if you acted in a manner that was the polar opposite of this. How motivated would your colleagues be if you attacked, blamed, demeaned, and embarrassed them and yourself ? Perhaps they'd work hard in the short run because of fear or even resentment. Your organization might squeeze a winning quarter out of intimidation, but without inspiration you will never build a winning company.

What are the qualities that leaders should aspire to in order to earn, deserve, and command respect ? Look no further than a mentor whose belief in you made you want to give your best shot in your professional and personal life. Chances are they possessed the following four attributes:

The judgment to know the right thing to do
The integrity to do it
The character to stand up to those who don't
The courage to stop those who won't
If you consistently practice and develop these qualities in your professional and personal life, you will accrue an additional benefit beyond getting the best out of your peers and colleagues, as well as your family. You will develop wisdom. With that you will be able to distinguish what's important in life, what's worth fighting for -- even dying for -- and what makes up a life that's worth living.

Usable Insight - Command respect, and people will beat a path to your door. Demand obedience, and sooner or later they'll head for the exits.

This article formed the first part of a five part series by Mark Goulston, originally published in Fast Company earlier in 2004. The other four articles are available to read within the Value Systems section of the LeaderValues website.

© Copyright Mark Goulston 2004

http://www.leader-values.com/Content/detail.asp?ContentDetailID=268

The Global Leader of the Future : New Competencies for a New Era Author: Marshall Goldsmith

2011-08-08T08:32:00.000-07:00

The Global Leader of the Future : New Competencies for a New Era

Author: Marshall Goldsmith

Marshall Goldsmith is one of the world’s foremost authorities in helping leaders achieve positive, measurable change in behavior: for themselves, their people and their teams. He is Founder of Marshall Goldsmith Partners www.marshallgoldsmith.com

Marshall is a founding director of A4SL - The Alliance for Strategic Leadership, a consulting alliance that includes over 200 top professionals in the field of leadership development at www.A4SL.com. He is also the co-founder of the Financial Times Knowledge Dialogue, a videoconference network that connects executives with the world’s greatest thinkers. He has a Ph.D. from UCLA. He is on the faculty of the global executive education program for Dartmouth, Michigan and Oxford ( UK ) Universities. Marshall has partnerships with Hewitt Associates and Russell Reynolds to provide coaching for leaders around the globe. He has served on the Board of the Peter Drucker Foundation for ten years.

Marshall’s fourteen books include: The Leader of the Future ( a Business Week “Top 15” best-seller ), Learning Journeys and Coaching for Leadership.

( Adapted from: Global Leadership: The Next Generation, FT Prentice Hall, Marshall Goldsmith, Cathy Greenberg, Alastair Robertson and Maya Hu-Chan )

Accenture Consulting ( with Marshall Goldsmith ) was recently engaged in a multi-country research project aimed at helping global organizations understand the most important characteristics of the leader of the future. As part of our research we asked leading companies to identify future leaders who have the potential to be the CEO of a global organization. Rather than the usual process of asking today's leaders ( who will not be there ) to describe the future of leadership, we decided to ask tomorrow's leaders. We received input from these future leaders through focus groups, interviews and surveys. In total, we received input from over 200 future leaders who were nominated from over 120 major companies around the world.

In comparing the desired characteristics of the leader of the future with the desired characteristics of the leader of the past we found both similarities and differences. Many qualities of effective leadership were seen as being important for yesterday, today and tomorrow. Characteristics like vision, integrity, focus on results and ensuring customer satisfaction were seen as factors that were critical in the past and will be so in the future.

Five key factors emerged that were seen as being clearly more important in the future than in the past include :-

thinking globally
appreciating cultural diversity
demonstrating technological savvy
building partnerships
sharing leadership
In this article, we will not address each of these factors in detail, but we will describe some of the key learnings from our research for each factor.

Thinking Globally

Globalization is a trend that will have a major impact on the leaders of the future. In the past, even major companies could focus on their own country or, at most, their own region. Those days are soon going to be over. In the new world, a financial crisis that may begin in Thailand and spread to Southeast Asia will dramatically influence the rest of the world. The trend toward globally connected markets is likely to become even stronger in the future. The participants in our interviews mentioned that not only would leaders need to understand the economic implications of globalization; they will also have to understand the legal and political implications.

Two factors that are seen as making global thinking a key variable for the future are the dramatic projected increases in global trade and integrated global technology. Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor in the USA, joked that he had difficulty trying to buy an "American" car because it was almost impossible to determine what percent of the car was actually made in America. In our research, participants from around the world saw the value of global trade. Several suggested that future leaders might need to spend time in multiple countries to better understand how multi-country trade could help their organizations achieve a competitive advantage. In an environment where competitive pressures are rapidly increasing, producers will have to learn how to manage global production, marketing and sales teams.

New technology is another factor that is going to make global thinking a requirement for future leaders. With the use of new technology it will be feasible to export even office and "white collar" work around the world. Computer programmers in India can communicate with designers in Italy to help develop products that are manufactured in Indonesia and sold in Brazil. Technology can help break down barriers to global business that seemed insurmountable in the past. Leaders who are stuck in local thinking will be hard-pressed to compete in a global marketplace. Leaders who can make globalization work in their organization's favor will have a huge competitive advantage.

Appreciating Cultural Diversity

As the importance of globalization increases, future leaders will also need to appreciate cultural diversity. They will have to understand not only the economic and legal differences, but also the social and behavioral differences that are part of working around the world. Our research is consistent with research from the Center for Creative Leadership, which showed that "respect for differences in people" is one of the most important qualities of a successful global leader. The high-potential leaders we interviewed believed that developing an understanding of other cultures was not just an obligation, it was an opportunity.

The appreciation of cultural diversity will need to include both the "big things" and "small things" that make up a unique culture. For example, few Europeans or Americans who work in the Middle East have taken the time to read ( much less understand ) the Koran. It is clear that religion is one of the most important variables that impact behavior in the region. Smaller issues, such as the meaning of gifts or the importance of timeliness will also need to be understood.

Participants noted that the ability to motivate people in different cultures would become increasingly important. Motivational strategies that are effective in one culture may actually be offensive in another culture. The same public recognition that could be a source of pride to a salesperson in the USA could be a source of embarrassment to a scientist in the UK. Leaders who can effectively understand, appreciate and motivate colleagues in multiple cultures will become an increasingly valued resource in the future.

Demonstrating Technological Savvy

High-potential leaders from around the world were consistent in expressing the view that technological savvy will be a key competency for the global leader of the future. One trend on this issue was clear - the younger the participant, the greater their emphasis in the importance of technological savvy. Many young future leaders have been brought up with technology and view it as a part of their life. Many present leaders still view technological savvy as something that is important for staff people, but not for the line officers that run the "real" business.

What does "technological savvy" mean ? It does not mean that every future leader will be a gifted technician or a computer programmer. It does mean that leaders will need to;

understand how the intelligent use of new technology can help their organizations;
recruit, develop and maintain a network of technically competent people;
know how to make and manage investments in new technology and
be positive role models in leading the use of new technology.
Most young participants believed that new technology would become a critical variable that will directly impact their organization's core business. They expressed little sympathy for executives who thought they were either "too busy" or "too important" to learn the power of new tools. The clear consensus was that organizations that had technologically savvy leaders would have a competitive advantage over organizations that did not.

Building Partnerships

Building partnerships and alliances of all kinds was viewed as far more important for the future than the past. Many organizations that seldom formed alliances in the past ( such as IBM ) are regularly forming alliances today. This trend will be even more important in the future. Reengineering, restructuring and downsizing are leading to a world where outsourcing of all but core activities may become the norm. The ability to negotiate complex alliances and manage complex networks of relationships is viewed as becoming increasingly important.

The changing role of customers, suppliers and partners has deep implications for leaders. In the past it was clear who your "friends" were and who your "enemies" were. In the future these roles are becoming more blurred. In fields as diverse as energy, telecommunications and pharmaceuticals the same organization may be a customer, supplier, partner or competitor. In this "New World" building positive, long-term, "win-win" relationships with many organizations becomes critical. Defeating an "enemy" who may turn out to be a potential customer can prove to be a short-term victory.

Sharing Leadership

In a world where leading across a fluid network may become more important than leading from above a fixed hierarchy, being able to effectively share leadership is not an option. In an alliance structure telling partners what to do may quickly lead to having no partners. All parties will have to be able to work together to achieve the common good.

Not only did our participants believe that the leader of the future would be different than the leader of the past, they also believed that the employee of the future would be different. Many of the future leaders saw that the management of knowledge workers was going to be a key factor in their success. Peter Drucker has noted that knowledge workers are people who know more about what they are doing that their managers do. In dealing with knowledge workers old models of leadership will not work. Telling people what to do and how to do it becomes ridiculous. The leader will be more in a mode of asking for input and sharing information. Knowledge workers of the future may well be difficult to keep. They will probably have little organizational loyalty and view themselves as professional "free agents" who will work for the leader who provides the most challenge and opportunity. Skills in hiring and retaining key talent will be a valuable commodity for the leader of the future. Sharing leadership may be one way to help demonstrate this skill.

Implications for the organizations of the future

The high-potential future leaders that we interviewed believe that new times will require new skills. Unfortunately, many of today's leaders have not been trained in these skills or even been encouraged to believe that these skills are important. Thinking globally, appreciating cultural diversity, demonstrating technological savvy, building partnerships and sharing leadership are competencies that many present leaders do not have.

To successfully prepare for the next millennium, tomorrow's organizations will have to either change the mind-set of many leaders or change their employment status. For leaders who are near retirement, this may not be an issue. For middle-aged leaders who lack the needed new skills this may be a challenge. Leaders will have to learn why the new skills are important. They will have to understand what they need to learn and be shown how they can best learn it. The organization's reward and reinforcement system will need to be changed to reflect the new competencies.

The "bad news" is that many existing leaders do not see the value of these new competencies. The "good news" is that almost all of the top high-potential future leaders do see the value of these new competencies. Historically, present leaders have been expected to help mentor and develop future leaders. While this will still be true in the future, there may be a major addition to the process - future leaders may be recruited to help mentor and develop present leaders. If future leaders have the wisdom to learn from the experience of present leaders and present leaders have the wisdom to learn new competencies from future leaders, both parties can share leadership in a way that can benefit their organization.

© Copyright Marshall Goldsmith, 2005

http://www.leader-values.com/Content/detail.asp?ContentDetailID=937

2011-08-03T09:33:00.000-07:00

http://www.leadershipimpact.com/home.html

Ensuring alignment -- or FIT -- among talent, strategy, structure and systems is a key success factor for leaders and a core benefit of Leadership Impact's services. When leaders can bring talent, strategy, structure and systems together in harmony, organizational effectiveness soars. They create a positive cycle of energy and accomplishment.

