Not sure of the author but a great piece. How many of the 10 things listed have you done? Enjoy!!
Some of the most worthwhile things in life aren’t easy. One of the things I dislike most about “power of positive thinking”-style personal development philosophies (such as “The Secret”) is the implication that if you just have the right attitude and the right state of mind, the rest will just fall into place. I think it causes a lot of hurt and disappointment in people who invest their time, effort, and of course, money into these systems and find themselves, one or two or five years down the line, exactly where they were before.
“You must not have wanted it badly enough,” the authors of these philosophies seem to be saying. “There must still be something wrong with you.”
I don’t think that, ultimately, God or the Spirits or the Universe or the world “provides”. I think a lot of times the world puts obstacles in our way, and no amount of positive thinking makes them go away. And I think that a lot of the people who are “successful”, by whatever standard you want to use, have as much “wrong” with them as a lot of the ones who aren’t successful. Maybe more.
In any case, wherever the motivation comes from, the things that really make our lives worth living can be quite difficult. (And who knows, maybe thinking positively helps take some of the edge off of doing the hard stuff?) What’s more, they can take a lot of time to do, and even more time to get right. But I think that doing is the important thing, not the result — throwing yourself into something with all your heart, mind, and soul is the success, not the “growing rich” part.
Here, then, are ten things that are really hard to do but which have an incredible power to make your life better.
1. Start a business
My dad, who has been self-employed almost all his life, used to tell me that “Only jerks work for jerks.” Working for someone else puts you at their mercy and subjects you to their whims — and often their poor management skills. Not only that, but the profit of your labor goes into their pockets.
Starting a business puts you in control of your work life, and your money. It’s hard — small businesses fail every day. But the rewards of even a failed venture can far outweigh the risk. Just knowing that your failure was the result of your own choices — instead of a decision made at a corporate office a thousand miles away — can be liberating.
2. Organize a group
What makes you passionate? Chances are, being around other people who are passionate about the same thing would make you even more passionate about it. Often the only thing keeping you and them from coming together is that nobody’s put out a sign saying “Come and talk!” Getting a group going is a tremendous challenge, and very often the personality of the founder leaves a tremendous mark on the group as a whole. Seeing a group grow and take off can be tremendously awarding — but even failing can teach you important things about leadership.
3. Volunteer
I don’t mean spend Thanksgiving at a soup kitchen, though that can often be challenging enough. What I mean, though, is to make a long-term investment in your community by joining school committees, donating three hours a week in a shelter, hosting a monthly read-along at the library, tutoring at-risk children after school, teaching adult literacy classes at a local prison, or any of a million ways to play a role in the lives of people who need you. Perhaps the most pressing need in our society is for people to take an interest in and engage with their communities.
4. Take an active role in your children’s’ activities
Pick one thing your child does and commit yourself to it. Coach their team, become a Brownie leader, spend a weekend day in the workshop with them, buy a bike and ride along with them — make their passions your own. Don’t crowd them — especially if you have teenagers — but show them that you value something they do by giving them your time and interest.
5. Start a family
I don’t mean have kids. That can be all too easy! Make the decision to have a family, which means to give of yourself fully to another person or several people. Risk being vulnerable by sharing your fears, quirks, and failures with someone else; you might find it makes you stronger than ever before.
This transcends marriage and parenthood. There are lots of people who can’t marry because the law prevents it. There are people who can’t have children. These are not the essential ingredients of family. The essential ingredients are love, mutual respect, trust, and open giving. Find (or make) someone you can share that with.
6. Write a book
It feels really, really good to see your name on a book cover, but it feels even better to know that someone, somewhere, might find his or her life changed by something you’ve written. Share your particular expertise, whether it’s story-telling or woodworking, with the world — or just your family. Time isn’t the big issue (though it is an issue — don’t let the positive thinkists tell you otherwise!) but if you commit yourself to a page a day — a couple hundred words — within a year you’ll have a pretty decent-sized manuscript. That’s something to work with!
7. Learn an art
Take painting lessons, a pottery workshop, a music class, whatever — learn to express yourself and you might find a self worth expressing. Don’t settle for being a “Sunday painter” — devote yourself to an art and master it.