When people, strategies, structures, or systems get out of sync, organizations falter.
Individual performance problems surface.
Silos develop and functional teams work at cross purposes.
Communications and decision-making bog down.
Staff and management lose focus.
Organizational results are not commensurate with the investment of time, effort, or financial resources.
We help leaders build strong teams and create positive environments by
improving management selection and development,
facilitating strategic planning and implementation,
and assisting in the assessment and redesign of organizational systems and structures.

Seven Ways to Beat Procrastionation

2011-08-03T09:29:00.000-07:00

Seven Ways to Beat Procrastionation
Seven Ways to Beat Procrastination
By Jim Estill

I am a student of Time Management and a big part of time management is beating procrastination. We all do, even those of us who pride ourselves in having good time management skills.

From my studies, I have come up with seven proven ways to beat procrastination.

1. Do the worst task first: I have used this technique for years and I have even created more than one first thing. There is first thing in the morning, there is first thing in the after lunch, and there is first thing in the evening. I take a look at the items on my To Do List and figure out which one I am dreading the most and spend a limited time on it at least moving it forward. This is known as swallowing the frog first thing and the rest of the day looks good.

2. Break it down: Often the reason that we procrastinate is because the task ahead of us is too big. Often there are small parts of the task that can be done. How do you climb a mountain? One step at a time.

3. Use a friend: I wasn’t actually referring to delegation (but of course I don’t mind that either), I was referring to tell a friend what you want to do and get them to help you start the task. Often it is the act of starting a task that is enough to get the task done.

4. Do the pleasant part of the task: Often many distasteful and large jobs have some parts to it that are not particular distasteful. Do them so at least you are moving forward on your most important items.

5. Fifteen (15) minutes: Just spend 15 minutes on a task. I have the attitude that I can spend 15 minutes doing virtually anything and I can certainly survive spending 15 minutes on something. Often by spending the 15 minutes on a task, I either complete it or I will get it moved forward enough that it has momentum to finish.

6. Track it: The simple act of tracking process on a goal is often enough to keep the goal moving forward. It seems odd but simply knowing that you are going to write down whether or not you have done something is often enough to make you move forward.

7. Reward or punish: The reason we do something is because it is more painful than not doing something, so if we can make a task more rewarding or more painful, then we tend to move forward on things so tying successful completion of a task to a reward is often a successful technique.

Remember that even successful people occasionally procrastinate. It is not a permanent condition.

For more strategies – buy my book – Time Leadership – Use the Secrets of Leadership for Time Management.

Seven Ways to Beat Procrastionation
Seven Ways to Beat Procrastination
By Jim Estill

I am a student of Time Management and a big part of time management is beating procrastination. We all do, even those of us who pride ourselves in having good time management skills.

From my studies, I have come up with seven proven ways to beat procrastination.

1. Do the worst task first: I have used this technique for years and I have even created more than one first thing. There is first thing in the morning, there is first thing in the after lunch, and there is first thing in the evening. I take a look at the items on my To Do List and figure out which one I am dreading the most and spend a limited time on it at least moving it forward. This is known as swallowing the frog first thing and the rest of the day looks good.

2. Break it down: Often the reason that we procrastinate is because the task ahead of us is too big. Often there are small parts of the task that can be done. How do you climb a mountain? One step at a time.

3. Use a friend: I wasn’t actually referring to delegation (but of course I don’t mind that either), I was referring to tell a friend what you want to do and get them to help you start the task. Often it is the act of starting a task that is enough to get the task done.

4. Do the pleasant part of the task: Often many distasteful and large jobs have some parts to it that are not particular distasteful. Do them so at least you are moving forward on your most important items.

5. Fifteen (15) minutes: Just spend 15 minutes on a task. I have the attitude that I can spend 15 minutes doing virtually anything and I can certainly survive spending 15 minutes on something. Often by spending the 15 minutes on a task, I either complete it or I will get it moved forward enough that it has momentum to finish.

6. Track it: The simple act of tracking process on a goal is often enough to keep the goal moving forward. It seems odd but simply knowing that you are going to write down whether or not you have done something is often enough to make you move forward.

7. Reward or punish: The reason we do something is because it is more painful than not doing something, so if we can make a task more rewarding or more painful, then we tend to move forward on things so tying successful completion of a task to a reward is often a successful technique.

Remember that even successful people occasionally procrastinate. It is not a permanent condition.

For more strategies – buy my book – Time Leadership – Use the Secrets of Leadership for Time Management.

Creating Effective Goals

2011-08-03T09:25:00.000-07:00

Creating Effective Goals
Creating Effective Goals

By Jim Estill

Do you have effective and clear goals?

In what direction do you want to go?

It’s time to replace your clock with a compass so you can head out in the right direction.

Why is it important to set goals?

Goals are important because you will get what you strive for. By actively thinking about what you intend to accomplish, you will work on achieving those accomplishments. Any area of your life which you focus on will improve, simply because you take the time to assess your habits.

Setting Effective Goals

Goals are Dreams…

…With Actions!

When you set goals, you need to take many questions into account: what, when, why, and how. What are you going to accomplish? Be sure to be concrete about your answer. When are you going to complete the task, or achieve your goal? Why is this important to you? How are you going to realize your goal; what is your strategy?

There is an easy acronym to help you create effective goals:

S - Specific

M – Measurable

A - Appropriate

R - Realistic

T - Timed

You need to create specific goals. The goal “I want to become a better swimmer” is almost impossible to judge because it is not specific enough. A better goal would be “I want to earn my bronze medallion by next June” or “I want to swim 10 laps of the pool twice a week.”

“I want to earn my bronze medallion by next June” is a more effective goal because it is measurable. There is a clear marker of achievement that you can earn.

Goals need to be appropriate. It is not only unproductive to say “I want to lose 40 pounds by next week,” it is also counter-productive. Unattainable goals are counter-productive because when you make a goal that you do not achieve, you experience an emotional let-down. It is not wise or healthy to get your heart set on something that is out of reach. However, keep in mind that goals should also be a stretch.

This is not to say that your goals cannot be large: they can! But your goals also need to be realistic. If you set a goal that is unrealistic and attempt to work towards it, you will exhaust yourself and your resources. Rather than setting one large goal in a short time-frame, create smaller goals that will lead you to accomplishing your long-term goal. Breaking your goals into smaller chunks helps you create goals that are more specific, often more measurable, more appropriate, more realistic, while creating a time-line for your larger goal. Having mini-goals is one of the keys of successful goal setting.

The idea of creating smaller goals leads us to the idea that goals need to be timed. Putting a timeframe on your goal ensures that it will not drop down to the bottom of your priority list. It also makes measuring your goal easier. Saying “I will sell $500 before 5 o’clock this afternoon” means that at 5:00 you will stop to check your progress.

When you create smaller goals in order to achieve your larger goals, be sure that they are on a timeline as well. If your large goal is to find a better job at Company X by next Christmas, your smaller goals could be on a weekly basis. For your first week, you would create a contact at Company X and attempt to establish if there are any openings. Week two, you could update your resume and cover-letter. Week three, you would make a follow-up phone call. Your smaller goals would function as milestones that are appropriate and realistic, while still being specific, measurable, and timed.

One of my favourite quotes is “We tend to overestimate what we can do in a day and underestimate what we can do in a year.” I see this time and time again. Great things can be accomplished over long periods if we keep heading in the right direction.

My book includes the most effective exercise I have ever seen for setting goals. Buy it here.

http://resources.jimestill.com/2008/09/creating-effective-goals/

Why Time Leadership?

2011-08-03T09:08:00.000-07:00

Use The Secrets of Leadership for Time Management.
Why Time Leadership?

“Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed.”

-Peter F. Drucker

            Time management is not enough.

“Leadership is doing the right thing; management is doing things right.”    Leadership is more important than management. Leadership focuses on effectiveness; management focuses on efficiency. This e-book will give you the necessary tools and shares the secrets to master not only efficiency skills, but also effectiveness skills.

          One of the reasons that time management is not enough is because time is not about quantity. If time were measured solely by quantity, it would be scarce: there would never be enough time to accomplish tasks, regardless of how efficiently you schedule. Time is about quality.

          Take a moment to think about your highly productive hours or days over the last year. You probably accomplished more in those short periods of time than over weeks or even months of less productive work.   This book teaches you secrets on how to have more of these treasured highly productive hours.

The key to time leadership is to maximize your number of quality hours. Leadership allows you to establish your priorities. Once you know your priorities, always work on the top priority.

           SET CLEAR GOALS



This book includes the best way to set goals exercise that only takes an hour.

Furthermore, I will share with you my complete organizational system, made up of many aspects that you can choose to adopt and adapt as you see fit.

I will share the One To Do list trick that will save you an hour per week minimum.

OVERCOME PROCRASTINATION

This e-book offers secrets suggestions on how to avoid procrastination. It explains how to effectively delegate. It will help familiarize you with how to effectively use your time to reach your goals. From the basic building blocks of time management to the advanced concepts involved with Time Leadership, this e-book will put you on the path to success.

INCREASE YOUR ENERGY

“Things which matter the most in life should not be at the mercy of things which matter the least.”

          -Goethe

Once you have created an effective organizational system (and while you are in the process of fine-tuning your organization) you will be ready to begin implementing some of The Powers. These Powers can be used to increase your energy and productivity, which will in turn lead to positive results in your time use.

Above and beyond The Powers, the organizational system, the goal-setting, and the workbook, this e-book offers you some hints and tips on the small things that make Time Leadership possible. They will help you optimize your performance, improve your organization, and save you time.

Altogether, the lessons gleaned from this e-book are invaluable. Since time is money, this book will help you save and earn more time and money.

Start saving time today by clicking here. Or if you are one of those who procrastinates, click here. And if you still want to put it off, you really just need this book.

MONEY BACK GUARANTEE

I believe so much in this product, I offer a no risk guarantee. If you are not completely satisfied with your purchase, ask for your full refund.

http://resources.jimestill.com/2008/06/use-the-secrets-of-leadership-for-time-management/

A guest post by Art Gould Recipes for Success: 5 Different Leadership Styles That All Work!

2011-08-03T09:05:00.000-07:00

5 Leadership Styles that Work
A guest post by Art Gould

Recipes for Success: 5 Different Leadership Styles That All Work!

There's more than one way to skin a cat.

Nowhere is this saying more true than in today's corporate world. The best way to find out what makes a company successful is to look at the top. And when you do, what you quickly see is that today's top executives are much more than bean counters. They are the founders and daily drivers of their company's corporate cultures. Of particular interest are those who have achieveda measure of prominence due to their accomplishments. The singular characteristic that they all share is their company's success. But when you look more closely and study their leadership styles, you tend to notice more differences than similarities. Here are examples of five different leadership styles that have all proven successful in various ways:

Transformational

This type of leader is one who is able to continually inspire his or her teams and influence
subordinates to improve and/or change. Leaders like this are usually visionaries with boundless enthusiasm. Legendary corporate icons such as Lee Iaccoca and Jack Welsh would clearly fall into this category. A good present-day example of this type of leadership can be found in Virgin Group Ltd, a very successful corporation renowned for its presence in a wide variety of global markets. Many business analysts attribute a great deal of Virgin's success to the innovative leadership style of its chairman, Sir Richard Branson, who has demonstrated a marked ability to inspire his people to innovate and grow.

One of the most striking all-time success stories associated with this leadership style is Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, the architect of what has evolved into the largest private employer in the U.S. Walton's characteristic leadership style included regular visits to Wal-Mart stores across the country, where he would meet with associates to show his appreciation for their contributions to the company.

Service-Oriented

This style is characterized by leaders who put the needs of their subordinates ahead of their own. They tend to rely strongly on their values and ideals, and they involve their teams heavily in decision making. Probably the best modern-day example of how this style can be successful is (once again) Wal-Mart, whose current chairman, S. Robson Walton, took over his father Sam's empire in 1992 and since that time expanded its annual revenue by almost 800 percent! The secret to Rob Walton's success is that he does not pretend to be his father and has indeed adopted a different style of leadership. Walton has implanted within his teams the overriding philosophy to always listen to the customer and put the customer's needs above all else. He has imbued the entire corporation with a service culture that is reaping record-shattering rewards in terms of corporate success.

Participative

Similar to the service leadership style in that team members are involved in decision making, this style is characterized by a leadership that makes decisions in joint fashion. Google, one of the world's fastest-growing and most successful organizations, is a vivid example of how effective this style can be. For several years spanning a period of extraordinary growth, the company operated under an executive management group comprised of three individuals who shared responsibility. The success of this business model spawned many imitators who have since adopted this style within their corporations.

Charismatic

A charismatic leader relies on personal charm to lead and inspire. This type of leadership usually creates a feeling within the organization that there is a direct connection between corporate success and the presence of the charismatic leader. As such, it can be a double-edged sword, highly dependent on the leader sticking around. But it can also lead to great success. A good example is Thomas Watson, Sr., who oversaw IBM's monumental growth into a dominant international force during the early part of the 20th Century.

Watson infused his charisma within the organization by instituting policies and rituals tied to his personal beliefs. For example, he instituted a corporate dress code of dark suits and white shirts so that his salespeople would feel like executives. This worked very well for many years, as it built a sense of pride that became a corporate calling card. Unfortunately, this same policy became emblematic of the company's rigidity and conformity, demonstrating one of the drawbacks of the charismatic style.

Situational

This is perhaps the most generally successful leadership style because it requires the leader to be adaptable to the situation, the abilities of the teams, and the capability of the leader himself. This style requires the leader to continually adjust to emergent constraints and limitations imposed on him. History is replete with examples of successful leaders of this type, not only in the corporate world but in all facets of life. Most of the top military leaders in history can lay claim to having used this style of leadership to great and lasting effect.

Art Gould is a division manager with Self Storage Company, which operates a group of websites, including a Nashville self-storage locator. Though busy, Art enjoys meeting new people and clients when traveling to sites throughout Tennessee like the Memphis self storage center.

posted by Jim Estill @ 9:27 AM

http://www.jimestill.com/2011/01/5-leadership-styles-that-work.html

Execution Businesses

2011-08-03T08:57:00.000-07:00

Execution Businesses
Some businesses have such barriers to entry and such competitive advantage that they can still thrive even with poor execution. Companies that have patents, government regulation, rocket science(very tough intellectual property to copy) , massive development costs to get into the business, high capital cost, high market share etc.

EMJ was an execution business. It was simply not that hard for anyone to get a product line to distribute. Over time we were able to grow to create barriers to entry with things like size, having the "good" lines, and having market share within a niche but in the end, it was always still an execution business.

It can be fatal for an entrepreneur not to realize that their business is an execution business. Ask - is it really that tough for someone to copy what we do? If the answer is no then follow these steps for success:

9 Ways to Thrive in an Execution Business

1 - Be frugal. Frugal does not mean cheap, it means getting appropriate value for money spent. Spend on function, not on show.

2 - Focus on process. The key is to create replicable steps that can be repeated time after time. As an early entrepreneur, often this means trying it yourself. Time how long it takes to make 10 calls. Track which message gets the most meetings. Refine and learn.

3 - Test everything. Fail Often, Fail Fast, Fail Cheap. This is a continuation of Focus on Process.

4 - Look for areas of minor competitive advantage. Really that is what execution businesses are all about. Although they may lack the monopoly or defacto monopoly characteristics of other businesses, they can have minor advantages in many different small areas. If I look at why EMJ was a success, it was not one thing, it was a number of tiny things.

5 - Know your numbers. By nature, execution businesses have small margins for error. Competition ensures that there are few "high profit" opportunities. So knowing what areas make and lose money and knowing true costs is essential.

6 - Look for niches. Often execution businesses can develop competencies within a specific expertise. Within a niche, it is easier to be the expert - less to study, less people with your focus. It is also easier to figure out ways to thrive and customize your company to address only those specific things the niche needs.

7 - Work hard. We worked long and hard year after year. My work ethic was a competitive advantage.

8 - Take full responsibility. It does not matter if the economy is good or bad, if China is selling for X, if the US$ is trading at Y, or "the VP sales cannot sell well enough" or any other "condition". Those are just conditions. We live with them and figure out how to be profitable. There are no excuses - if we fail, we are the ones that did not execute well so we need to change our product, our approach, our tactics and anything else.

9 - Study and practice time management. I think that is why I ended up writing a book on time management. This is really an extension of Be Frugal. Time is the biggest cost so get the best value from it possible.
posted by Jim Estill @ 10:49 AM 0 commentslinks to this post

http://www.jimestill.com/

Developing an Autotelic Personality, or, How to Enjoy Everything

2011-07-29T15:55:00.000-07:00

Imagine deriving the utmost enjoyment and pleasure out of nearly every aspect of your life. Listening to music, doing dishes, talking to a friend, cooking a meal, or doing errands– what if you looked forward to all of these activities equally? In Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s book, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, he describes a type of person with an “autotelic” personality. According to Csikszentmihalyi, “The term “autotelic” derives from two Greek words, auto, meaning self, and telos meaning goal. It refers to a self-contained activity, one that is done not with the expectation of some future benefit, but simply because the doing itself is the reward.”

Engaging in autotelic activities is what many people describe as “flow.” Think back to a time you were doing something you loved and really got wrapped up in the project. You probably lost sense of time and you felt challenged, yet capable, of handling whatever you faced. This is the making of an autotelic experience and the more of these occurrences we can have, the greater enjoyment we can get out of life.

Finding the flow state
Some activities are conducive to entering this flow state. For example, athletes and surgeons both report high levels of autotelic experiences while they partake in their professions. The true test of an autotelic personality, however, is being able to enter that state of flow even while doing things that many people may consider boring. A person with an autotelic personality can take something as mundane as mowing the lawn and turn it into an opportunity for growth. Therefore, the argument that developing an autotelic personality will directly impact your quality of life is quite easy to make. Deriving true enjoyment out of every aspect of is the key to separating the quality of our lives from external (and therefore uncontrollable) forces.

Becoming somebody with an autotelic personality is not something that can be done overnight. It must be actively practiced until it becomes part of your personality. The rules are very simple and can be broken down as follows:

Setting goals: To experience flow you have to have clear goals to strive for. This includes massive lifelong goals to something as small as figuring out what to do this afternoon. An autotelic personality can make these decisions with a minimum of extra effort which allows her to focus her energy on attaining that goal.
Becoming immersed in the activity: An autotelic personality will give all of his or her attention directly to the task at hand. Being in control of your own attention is one of the most powerful skills a person can develop. A wandering or constantly distracted mind is a the mercy of every passing stimulus and therefore attention is spread and diluted.
Learning to enjoy immediate experience: Our bodies and minds have incredible capabilities of enjoyment. Gaining control of your mind opens an individual to experience almost anything and derive joy. Every taste, smell, sound, thought, and observation can be the anchor of immediate enjoyment if we take the time, focus, and effort to experience it.
Unfortunately, I am not writing this article from the position of an expert in autotelic experiences. I am a complete novice when it comes to learning how to experience the enjoyment in everyday events and seemingly trivial occurrences. However, I do see the benefit in training myself to become more autotelic. The better I get at this, the less I require outside forces to create the enjoyment in my life. If I can derive enjoyment from the simplest of activities, why do I need to spend money on video games? Why would I have to buy expensive consumer goods?

We all have amazing capabilities to control our level of enjoyment in everything we do. Practicing the steps to developing an autotelic personality is a very concrete way to improve the quality of your own life. As Csikszentmihalyi writes, “Only direct control of experience, the ability to derive moment-by-moment enjoyment from everything we do, can overcome the obstacles to fulfillment.”

What can you do today to derive enjoyment in your life?

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Six Best Practices of Leadership Development Initiatives by GEORGE AMBLER on SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2008

2011-06-26T16:35:00.000-07:00

Six Best Practices of Leadership Development Initiatives
by GEORGE AMBLER on SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2008
Chief Learning Officer magazine has an article "Leadership Development in 2008" that discussing research which found the following six best practices common to highly successful leadership development initiatives.

Strong executive engagement: The most important practice of all is to obtain the engagement of top leaders and managers. Their commitment means that the program will be highly regarded, aligned with corporate strategy and focused on the right business issues.
Tailored leadership competencies: Successful leadership development programs are based on identified leadership competencies. By isolating and agreeing upon leadership competencies most important to your business, you will have the foundation for leadership development, as well as succession planning, career development and other talent-related processes.
Alignment with business strategy: Leadership development is far more than management training. As leaders move up in the organization, their skills must shift from people and project management to strategic business and operations management. Organizations such as Agilent, Aetna and Cisco focus heavily on company-specific business strategies in their leadership programs.
Target all levels of leadership: While the term “leadership” may not seem to apply to first-line managers, we find that high-impact programs have elements that apply to every level of management.
Apply a comprehensive and ongoing approach: No sound leadership development program consists solely of an instructor-led training event. Programs must include developmental assignments, 360-degree assessments, meetings with global counterparts, case studies, external education and a wide variety of e-learning and other media to give leaders a complete experience. People learn to lead by doing, so the best leadership development programs focus heavily on experiential learning.
Integrate with talent management: To build a sustainable leadership pipeline, organizations must implement programs to assess leadership potential (part of the performance management process), identify successors to existing leaders and place these individuals into the right development programs as part of the company’s regular business practices. In fact, one of the biggest indicators of a first-class leadership development program is a set of established practices and a corporate culture that encourages development throughout the enterprise.
These are a great set of leadership development practices to use in your leadership development programmes. As leadership talent becomes more scarce, developing people from within become more and more important. What are you doing to develop the leaders of tomorrow for your team and organisation?