8. Run for office
The world needs smart, dedicated, and upright people to take care of all the fiddly details of making things run. As it happens, running for local office isn’t as challenging as you’d think (which isn’t to say it’s easy) — Michael Moore, the filmmaker, ran for school board while he was still in high school. Just for kicks. And won! It’s fine to have your heart set on the White House or Capital Hill, but try your hand at city councilperson, county registrar, or something closer to home first. And be clean — run for the experience of putting your community on a better path, and not for the power.
9. Take up a sport
Enough with the working out already! Sure, you want to be healthy, but the whole treadmill-running, iPod-listening, 45-minutes-after-work thing is a little anti-social, don’t you think? OK, you want some solitude once in a while — fine. But at least add a sport, something you do with other people. You’ll be spending time interacting with others, while also developing team-building and leadership skills. And, you might learn something from your fellow players.
10. Set an outrageous goal — and achieve it!
The nine tips above are only a handful of ideas about how to make your life better. Maybe you want to record an album, climb a mountain, make the Hajj (the pilgrimage to Mecca), see 20 countries — don’t just settle for tiny goals, push yourself all the way to the edge and figure out how to make the craziest thing you can think of happen. Yes, you’ll have to learn a lot along the way, and plan months or even years in advance — that’s what makes outlandish goals worthwhile.
I don’t want to suggest that you need to do all these things to be happy — doing just one is quite a handful! But if you’re unhappy with your life, if you want to make a change for the better, you need to think big and you need to be ready to put in the work to make it happen. It’s easy to “visualize success” and to “think positively”; it’s not so easy to throw yourself into the unknown and make it work. But if you can make it work, you’ll gain far more than you can imagine.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
A MESSAGE FROM TENZIN GYATSO – THE 14TH DALAI LAMA
This came to me from my good friend Dennis Bruyns in South Africa. Pretty special. Enjoy!!!
When I was a boy in Tibet, I felt that my own Buddhist religion must be the best — and that other faiths were somehow inferior. Now I see how naïve I was, and how dangerous the extremes of religious intolerance can be today.
Although intolerance may be as old as religion itself, we still see vigorous signs of its virulence. In Europe, there are intense debates about newcomers wearing veils or wanting to erect minarets and episodes of violence against Muslim immigrants. Radical atheists issue blanket condemnations of those who hold to religious beliefs. In the Middle East, the flames of war are fanned by hatred of those who adhere to a different faith.
Such tensions are likely to increase as the world becomes more interconnected and cultures, peoples and religions become ever more entwined. The pressure this creates tests more than our tolerance — it demands that we promote peaceful coexistence and understanding across boundaries.
Granted, every religion has a sense of exclusivity as part of its core identity. Even so, I believe there is genuine potential for mutual understanding. While preserving faith toward one’s own tradition, one can respect, admire and appreciate other traditions.
An early eye-opener for me was my meeting with the Trappist monk Thomas Merton in India shortly before his untimely death in 1968. Merton told me he could be perfectly faithful to Christianity, yet learn in depth from other religions like Buddhism. The same is true for me as an ardent Buddhist learning from the world’s other great religions.
A main point in my discussion with Merton was how central compassion was to the message of both Christianity and Buddhism. In my readings of the New Testament, I find myself inspired by Jesus’ acts of compassion. His miracle of the loaves and fishes, his healing and his teaching are all motivated by the desire to relieve suffering.
I’m a firm believer in the power of personal contact to bridge differences, so I’ve long been drawn to dialogues with people of other religious outlooks. The focus on compassion that Merton and I observed in our two religions strikes me as a strong unifying thread among all the major faiths. And these days we need to highlight what unifies us.
Take Judaism, for instance. I first visited a synagogue in Cochin, India, in 1965, and have met with many rabbis over the years. I remember vividly the rabbi in the Netherlands who told me about the Holocaust with such intensity that we were both in tears. And I’ve learned how the Talmud and the Bible repeat the theme of compassion, as in the passage in Leviticus that admonishes, “Love your neighbour as yourself.”
In my many encounters with Hindu scholars in India, I’ve come to see the centrality of selfless compassion in Hinduism too — as expressed, for instance, in the Bhagavad Gita, which praises those who “delight in the welfare of all beings.” I’m moved by the ways this value has been expressed in the life of great beings like Mahatma Gandhi, or the lesser-known Baba Amte, who founded a leper colony not far from a Tibetan settlement in Maharashtra State in India. There he fed and sheltered lepers who were otherwise shunned. When I received my Nobel Peace Prize, I made a donation to his colony.