The Practice of Leadership

2011-06-26T16:28:00.000-07:00

What is The Practice of Leadership?
by GEORGE AMBLER on WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15, 2011
The exploration of the practice of leadership is a broad topic that is further complicated by the vast number of views and opinions expressed on the nature successful leaders and leadership. The goal of this post is to provide an overarching framework that will be used to guide our conversations on the ever evolving practice of leadership. In our conversation on the topic of leadership, we have chosen to place our emphasis on leadership practices, as it’s only when we take action that we are able to influence our world. As Mahatma Gandhi observed, ‘we must be the change we wish to see in the world’. Given this leadership focus, it’s necessary to be clear as to what are the outcomes of effective leadership.

Three Leadership Outcomes

An approach to the development of an integrated practice of leadership is described by Drath, et el. (2008) in their article, “Direction, alignment, commitment: Toward a more integrative ontology of leadership” published in The Leadership Quarterly[1]. In the article the authors propose an integrative leadership framework comprising of the following three key leadership outcomes:

Direction. This outcome is the facilitation of shared direction and collective agreement on the vision, mission, goals and aims. Direction implies change, a change from the current reality towards some future state.
Alignment. This outcomes concerns producing the right configuration of organisational structures, skills, processes, performance management systems, governance and technology required to allow the organisation to move towards their desired future direction.
Commitment. This is outcome is concerned with bringing people to the place where they willingly devote their time and energy in support of the shared direction.
When we approach the topic of leadership in terms of these three outcomes, it changes the leadership conversation. It changes the conversation from one that has historically been focused on leaders, followers and goals, to a conversation focused on the production of direction, alignment and commitment.

The Three Leadership Disciplines

Building upon the leadership framework described above and exploring leadership from a business perspective provides the necessary foundation to develop a business leadership framework. In considering this, we have identified three key organisational disciplines, that when taken together, help to produce the leadership outcomes of direction, alignment and commitment. Historically, each of these disciplines has been researched and described in isolation. However, it’s only when each of these disciplines are integrated in a manner that produces direction, alignment and commitment that leadership occurs. Thus, an integrated approach as illustrated in the diagram below provides a great framework to begin a new leadership conversation.

Adopting an integrative approach, as illustrated above, across the three business disciplines of strategy, execution and culture, provides a framework from which we can start a new conversation about the leadership practices, necessary to produce the outcomes of direction, alignment and commitment. A brief overview of each of the three key disciplines are as follows:

Strategy. The discipline of strategy is about setting direction. Strategy addresses where we are and where we are going, providing the purpose, vision, mission and goals of the organisation. Strategy is important as is sets the direction, which in turn guides our choices concerning the allocation of scare resources, such as time, attention and assets. Strategy sets the context in which execution, resulting in alignment is generated.
Execution. The discipline of execution is about aligning the organisations people, processes, information, governance, structures, technology and measurement in support of the strategy. It ensures that our resources are applied effectively and efficiently in support of the strategy. Execution helps to clarify accountability for the achievement of business outcomes and bring about the necessary alignment required to implement the strategy.
Culture. The culture of an organisation deals with ‘the way we do things around here’. The organisation culture consists of the unseen beliefs, values and assumptions that support the way people work and the practices we adopt to support how work gets done. Culture results in either the commitment of people towards the strategy and vision or alternatively a lack of commitment leading to compliance and mediocrity.
Integrating these three disciplines in a way that produces the outcomes of direction, alignment and commitment produces leadership. Each of the disciplines described above are supported by a set of leadership practices, that in turn supports the production of direction, alignment and commitment. Exploring these leadership practices is the purpose and goal of this new and emerging leadership conversation.

[1] Wilfred H. Drath, Cynthia D. McCauley, Charles J. Palus, Ellen Van Velsor, Patricia M.G. O’Connor, John B. McGuire, (2008) “Direction, alignment, commitment: Toward a more integrative ontology of leadership”, The Leadership Quarterly

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Tagged as: Framework, Leadership Practices

Time Management

2011-06-11T08:25:00.000-07:00

Time Management
By Fred Childs

Today I yield the floor to one of my mentors. Dr. Fred Childs is a leading church consultant, organizational development expert, and leadership authority. He and Monica reside in Pearland, Texas. Dr. Childs ministry of leadership development within the church has transformed my ministry through the years.

His books and training material have revolutionized hundreds of churches and ministries. His personal testimony is one of many miracles with a very powerful pulpit ministry.

In the last decade, Microsoft introduced its Windows 95 operating system. As one of the many who utilized this software, I would routinely sit and wait the few minutes for my computer to boot up. I never pondered the immense importance of these wasted daily minutes until I participated in a corporate time management seminar in 1996. I was shocked to discover that the cumulative total of the time wasted as individuals waited the few minutes for Windows 95 to boot up exceeded ten thousand man years per day!

Time is valuable. In training and facilitating several thousand professional and corporate teams, I have documented millions of dollars in bottom-line savings and multiplied productivity simply by eliminating the wasted time from the operating processes used to manufacture goods and produce services. The root cause of the rise or fall of many organizations is their ability to manage time efficiently and effectively.

Time is life, and it is perhaps our most precious resource. It can be a tremendous friend or foe, and it is ours to do with as we please. Every moment should be cherished, for it is a commodity that can never be replenished. It is used once and then it is gone forever.

One of the greatest keys to effective leadership is the proper utilization of time resources. There is no greater example of time mastery than the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Scriptural study cannot reveal a single wasted minute in the life, ministry and actions of Jesus! A tremendous example of His personal mastery over time and priorities was in the account of Lazarus. John 11:6 says, “When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was.”

The scriptures reveal that Jesus loved Lazarus, and also his sisters Martha and Mary. He was sympathetic to their need but He did not allow even the circumstances of His close friends to dictate His agenda. He alone was responsible for setting His own priorities and effectively utilizing His own time. He did not drop everything He was doing just to do what others expected Him to do. Even though they misunderstood His motives, Jesus showed up at the right time and Lazarus was raised from the dead. The final result was that God was glorified through the actions of Jesus.

Jesus, as the master teacher, was manifesting an example for us to follow. In only 3½ years, He accomplished every detail that was essential for Him to complete His earthly mission. At the time of His death at age thirty-three, He left nothing undone. This could never have been accomplished had He allowed others to control His time and direct His focus away from the essential.

We too must be responsible for our time and agenda. Those who allow their agenda to be restructured by every phone call or request will be ineffective at best. If you are you breathless from running and your treadmill is stuck in high speed, it has to be your decision to get off of the treadmill.

Time presents a common challenge to everyone, and you need not feel alone in your struggle against it. The 21st Century is an era that is proving to offer an increasing abundance of absorbing demands and challenges to our time and resources. Simultaneously, it also offers the greatest opportunities ever presented in the history of the Church.

The potential for a last-day harvest is manifested through an amazing parable in the Bible. The parable applies to the value of time management. It is found in Matthew 20:1-16:

"For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers
for his vineyard. Now when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into
his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace,
and said to them, 'You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.'

So they went.

Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and said to them, 'Why have you been standing here idle all day?' They said to him, 'Because no one hired us.' He said to them, 'You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive.' So when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, 'Call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with the last to the first.' And when those came who were hired about the eleventh hour, they each received a denarius.But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise received each a denarius. And when they had received it, they complained against the landowner, saying, 'These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.'

But he answered one of them and said, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?' So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen." (NKJV)

There are numerous revelations contained within this parable.

• The vineyard belonged to the landowner. The landowner is a metaphor for Jesus.

• The laborers had a choice whether or not to become employed by the landowner. Their time belonged to them and not to the landowner. In order for the landowner to have any claim to their time they had to work out an agreement. The landowner would pay the individual for a portion of his time. In exchange, the laborer would work in the landowner’s vineyard.

• In the agricultural system of Israel, each laborer was given a sack to gather the produce into. When the sack was full he would exchange it for a new sack. At the end of the day, he would be paid according to the number of sacks he had gathered. This pay-for-production system is still in effect in parts of Israel and the world today.

• The laborer who was hired at the eleventh hour was paid the same as the laborer who was hired in the morning. This meant he had gathered in one hour as much as the other laborers had gathered all day!

• This is a prophecy that the tools and capabilities of the last hour laborer will allow them to reap in a short time an equivalent harvest to the early laborer who worked a long time to reap a harvest.

Several underlying truths can also be derived from this parable:

• The landowner obviously practiced a system of organizational continuous improvement. At every shift, he was able to gather more in less time. His methods were more proficient in the latter part of the day than in the morning.

• The landowner was a wise steward. He was not foolish when offering the same salary to the eleventh hour laborer that he had offered to the early morning laborer. He was aware of his organizational and personal capabilities. He knew he was getting a fair return for a fair wage.

Time will have a greater impact on your lifetime achievements than perhaps anything else. The irony lies in the fact that every human being is dealt an equivalent measure of exactly twenty-four hours of time for every day of life. Those who acquire a discipline for time management will reap its innumerable benefits and be productive. The highest levels of effectiveness can only be attained once individuals and organizations develop the habits and disciplines required for time management.

Jesus was a wise time manager. Careful scrutiny of the scriptures reveals that He was very proficient at maximizing the value of the time spent on any endeavor. He was constantly bringing one meeting to a close in order to head to the next item on His agenda. He kept the disciples focused on tasks and assignments. He was a man of few words, getting straight to the point saved Him significant chunks of time. He consistently had others intercept his interruptions for Him, and He would see certain people only after He had returned a disciple with a message to bring the visitor into His presence. His list of accomplishments is incredible, and much credit goes to His remarkable ability to maximize time to His strategic advantage.

As stewards, we must become astute time managers. We should continuously improve the systems and methods that effect the gathering of a harvest. It is our individual choice as to whether we desire to pick the harvest by hand or reap it with a combine.

If the time wasted daily while people wait for their computers to boot up is equivalent to thousands of human lifetimes, how much productivity is being wasted in the Kingdom of God by the daily misuse of our God-given time? Only eternity will reveal the answer to that question, and by then, time will be no more.

http://www.preachit.org/newsletter.cfm?record=163&mode=200

'Warrior Spirit with a Servant's Heart': SWA's Thriving Culture of Service

2011-05-30T15:52:00.000-07:00

'Warrior Spirit with a Servant's Heart': SWA's Thriving Culture of Service
Published: May 24, 2006 in Knowledge@W.P. Carey

Southwest Airlines is not the same airline that David Ridley, recently retired as vice president of marketing and sales, joined in 1988. For one, it's bigger. An upstart operation with 198 employees and three planes when it took flight in 1971, Southwest today employs 32,000, with 3,000 flights a day to 62 cities.

And the difference is not just size. Fun-loving Southwest is also a fierce competitor, ready to change even longstanding practices to keep its lead. For example, at its annual shareholders' meeting earlier this month, chief executive Gary Kelly announced that a $5 million technology upgrade to its reservation system will allow Southwest to begin seat assignment -- when and if it's ready. The airline's "open seating" approach to boarding has been as much a hallmark of the Southwest experience as its joke-cracking flight attendants.

What has not changed is what the airline calls the Southwest way -- the key, Ridley argues, to the carrier's success. "This is an industry that has managed to lose $40 billion in the past four years. Since its inception in the early '30s, the industry has been in the red," he said during a speech recently at the W. P. Carey School of Business. Yet Southwest flies above the industry's dismal history. Ridley pointed out that Southwest has achieved consistent profitability -- the company will pay its 119th consecutive quarterly dividend next month -- without a single "involuntary furlough." At the same time it has created a work atmosphere that has landed the company year after year in the top five of Fortune magazine's best places to work.

The Southwest recipe for customer service

The Southwest way, Ridley explained, grows out of the airline's founding principle: "We are a customer service business that just happens to fly airplanes."

Southwest's product, Ridley explained, is the service: taking a customer from point A to point B, with his or her bags, on time. However there's an intangible element -- an experiential piece -- that is critical to success, and Southwest tends that part with great care.

Ridley explained that the product itself can be perfect -- providing the right flights to the right places, delivering baggage intact and nailing on-time landings. But, "if in the middle of the service delivery the human spirit has come into play in a negative way -- someone's thrown the bag of peanuts at you, someone was rude when you asked a question at the airport -- then when you walk off that plane you say to yourself, 'I'll never do business with those people again.'"

Conversely, "sometimes it's a rough landing, but in the process, if someone touches you -- looks in your eyes with a smile and asks 'How can I help you?' -- you walk off the plane and say, 'I'll be back again.'"

Ridley said that when he arrived at Southwest, pundits warned that the company's profitable customer-centric culture would be difficult if not impossible to maintain when its payroll passed 10,000. But instead of allowing that to happen, company president Colleen Barrett created a culture committee whose mission was to keep the Southwest way alive throughout growth. Regardless of what that committee actually accomplished, the very fact that it was formed makes one of Ridley's important points: to succeed in the Southwest customer service style, companies have to be deliberate about culture, starting with people.

"We tell our leaders that of all the decisions they will make, the most important ones will be hiring decisions," Ridley said. "We tell them to make it tough to become part of the team," because the traits Southwest looks for are inherent in personalities and cannot be achieved through training.

Ridley said Southwest has a name for the quality they are seeking: a warrior spirit. That means people who "understand hard work and sweat on the brow," he said. These folks are looking for a job, not a "position," he said; they are looking for work, not a "role."

Passion, service and spirit of fun

"Warrior spirits have passion -- they care, they have emotions," Ridley said. "Some organizations and companies are clinics, and that's fine -- the Southwest way is not for everyone," Ridley said. "But I'd rather work in an organization where people show their emotions -- express themselves."

As well, a warrior spirit has a "servant's heart," he said. "You want people to serve others," he said, "but are you calling it out in your job descriptions? Are you telling people that's what you want? People who are other-oriented, not self-important, who put others first -- these are the people who will deliver service like Southwest Airlines." Last, they have a fun-loving attitude. "We take our customers and our competition seriously -- not ourselves," Ridley said.

But a company cannot expect employees to commit at this level unless the company itself reciprocates. Ridley said that the Southwest philosophy "puts our employees in front of the customers." He followed with a story about a gate agent who had dealt with an impatient passenger during a weather delay. Later the passenger wrote a letter to the airline complaining that the Southwest employee had been rude and unhelpful.

"A lot of companies would automatically assume guilt and automatically fire off two free tickets to the customer," Ridley said. Southwest, however, investigates. This time it turned out that the gate agent was an exemplary employee with a pile of commendations in her file. It was the customer who had been rude.

Result? The customer received a letter inviting him to fly another airline, and the gate agent received a copy. At that moment, Ridley said, the gate agent understood that the company would stand behind her.

"Great customer service is driven by people who want to give great service," Ridley said, "not by rules, regulations and training. That gate agent gave her heart to Southwest."

The same approach can uncover problems, too. "We check out every single letter written to us by employees," Ridley said. "We ask the local managers and it takes time, but it's people stuff, and it's important. Nineteen out of 20 times it turns out that the employee is whining and we tell them to get back to work, but every once in a while we find out something's fishy in Seattle …"

No BS leaders

Leaders, Ridley concluded, can make the customer service formula work -- or completely subvert it. By leaders he meant anyone in the organization who has influence on anyone else, not just the managers with the titles.

"Our leaders have a genuine love for people," he said. "We don't want you in leadership if you don't. If it's all about you we don't want you -- there are no BS [Big Shot] leaders at Southwest."

The role model, Ridley said, is founder Herb Kelleher -- who works out of a modest office without a window, who devotes his attention to the person he is speaking to, whether it's a maintenance worker or a vice president. "That's caring for people," Ridley said. "It isn't about the people at the top … and if you don't understand that, you're not a leader at Southwest."

In closing, Ridley sketched an imaginary chart showing two kinds of companies: the smart ones and the healthy ones. Over here are the smart ones, he said. They focus on "accounting, financials, operations … they're going to do it right, metric-ize everything. All praise to Jack Welch and Six Sigma!" Southwest is good at a lot of this, Ridley said, but "there are a lot of bankrupt companies on this side of the chart."

On the other side of the chart are the healthy companies, he said. They focus on "culture and leadership and passion and service." Southwest's rapid return to service following the 9/11 attacks was a testament to the healthy approach.

"Exceed expectations," he said. "That's the key."

The Southwest Way:

Our product is service.
To succeed, companies have to be deliberate about culture, starting with people. Hiring decisions are key components to the company's success.
Great customer service is driven by people who want to give great service -- not by rules, regulations and training.
Exceed expectations.

Here's what you think...
Total Comments: 1

#1    healthy companies
Healthy companies take their culture seriously. They intentionally cast a shadow for their culture as discussed in the book Delivering Happiness.
There is a new survey that says as high as 70% of employees plan to leave their current jobs when the economy improves...talk about a future disruption.
If you struggle with how to start...start with the golden rule as I discuss in my blog http://nosmokeandmirrors.wordpress.com/2010/07/09/delivering-happiness-proof-%e2%80%a6the-%e2%80%9cgolden-rule%e2%80%9d-is-profitable/

Mark Allen Roberts
By: Mark Roberts, otb solutions/CEO
Sent: 06:11 PM Sun Oct.17.2010 - US

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The Dna Of A Good Leader

2011-05-30T09:43:00.000-07:00

The Dna Of A Good Leader - Presentation Transcript

Recruit Strategy War of Strategies Made In Singapore CEO “ The World is our Career”
Good Leader Attracts Good People Executive Search Recruit Strategy main focus is to provide good people to good business. To succeed we need good search strategy with good consultancy team . Our Team is consist of 4 units Business Development Unit, Researcher Unit & War of Strategies Unit and Business Ethics Unit. Each Team are formulated with the 5 forces in War of Strategies having East meets West. RS Slogan Good ethics are good business in the long run . Prof. Larry Zicklin, Baruch College, The City University of New York
Recruit Strategy uses the ancient formula the Sun Tzu Art of War Strategy in our search with a touch of East Meet West. 兵法 : 国之大事 : 死生之地 : 存亡之道 Important Note : During wartime, it is so crucial that every second counts. It can be extinct or survival. Thus all people must be united and learn how the law works in order to stay alive, or rather not only afloat but does it better! Understanding how to recruit good.
We understand the great responsibilities in every recruitment. Good Leaders build Good Company. Bad Leaders destroy them. Therefore, we must be prepared to win the battle 100%, RS will take all risk calculations, measures, hard work, due diligence, competitive, business intelligence to find the BEST Talent. 天 , 道 , 地 , 将 , 法 What matter most is our Customer.
Two significant T alent
S trategies :-
Acquisition Strategy
Retention Strategy
法 methodology
Recruit Strategy War of Strategies Talent Acquisition Strategy Identify, Attract & Hire
The Nature DNA of Leadership 智信仁勇严 It takes 5 forces to create good people. Everyone is unique and special to their own strengths. 知己知彼 100% win 知己不知彼 50% win Intelligence Integrity Benevolence Courage Discipline Good Leader
We are not Great. We are Genuine. Our recruitment strategies are developed with a keen eye for the Art of War strategies with nearly two decades of professional headhunting experience. We are the rare people who can explain complex things very simply to maximize success for our customers They have to be Realistic thus adapting to different recruitments. Thus all the 5 Qualities must be analyzed carefully before making a decision to launch the Search Attack deep knowledge of the 9 grounds 9 situations . R ecruit S trategy = R ealistic S trategies War of Search Strategies
In each DNA derives out various complex components that makes a good leader. Strike a balance between the Needs Vs the Wants. It is never easy. For example, China took 150 years to recover from the loss from the opium war. Only in 2008, Beijing Olympic regain back their trust and name. As a recruiter we know the importance of attracting talents with these attributes. Otherwise it will pose danger to our client business. 将道 : 智信仁勇严法道 : 例曲官道 Strong Leader origins from inside
Sharing some of the giest in Search
Morale : Personality
Climate : Capability 行军法 : 天地熟得法
Terrain : Experience 强军法 : 练 , 赏 , 罚
4. Discipline : Practice
A Good Talent Possess :-
Different kind of leaders are discovered by understanding the different climate of the organization thus creating esprit de corps within By understanding the DNA of our client business prepared us for the best winning battle. The importance of a good leader must always have the 5 qualities in which consistent practice personal development, teambuilding, kaizen strategy, TQM, ABC are set to make remarkable success for an organization.. Identify the Right Leader for Right Climate
Search Analytics War of Strategies Preparation Know thyself. Know your opponent: Victory Know yourself, know not opponent : Half Victory Know not yourself, know not opponent : No Victory
The Formidable Art of War Strategy 智 Simple Way to Explore Talents from complexity in each DNA Talent Analysis. It takes months to prepare the right balance thus finding the Right Talent into the each career expectations, job nature etc. Data : CI, BI Morale Climate Terrain Generalship Discipline Intelligence Data : EQ, IQ, USP Data : EI,SI,II Data GI1,GI2 Data DI, P1,
Recruit Strategy War of Strategies Talent Retention Strategy Build, Coach & Guide
We go the extra mile in Recruit Strategy
More detailed search are analyzed through our 8 steps Executive Search Services.
Detailed Plan are devised once a job has been exclusive agreed and signed
Professional and personalized search are carried out in good faith.
Follow up Valued Added Services….
Recruit Strategy provides full spectrum of Executive
Search Placement consists of services such as :-
Resource Solutions
Work in partnership with organization to develop and deploy resources strategies that optimize the use of all recruitment channels
Value Added Solutions
Help Companies maximize brand by implementing best ethic and professional responsibilities thus avoid unnecessary costs.
Compliance & HR Policies
Strategic Business Thinking
War of Strategies in People Management, Leadership Development, Generating Sales Roles Development
A Complete Series of Search
Leadership Identify and hire top levels leaders in the banking sectors. Recruit a 40 bank sales team generating 2.4 m sales within 6 months. Guide Sales Ethics and Professional Responsibilities Awards The Asian Bankers Awards Excellence in Retail Financial Services 2002 Benchmark by aAdvantage Consulting 100% voted proud to work for Recruit Strategy. 83% voted they received motivations and challenges at work. RS Track Records
Employer’s Pledge Recruit Strategy has a shared vision for Singapore to be one of the best places in the world to work, every worker is given an equal opportunity for employment. Rewarded according to his or her merit, treated fairly and with respect, given the opportunity to optimize his or her unique talents. To make Singapore a place where businesses are able to attract, develop and retained valued employees.