Compassion is equally important in Islam — and recognizing that has become crucial in the years since Sept. 11, especially in answering those who paint Islam as a militant faith. On the first anniversary of 9/11, I spoke at the National Cathedral in Washington, pleading that we not blindly follow the lead of some in the news media and let the violent acts of a few individuals define an entire religion.
Let me tell you about the Islam I know. Tibet has had an Islamic community for around 400 years, although my richest contacts with Islam have been in India, which has the world’s second-largest Muslim population. An imam in Ladakh once told me that a true Muslim should love and respect all of Allah’s creatures. And in my understanding, Islam enshrines compassion as a core spiritual principle, reflected in the very name of God, the “Compassionate and Merciful,” that appears at the beginning of virtually each chapter of the Koran.
Finding common ground among faiths can help us bridge needless divides at a time when unified action is more crucial than ever. As a species, we must embrace the oneness of humanity as we face global issues like pandemics, economic crises and ecological disaster. At that scale, our response must be as one.
Harmony among the major faiths has become an essential ingredient of peaceful coexistence in our world. From this perspective, mutual understanding among these traditions is not merely the business of religious believers — it matters for the welfare of humanity as a whole.
Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, is the author, most recently, of “Toward a True Kinship of Faiths: How the World’s Religions Can Come Together.”
When I was a boy in Tibet, I felt that my own Buddhist religion must be the best — and that other faiths were somehow inferior. Now I see how naïve I was, and how dangerous the extremes of religious intolerance can be today.
Although intolerance may be as old as religion itself, we still see vigorous signs of its virulence. In Europe, there are intense debates about newcomers wearing veils or wanting to erect minarets and episodes of violence against Muslim immigrants. Radical atheists issue blanket condemnations of those who hold to religious beliefs. In the Middle East, the flames of war are fanned by hatred of those who adhere to a different faith.
Such tensions are likely to increase as the world becomes more interconnected and cultures, peoples and religions become ever more entwined. The pressure this creates tests more than our tolerance — it demands that we promote peaceful coexistence and understanding across boundaries.
Granted, every religion has a sense of exclusivity as part of its core identity. Even so, I believe there is genuine potential for mutual understanding. While preserving faith toward one’s own tradition, one can respect, admire and appreciate other traditions.
An early eye-opener for me was my meeting with the Trappist monk Thomas Merton in India shortly before his untimely death in 1968. Merton told me he could be perfectly faithful to Christianity, yet learn in depth from other religions like Buddhism. The same is true for me as an ardent Buddhist learning from the world’s other great religions.
A main point in my discussion with Merton was how central compassion was to the message of both Christianity and Buddhism. In my readings of the New Testament, I find myself inspired by Jesus’ acts of compassion. His miracle of the loaves and fishes, his healing and his teaching are all motivated by the desire to relieve suffering.
I’m a firm believer in the power of personal contact to bridge differences, so I’ve long been drawn to dialogues with people of other religious outlooks. The focus on compassion that Merton and I observed in our two religions strikes me as a strong unifying thread among all the major faiths. And these days we need to highlight what unifies us.
Take Judaism, for instance. I first visited a synagogue in Cochin, India, in 1965, and have met with many rabbis over the years. I remember vividly the rabbi in the Netherlands who told me about the Holocaust with such intensity that we were both in tears. And I’ve learned how the Talmud and the Bible repeat the theme of compassion, as in the passage in Leviticus that admonishes, “Love your neighbour as yourself.”
In my many encounters with Hindu scholars in India, I’ve come to see the centrality of selfless compassion in Hinduism too — as expressed, for instance, in the Bhagavad Gita, which praises those who “delight in the welfare of all beings.” I’m moved by the ways this value has been expressed in the life of great beings like Mahatma Gandhi, or the lesser-known Baba Amte, who founded a leper colony not far from a Tibetan settlement in Maharashtra State in India. There he fed and sheltered lepers who were otherwise shunned. When I received my Nobel Peace Prize, I made a donation to his colony.