Have you pledge yours? Visit www. fairemployment.sg RS Track Records

Dr. Foo Check Teck Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Business, UniSIM Associate Professor, School of Mechanical and Production Engineering, NTU Baruch College The City University of New York Education Qualifications PhD (Strategy), University of St. Andrews, Scotland, 1990 MBA (Finance), City of London, 1981 LLB (Hons), University of London, 1979 Barrister-at-Law, Lincoln’s Inn, England and Wales Advocate and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore S.C.M.A. (UK), F.C.I.M. (UK), A.C.I.S. (UK), C.P.A. (Singapore) Academic and Professional Experience Dr. Foo has contributed extensively to journals like Journal of High Technology Management and Research, Juridical Review, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Cyber Psychology, Singapore Law Reports, Law Gazette, Singapore Management Review, Economic Bulletin and Asian Banker Journal. He is the author of Reminiscences of an Ancient Strategist: Mind of Sun Tzu (1997) and the co-author of Thinking Around Strategems and Organizing Strategy: Sun Tzu Business Warcraft . Recruit Strategy CEO Search
Recruit Strategy Contact Card
Ms Christie Khoo
+65 9828 1033
[email_address]
www.recruitstrategy.com
CEO Executive Search
Recruit Strategy Pte Ltd
No. 8 Eu Tong Sen Street #23-85
The Central Office 2
Singapore 05981
Tel : 6 883 1033
Fax : 6 336 0889

http://www.slideshare.net/RecruitStrategy/the-dna-of-a-good-leader

2011-04-26T10:37:00.000-07:00

Self Improvement Articles

5 Simple Steps to Setting and Reaching Your Goals
by Success Expert Sharmen Lane

You are probably thinking “Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard about the importance of setting goals before”… Well many of us have heard about it and few of us do it. Those who do set goals generally do it once a year, on New Years Day. And that’s not enough!

Setting your goals is one thing, reaching them is entirely another. That is precisely why most people don’t reach their goals. There is a lot more to goals than simply setting them once. Just like going to the gym, you don’t work out one time, get the body you want and then say “Yippee, glad that’s over, never have to do that again”. This, like many things, is a process. This process is what I call Goal Setting Made Simple.

First step is to look out on the horizon and determine what the final outcome is. What is the end result that you are looking for? Whatever it is, write it down and be very clear.

Second thing to do is write down all the logistics. Brainstorm by thinking about and then writing down what needs to be done in order to reach that goal. Usually there is more than one thing for you to take action on. Therefore, you need to break down the end goal into a lot of little ones. I call this dicing. Chopping up a big goal, into a bunch of weekly or daily ones.

Third step, after you have determined all that needs to be done to reach your goal, prioritize them. Keep in simple by just numbering the steps from 1 to whatever. This doesn’t mean the order wont change, but at least you will have a starting point and you will have some directions to follow.

Step Four. Now you know what needs to be done and what it’s going to take to get you there. Now write it in your calendar. Depending on how many steps it will take and how passionate you are about reaching your goal, will determine how often you need to take action. You may need to write down and do the smaller tasks once a month. If there are a lot of steps you need to take you may need to write down and take action every week, day or perhaps every hour.

That leads us to step number five and that step is take action. I believe you need to take action every single day. That way you will always be making progress and you won’t lose momentum. Each day you will be one step closer to getting what you want. So step five is, do something, take action every single day towards reaching your goal. Before you know it you will be, do or have it.

For more information visit www.sharspeaks.com.

About the Author:

Sharmen Lane is an Author, professional speaker, radio host, and self improvement expert. She has trained, managed, and coached thousands of individuals on what it takes to get what they want. Sharmen offers you step-by-step solutions to everyday problems that complicate our lives. Sharmen wrote the book titled “The 7 Secrets to Create Your Fate”, which is a personal growth, self development book written to give everyone who reads it the motivation, inspiration and determination to go after what they want with passion. For more self help resources and seminar speaker topics, visit www.sharspeaks.com.

Professional motivational speaker Sharmen Lane specializes in
Corporate Leadership, Sales and Self-Improvement.

7 Secrets to Success

2011-04-26T10:25:00.000-07:00

Keynote Seminar Topic:

7 Secrets to Success

Success means something different to everyone. However, whatever your definition of success is, there are 7 things you can do to help you achieve it.
S- Set Your goals
Each element of success has a process. There is a strategic way to set your goals to increase your odds of achieving then.

U- Uncover your passion
Many people in the world today are living passion-less lives. This program shows you how to find your passion and incorporate it into your everyday lives and even make money at it if you choose to.

C- Create a Plan
When you create a plan you significantly increase your odds to making your goals happen. Here we discuss how to create a step-by-step plan so that you have little simple steps to take to make what you want happen.

C- Choices and Consequences
Every Choice has a consequence, however we often do first and think later. In this section you are given powerful ideas and tools on how to make better choices that will change your life.

E- Eliminate Stress
Stress, we all have it to one degree or another. You can reduce your stress or eliminate it completely by following this simple plan.

S- Strive to do your best
Being your best is much different that being “the” best. When you strive to do your best every moment of every day you will achieve leaps and bounds above what you currently are. It starts with changing your perception and here you will be giving tips and tricks on how to be your best at every moment.

S- Surmount Fear
Fear is one of the biggest success busters of all time. It prevents us from taking acting to achieving our greatness. Learn what fear really is and what you can do to stop it in its tracks.

http://www.sharspeaks.com/topic-7-secrets-to-success.shtm

10 Steps to World Class

2011-03-17T18:10:00.000-07:00

10 Steps to World Class

What are the characteristics of a high-performing organization? What do they do or how do they act to distinguish themselves? What can your organization do to join their ranks?

The Baldrige model has identified the beliefs and behaviors of high-performing organizations. These 11 core values and concepts, embedded in the Baldrige Criteria and in Baldrige Award recipients, are essential to achieving performance excellence. You can find the complete list here and an explanation of each in the Criteria booklets here.

So how do you get your organization from where it is today to world-class status? Twenty years of Baldrige reveal the steps you can take to create a high-performing organization:

Lead the transformation. It won’t happen without leaders committed to excellence, and it won’t happen without recognizing that the steps you take will transform your organization. Plan the journey, communicate the plan, measure progress, and facilitate change.

♦To learn more, read

Is Baldrige Right for Your Organization, 10 Critical Questions: Senior Leadership, and An Achievable Mission and Vision;

Develop management system experts. You will need these experts to help focus resources and attention on what must happen along your journey. Take a few existing or rising stars and ask them to be Baldrige or state award examiners for at least three years. The training and experience they get will give you the internal expertise you need.

♦To learn more, read How to Become a Baldrige Expert, Make Yourself More Valuable, and The Value of Baldrige Expertise.

Promote curiosity. No organization can change if it is content with the way things are. Learning organizations challenge the status quo. They seek a better way. And they recognize and reward people at all levels of the organization who take responsibility for improving performance.

♦To learn more, read Climbing the Corporate Lattice and Employee Development and 10,000 Hours of Practice.

Demand process thinking. All work is process. You cannot prolong your journey to world-class by constantly putting out fires or blaming employees for systemic problems. Ask how you do what you do, identify the steps, and manage and improve the process.

♦To learn more, read 10 Critical Questions: Process Management, Identifying Key Work Processes, 5 Powerful Process Questions, and Process Management: Work System Design.

Compare with the best. You need context to know if what you are doing is the best course and what you are achieving is truly world-class. Benchmark key processes and key results with those of high-performing organizations. Hold your organization to the highest standards and implement plans that will help you join them.

♦To learn more, read Outside-the-Box Benchmarking, Health System Benchmarks, and Comparative Data for Manufacturers,

Assess and apply. The only way to keep attention focused on improving your management system is to assess and improve it using the Baldrige Criteria. Many Baldrige Award recipients submitted applications for state awards and/or the Baldrige Award annually for several years before winning the Award—and many continue to do assessments after they won. Start with a self-assessment or by applying for a state award. Use the feedback to prioritize and address your biggest gaps. Repeat the process annually and you will improve.

♦To learn more, read Is Baldrige Right for Your Organization?, 10 Steps to an Effective Baldrige Assessment, and New to Baldrige?

Drive continuous improvement. Use data and information to identify opportunities for improvement and have action planning and problem solving processes in place to address them. Build refinement steps into every process to make sure the process is systematically improved.

♦To learn more, read Blessed with OFIs and 10 Critical Questions: Process Management.

Align and integrate. Use your strategic planning and performance measurement systems to align what you do with what you want to achieve. Harmonize plans, processes, information, resource decisions, actions, results, and analyses to support your organization’s goals.

♦To learn more, read Alignment and Integration and Know Thyself—and Act Accordingly.

Innovate. High-performing organizations are good at everything and great at a few things. To be good at everything you need a culture of innovation that touches all processes. To be great at a few things, you need formal approaches to developing breakthrough approaches in those areas critical to your success.

♦To learn more, read 3 Systematic Innovation Processes and Making Innovation Part of Your Culture.

Sustain the gains. The first nine steps are a lot of work if you’re going to slack off as soon as you get to the top. To sustain the journey, identify the factors that must be in place and managed to remain world-class and then develop and implement processes to address them.

♦To learn more, read 4 Parts of True Sustainability, Identifying Capabilities Your Organization Needs, and Planning for the Longer-Term.

High-performing organizations have integrated Baldrige by integrating these ten steps into the way they operate. Their success is available to any organization committed to being the best.

http://www.baldrige.com/10-steps-to-world-class/

The Secret: What Great Leaders Know—And Do

2011-03-10T10:14:00.000-08:00

The Secret: What Great Leaders Know—And Do 2nd Edition

Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller

Description and Reviews
From The Publisher:

At one time or another, everyone in a position of authority-whether in a multi-national corporation or a local volunteer group-wonders what the key to great leadership is. And who better to answer that question than the team of Ken Blanchard, whose books on leadership have sold over 20 million copies, and Mark Miller, who worked his way up from line worker to vice president of one of the largest fast-food chains in the country. In The Secret, Blanchard and Miller use the uniquely accessible "business fable" format that Blanchard pioneered to get at the heart of what makes a leader truly able to inspire and motivate people. Debbie Brewster, recently promoted and struggling, finds herself about to lose her job due to poor performance. In an attempt to save her career, she enrolls in a new mentoring program offered by her company. Much to her surprise, Debbie finds her mentor is none other than Jeff Brown, the president of the company. Debbie decides that she is going to ask her new mentor the one question she feels she desperately needs answered: "What is the secret of great leaders?" Jeff's immediate answer-that great leaders serve their followers-completely flummoxes Debbie. Over the next 18 months, Jeff helps Debbie discover and explore five fundamental ways that leaders lead through service.

The Secret puts what Blanchard and Miller have learned about leadership in a form that anyone can easily understand, embrace, and pursue. It is a book that will benefit not only those who read it, but also the organizations they work in and the people who look to them for guidance.

The second edition includes revised and updated content including:
A new foreword by John Maxwell
A new resource section in the back matter summarizing key learning points
A greater focus on the book's primary focus: servant leadership
A more humanized protagonist
Numerous other minor renovations throughout

About the Authors

Ken Blanchard is a prominent author, speaker, and business consultant. His phenomenal bestselling book, The One Minute Manager has sold more than ten million copies worldwide, is still on bestseller lists, has been translated into more than 25 languages and is regarded as one of the most successful business books of all time. Mark Miller began his Chick-fil-A career working as an hourly team member at the company's Southlake Mall location in 1977. Today, he is the Vice President, Training & Development. He is also a member of the Operations Council, and the Strategic Planning Team for Chick-fil-A, Inc. When not working to sell more chicken, Mark teaches on a wide array of topics including: Leadership, Creativity, Team Building, and Evangelism.

Table of Contents

Foreword by John Maxwell

1 The Opportunity
2 The Meeting
3 The Secret
4 Where Are You Going?
5 What's Most Important?
6 An Insight With Impact
7 How Can It Be Better?
8 What Is Success?
9 How's Your Credibility?
10 Serving Leaders
11 Let's Review
12 Passing the Baton

Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Services Available

http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadershop/9781605092683.html

Making Vision Stick - Andy Stanley

2011-03-10T07:39:00.000-08:00

Making Vision Stick - Andy Stanley

Product Description

You as a leader might have it, but has your organization caught it? Are you giving your vision the constant care and attention it needs to make it stick?

Most leaders have mental pictures of what could be and should be for their organizations, but not every leader is willing to pay the price to turn those ideas into reality.

Seeing a vision become a reality requires more than a single burst of energy or creativity; it requires daily attention and daily commitment. Making vision stick is your responsibility as the leader.

Andy Stanley has become renowned for his abiility to cast compelling visions... and then make them stick. Over the past 15 years, many organizations have gleaned wisdom from Andy and North Point Ministries on their extraordinary ability to make their vision stick.

In this DVD series, Andy first shows you why vision doesn't stick. Then, sharing vivid firsthand examples, he walks you through five simple but powerful ways to make your vision infiltrate the hearts and minds of those you lead. In addition, the series features behind-the-scenes interviews with two key leaders at North Point -- Jeff Henderson and Bill Willits -- giving viewers practical examples on just how to do this.

Making Vision Stick provides the keys you need to propel your organization forward.

1. INTRODUCTION
2. STATE IT SIMPLY
3. CAST IT CONVINCINGLY
4. REPEAT IT REGULARLY
5. CELEBRATE IT SYSTEMATICALLY
6. EMBRACE IT PERSONALLY
7. LAUNCHING NEW INITIATIVES
8. WRAP-UP

----------
Includes
----------
1 DVD with 8 sessions from Andy Stanley & practical interviews with Jeff Henderson and Bill Willits
1 PDF Facilitator's Guide for Lunch & Learn and leadership team environments

Put Your Dream to the Test Kit by John Maxwell

2011-03-09T09:59:00.000-08:00

Dr. Maxwell draws on his forty years of mentoring experience to expertly guide you through the ten questions required of every successful dreamer:

- The Ownership Question: Is my dream really my dream?
- The Clarity Question: Do I clearly see my dream?
- The Reality Question: Am I depending on factors within my control to achieve my dream?
- The Passion Question: Does my dream compel me to follow it?
- The Pathway Question: Do I have a strategy to reach my dream?
- The People Question: Have I included the people I need to realize my dream?
- The Cost Question: Am I willing to pay the price for my dream?
- The Tenacity Question: Am I moving closer to my dream?
- The Fulfillment Question: Does working toward my dream bring satisfaction?
- The Significance Question: Does my dream benefit others?

More importantly, Dr. Maxwell helps you to create the right answers, giving you principles and tips so you can make good decisions and maximize every moment to achieve your dream.

2011-03-07T04:52:00.000-08:00

Be a life-giver… not a life-sucker

By Colleen Francis

When dealing with problems or adversity, salespeople generally fall into one of two categories—they're either 'life suckers' or 'life givers'. Life suckers blame others for their actions and results, whereas life givers take responsibility and ownership for their actions and get results. The top sales people are life givers. Those who are always looking for solutions to challenges are salespeople with a life giving attitude. They embrace the fact that their jobs—our jobs!—require that they act responsibility. Rather than wasting time tracing blame, they move forward by creating solutions.

As responsible adults, nobody makes us think or do anything. We are responsible for our actions as well as our thoughts, opinions, assumptions and conclusions. They belong to us. We choose to think or act a certain way. Taking responsibility is a matter of choice.

When someone says: the customer stressed me out; the prospect pressured me; or my manager made me do this, what they are really saying is that others control them. It's as if they expect us to believe that some kind of "others" phantom crept into their body, taking control of what they think and do. Life does not imitate a Hollywood horror film. It's up to each of us to choose how we feel and act.

As a side note - as a consultant I regularly am asked to evaluate talent on a sales team. There are tell tale signs of failure to me. One critical sign is the answer to this question:

Tell me about your last loss. What happened? A sales rep that makes excuses - "its shipping's fault we lost the deal" is doomed to fail. A sales rep that takes ownership - "I should have qualified the lead better" is destined for greatness. My accuracy at determining success or failure of a rep is 95% with this one question.

Sure, bad things can happen—and they happen even to the best salespeople. None of us can choose or control every event that occurs in our lives—especially the ones that affect our business. Have you ever lost a sale to a prospect that was acquired before you had the contract signed? Have you ever had a sale to a government department wind up in limbo because of an unexpected spending freeze imposed while you were in final negotiations? These are examples of situations that as salespeople we can't control—but we can always choose our response to how to deal with them.

Consider the conduct expected of first-year cadets at military colleges across North America. They are only allowed to respond to their instructors in one of three ways: "Yes Sir," "No Sir," and "No excuses, Sir!" If a cadet fails to complete an assignment (and the circumstances are deemed irrelevant), the cadet must assume responsibility by stating "No excuses, Sir!" The purpose here is to create an ownership (life giving) attitude. It's that kind of self-discipline and ownership that will serve you well in your career.

How often have you neglected to follow-through on a commitment you made to yourself: making a specific number of cold calls in a day; completing a tough assignment; hitting your targets; or closing a sale with a specific customer? Does your personal life often reflect this habit? For instance, do you ever start a diet, an exercise program or a hobby and never carry it through? Has it ever reached the point that when you decide on a goal, your inner voice says: "Who are you kidding? You'll never follow through!" Those kinds of lies undermine your confidence to address issues and to effect change. That's why it's important for you to train and condition to believe yourself.

Here are four exercises you can try every day to make sure your attitude is an ownership attitude:

1. Associate only with life-givers

You have complete control over who you spend your time with, so choose wisely. Being around positive people will improve your outlook and your attitude. This is not easy and it does require cutting off access to people you know are life suckers. Short term pain for long term gain - and profits!

2. Look good to feel good!

The following exercise is something learned from Anthony Robbins, a master of human performance. Take note of your physiology when you're feeling your best—when everything is going your way and you're in a terrific mood. How do you walk? How loud is your voice? Do you gesture? Are you sitting or standing? Do you talk quickly or slowly? Do you stand tall or slouch?

Once you've made your list, carry it with you. Memorize it. The next time you're in a slump and want to change your attitude, pull out your list and begin consciously acting the way you do when you're feeling great. It may feel unnatural at first, but soon you'll find yourself in a better mood. Remember, it's easier to act your way into a new sense of feeling, than it is to feel your way into new sense of acting!

Stop showing up to work looking your ½ best. Press your pants, put on a clean ironed shirt and dress like you want to strut! Seems trivial I know but its true. The way you look on the outside will reflect the way you feel on the inside. My mother-in-law likes to remind me that there is no such thing as an ugly person, just a lazy one! Ouch… I think about that too often when I am caught grocery shopping in a ball cap and sweats. (As they say, the truth will set you free… but first it will really piss you off!)

3. Laugh, learn and take responsibility

When something bad happens, look for the good in it and take full responsibility for the bad. Among salespeople, those who aren't afraid to admit when they're wrong are the same who comprise the ranks of the top performers. Customers don't have time for mistakes and blame. Being honest or "coming clean" makes you more trustworthy and earns you something that's truly invaluable—a reputation for integrity. So the next time you make a mistake, ask yourself what you can learn from it. Then take that lesson and use it.

4. Train your mind for success by achieving a realizable goal every day

In life, people often get into a negative rut because they feel they aren't making progress. If that sounds familiar, then try setting a small but achievable goal for yourself every day. Make a list. Write down each goal, and when you've achieved each one, cross it off. Before too long you'll have a pattern of successful achievement that will help you develop a pattern of positive thinking.

5. Keep a success journal

Make note of your success and visit them regularly. It's important to remember how far you have come and celebrate those successes. Each time you achieve a goal, recognize that accomplishment before you go on. Reward yourself. When you are facing a tough time, pull out your success journal and get excited about all the wins you have had. Remind yourself, if you were successful yesterday, you can be successful tomorrow.

Take ownership of your behavior and assumptions. Remember, no one made you come up with your thoughts, opinions, assumptions and conclusions. And only you can steer things right.

Colleen Francis, Sales Expert, is Founder and President of Engage Selling Solutions (www.EngageSelling.com). Armed with skills developed from years of experience, Colleen helps clients realize immediate results, achieve lasting success and permanently raise their bottom line.

Start improving your results today with Engage's online Newsletter Sales Flash and a FREE 7 day intensive sales eCourse: www.EngagingIdeasOnline.com.

You have permission to use the above article in your newsletter, publication or email system as long as you do not edit the content and you leave the links and resource box intact.

©2011 Engage Selling Solutions. All rights reserved: All trademarks used or referred to on this site are the property of their respective owners. No materials on this site may be reproduced, altered, or further distributed without Engage's prior written permission.

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Rave Reviews for Colleen
What ought to pass for common sense is, in fact, not practiced often enough by salespeople and other professionals. Colleen helped us avoid making those mistakes. We enjoyed the last year working with Colleen. She is ever the consummate professional with great insight into selling over the phone.
Mark Volk, Director, Business Services & Supprt, Platform

Thank you for yesterday's (my first) Town Hall meeting. You gave me 2 tips that are already increasing my success rate. 1. The 'pause': it does work. I stopped talking with a prospect after 30 seconds of introduction and waited. Tons of information came forth! 2. Using an EXACT time in a voicemail that I would call back resulted in 100% attendance this morning on my follow-up calls: people were at their desk waiting for my call, and impressed when I did call. Incredible. I am thrilled by your brilliance! Thanks.
Jennifer Krueger, Regional Manager, Global Corporate Challenge

Literally, 30 minutes after my first teleconference with Colleen I was on the phone applying concepts and strategies I learned that enabled me to effectively move forward a deal accounting for 57% of my quota for the entire sales quarter!
Raj Shahani, Yahoo!

Colleen takes the time to understand your requirements and tailor her sales training solutions to your specific needs, even taking into account individuals within the team. Her training has resulted in many "aha!" moments for my sales team, and our steadily increasing sales show the training is having an effect. Highly personable, trustworthy and consistent, you would be hard pressed to hire better than Colleen.
Tim Welch, Regional Sales Director, Grand & Toy

It was my distinct pleasure to attend with Ron and Lynn from my team. It has focused me and given me the chance to step back for a moment, take stock of what is really important, rally my thoughts, strategies and tactics, and get back to more productive work. I will be making changes this week (already implemented one last week) that will change the way my sales team functions!
Tim Welch, TalkSwitch

I feel like I am brimming over with action items and am already starting to implement some of the things I learned. I cannot wait to be able to report on the success of some of the new techniques my sales team and I will be implementing!
Autumn Shirley, CEO, FundRaiser Software

Engage Selling Solutions is the number-one secret weapon I use in my business to sell more... a lot... in less time!
Patrick Gant, thinkit creative

I just wanted to tell you about my success yesterday using your voice mail technique. I was getting frustrated trying to reach this potential client, and David reminded me to keep trying, and I left a message yesterday morning advising her I would call her back at 3pm, and sure enough she answered the phone (finally) and I got the search from her.
Helen Lightfoot, Regional Sales Director, HelmsBriscoe

I am looking forward to our sales team working with Colleen on an on-going basis because I feel that it's important to reinforce what we learned in her seminar. Consistency is the key. Sales skills need to be practiced constantly, in order to become habit. Our targets are aggressive this year; Colleen gave us the tools to get there.
Jim Cummings, President, Cummings Mitchell

I just wanted to take a moment to thank-you for the very informative and refreshing sales strategies you presented. I gained some new knowledge, and was reminded of a few things I had forgotten over time. I think virtually any business could benefit from your common-sense approach to sales.
Steve Milcik, Business Development, Orion Software

Thank you for a wonderful seminar and experience. It was one of the best and most useful seminars I have attended. I am reviewing the material and notes I took, and developing an action plan. I will be making a number of positive changes to my business thanks to your seminar.
Keith Christopher, Principal, KC Surveys

I have worked with Colleen for almost 2 years and have applied a number of her sales strategies with great success. The first time I met Colleen she said something that has resonated with me ever since... it takes 9 to 11 call attempts to get a meeting and most sales professionals quit calling after 5 or 6. This simple hint from Colleen helps me set realistic expectations for myself, helps motivate me to keep calling and gives me confidence in knowing that if I persevere, the meetings will come.
Judy Duncanson, Senior Account Manager, ProVision IT Resources

Colleen Francis was great, very energetic and knowledgeable. She adjusted quickly and used specific industries, and encouraged audience participation.
David Gajich, St. Marys Cement

Having worked with Colleen and Engage Selling, her style, approach and innovative way of presenting sales results has enhanced the selling skills of many of our sales associates. With over 1,000 associates worldwide, Colleen has had the opportunity of working with many of them over the past 4 years. On many occasions, she has produced great results and continues to mentor many of our associates. It is this relationship with Colleen that has dramatically helped our sales understanding and altered our approach. Engage Selling is an integral part of our ongoing sales training.
Peter Shelly, Executive Vice President, HelmsBriscoe

I wanted to thank you for your advice. I closed my first sale this week and it was surprisingly easy! I used a lot of the techniques you suggested and I also knew from experience when it was closed and when to stop talking. Funny, I expected to negotiate on price but I didn't need to. I knew what my competitors were charging and that was enough for my prospect.
Carol Laidlaw, Laidlaw Financial

I've been using the protocols Colleen teaches in recent weeks to modify my approach to client follow-up and proposal development. What a world of difference it has made is securing commitment from prospects for dates, potential budget, or project scope. I am now able to secure these critical sales details when I need it, up front & fast!
Jen Hetzel Silbert, Partner, Innovation Partners

You, Colleen and the Engage brand stand out head and shoulders from your competitors and from the general business community. Colleen's understanding and recognition of the fiscal struggles small companies face is heartening. I would recommend Colleen and Engage Selling to any business people hoping to increase their competitive advantage. Her sincerity and desire to help small businesses and sales people be the best they can be is clear and very welcome!
Jan Vincent, JV Consulting

Colleen's vibrant personality lights up a room. Having done her homework on our organization prior to meeting with the group, she was able to apply her principles to relevant sales scenario's we're facing. The entire sales group is better equipped with a handful of valuable learning's to apply to our account base. What's more, we all still continue to find ourselves rehashing and applying her insights... six months later!
Daron Rosenbusch, Marketing Manager, SupremeX

Colleen, Your ecourse was a great learning experience for me. I've applied your ideas and suggestions and it really works!!! Prospecting was my biggest nemesis... it isn't anymore. I get weekly appointments, followed by quotations and committed orders.
Julie Zenga

After almost 20 years in the staffing industry, cold calling USED TO BE one of my least favorite activities. Colleen's 3 step cold calling technique has worked wonders for me! I actually enjoy the process now and have had great success in getting my calls returned. Thanks Colleen!
Judy Duncanson, Senior Account Manager, ProVision IT Resources

Colleen's Negotiation Keynote offered new ideas and reasons why we should change some of our older sales tactics. We were able to learn from Colleen's real life sales experience as she shared with us many things that have and do work and many things that don't!
Mike Cutrone, Etobicoke Ironworks

It was such fun having Colleen on site. We were able to accomplish lots of work in a short periods of time all the while enjoying her enthusiasm, boundless energy and creative ideas. She's the greatest; we give her our highest recommendations!
Peggy Shepley, FundRaiser Software

In the day and half since our meeting in Chicago, I have seen a better response to the Voicemails I am leaving. First of all, each of the "I will call you tomorrow at ____ " have been waiting for my call at the time I called. So already this morning I have had 4 meaningful conversations, and found 2 leads that need proposals next week. I cannot tell you enough how pleased I am to have had you speak to us. Your training is fantastic
Christian Torresluna, Commercial Account Officer, First American Equipment Finance

I selected Colleen as I desired to get someone to "engage" the team to think about how they develop their business within the 122 markets globally. Her presentation kicked off the conference and kept 130+ sales & marketing professionals entertained and enlightened. Response has been positive as the team appreciated hearing Colleen's perspective. Thank you for contributing to a very successful conference!
Kevin Kirby, Senior Director of Sales, Hard Rock International

Colleen's energetic and invigorating style kept the audience entertained while imparting invaluable ideas and information. The attendance for her presentations was excellent. Here are just a few of the comments we received from the attendees, "Excellent presentation, easy to understand." "Practical ideas, great seminar - could easily be much longer." She is professional, upbeat and specific in her references to customers and their behaviour and she really understands the true-to -life challenges of the retail environment.
Margo Warren, Special Events Manager, Canadian Gift and Tableware Association

http://www.engageselling.com/articles/070207article_engageschoice.html

How Will You Measure Your Life?

2011-02-27T07:24:00.000-08:00

How Will You Measure Your Life?

by Clayton M. Christensen

Editor’s Note: When the members of the class of 2010 entered business school, the economy was strong and their post-graduation ambitions could be limitless. Just a few weeks later, the economy went into a tailspin. They’ve spent the past two years recalibrating their worldview and their definition of success.

The students seem highly aware of how the world has changed (as the sampling of views in this article shows). In the spring, Harvard Business School’s graduating class asked HBS professor Clay Christensen to address them—but not on how to apply his principles and thinking to their post-HBS careers. The students wanted to know how to apply them to their personal lives. He shared with them a set of guidelines that have helped him find meaning in his own life. Though Christensen’s thinking comes from his deep religious faith, we believe that these are strategies anyone can use. And so we asked him to share them with the readers of HBR. To learn more about Christensen’s work, visit his HBR Author Page.

Before I published The Innovator’s Dilemma, I got a call from Andrew Grove, then the chairman of Intel. He had read one of my early papers about disruptive technology, and he asked if I could talk to his direct reports and explain my research and what it implied for Intel. Excited, I flew to Silicon Valley and showed up at the appointed time, only to have Grove say, “Look, stuff has happened. We have only 10 minutes for you. Tell us what your model of disruption means for Intel.” I said that I couldn’t—that I needed a full 30 minutes to explain the model, because only with it as context would any comments about Intel make sense. Ten minutes into my explanation, Grove interrupted: “Look, I’ve got your model. Just tell us what it means for Intel.”

I insisted that I needed 10 more minutes to describe how the process of disruption had worked its way through a very different industry, steel, so that he and his team could understand how disruption worked. I told the story of how Nucor and other steel minimills had begun by attacking the lowest end of the market—steel reinforcing bars, or rebar—and later moved up toward the high end, undercutting the traditional steel mills.

When I finished the minimill story, Grove said, “OK, I get it. What it means for Intel is...,” and then went on to articulate what would become the company’s strategy for going to the bottom of the market to launch the Celeron processor.

I’ve thought about that a million times since. If I had been suckered into telling Andy Grove what he should think about the microprocessor business, I’d have been killed. But instead of telling him what to think, I taught him how to think—and then he reached what I felt was the correct decision on his own.

That experience had a profound influence on me. When people ask what I think they should do, I rarely answer their question directly. Instead, I run the question aloud through one of my models. I’ll describe how the process in the model worked its way through an industry quite different from their own. And then, more often than not, they’ll say, “OK, I get it.” And they’ll answer their own question more insightfully than I could have.

My class at HBS is structured to help my students understand what good management theory is and how it is built. To that backbone I attach different models or theories that help students think about the various dimensions of a general manager’s job in stimulating innovation and growth. In each session we look at one company through the lenses of those theories—using them to explain how the company got into its situation and to examine what managerial actions will yield the needed results.

On the last day of class, I ask my students to turn those theoretical lenses on themselves, to find cogent answers to three questions: First, how can I be sure that I’ll be happy in my career? Second, how can I be sure that my relationships with my spouse and my family become an enduring source of happiness? Third, how can I be sure I’ll stay out of jail? Though the last question sounds lighthearted, it’s not. Two of the 32 people in my Rhodes scholar class spent time in jail. Jeff Skilling of Enron fame was a classmate of mine at HBS. These were good guys—but something in their lives sent them off in the wrong direction.

The Class of 2010

As the students discuss the answers to these questions, I open my own life to them as a case study of sorts, to illustrate how they can use the theories from our course to guide their life decisions.

http://hbr.org/2010/07/how-will-you-measure-your-life/ar/1