Compassion is equally important in Islam — and recognizing that has become crucial in the years since Sept. 11, especially in answering those who paint Islam as a militant faith. On the first anniversary of 9/11, I spoke at the National Cathedral in Washington, pleading that we not blindly follow the lead of some in the news media and let the violent acts of a few individuals define an entire religion.
Let me tell you about the Islam I know. Tibet has had an Islamic community for around 400 years, although my richest contacts with Islam have been in India, which has the world’s second-largest Muslim population. An imam in Ladakh once told me that a true Muslim should love and respect all of Allah’s creatures. And in my understanding, Islam enshrines compassion as a core spiritual principle, reflected in the very name of God, the “Compassionate and Merciful,” that appears at the beginning of virtually each chapter of the Koran.
Finding common ground among faiths can help us bridge needless divides at a time when unified action is more crucial than ever. As a species, we must embrace the oneness of humanity as we face global issues like pandemics, economic crises and ecological disaster. At that scale, our response must be as one.
Harmony among the major faiths has become an essential ingredient of peaceful coexistence in our world. From this perspective, mutual understanding among these traditions is not merely the business of religious believers — it matters for the welfare of humanity as a whole.
Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, is the author, most recently, of “Toward a True Kinship of Faiths: How the World’s Religions Can Come Together.”
Friday, December 17, 2010
Putting a Bow on 2010: A Proper Perspective
Great article by one of my favorite authors, John Maxwell. Enjoy and here's to 2011!!
At this stage, the punctuation you put on 2010 will not depend as much on what you do but on your point of view. As you look back on the past year, you likely experienced highs and lows, encountered blessings and victories alongside hardship and heartache. As you wrap up 2010, be sure your attitude toward the last twelve months is providing you with the healthy perspective needed to finish strong.
Here are three suggestions to help you adopt a mindset that makes the most of 2010.
1) See the lessons in every setback.
Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out. ~ John Wooden
As you think back on the past year, don't be ashamed by the mistakes you made. Failures are stepping-stones to success, not proof of inadequacy. If you're not stumbling from time to time, then chances are you're not going anywhere worthwhile.
Failures are not fun, but neither are they fruitless. Opportunities to learn and grow are embedded in every setback we undergo. Instead of dwelling on the disappointment of things going wrong, seize the insights of the experience. By doing so, you'll emerge as a stronger person.
2) Show gratitude for the blessings you've received.
Gratitude is not only the greatest of all virtues but the mother of all the rest.~ Cicero
To cultivate gratitude, Oprah recommends keeping a gratitude journal:
"Every night, list five things that happened this day that you are grateful for. What it will begin to do is change your perspective of your day and your life. If you can learn to focus on what you have, you will always see that the universe is abundant; you will have more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never have enough."
In addition to writing down what you're thankful for, take action to show gratitude to the people who have helped you over the course of the past year. Expressing thankfulness to others encourages them, strengthens your relationship with them, and positions you to receive their goodwill again in the future.
3) Turn the page on the past and take joy in today.
Hoping to get a glimpse into history, an interviewer asked an 87-year old woman, "What was the world like back in your day?" "Hmph!" she responded, "This is my day!" I love her attitude. Instead of being wistful about the years behind her, the elderly lady's mindset was on making the most of the day in front of her.
The close of the calendar year can be a time of reflection. We think back to the happenings of 2010 and assess where we are in life. Although life can only be understood looking backwards, it can only be lived moving forward. No matter what has transpired this past year, today is a blank slate. So set aside any regrets you may have about 2010, enjoy the holiday season, and look forward to a fresh new year.
At this stage, the punctuation you put on 2010 will not depend as much on what you do but on your point of view. As you look back on the past year, you likely experienced highs and lows, encountered blessings and victories alongside hardship and heartache. As you wrap up 2010, be sure your attitude toward the last twelve months is providing you with the healthy perspective needed to finish strong.
Here are three suggestions to help you adopt a mindset that makes the most of 2010.
1) See the lessons in every setback.
Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out. ~ John Wooden
As you think back on the past year, don't be ashamed by the mistakes you made. Failures are stepping-stones to success, not proof of inadequacy. If you're not stumbling from time to time, then chances are you're not going anywhere worthwhile.
Failures are not fun, but neither are they fruitless. Opportunities to learn and grow are embedded in every setback we undergo. Instead of dwelling on the disappointment of things going wrong, seize the insights of the experience. By doing so, you'll emerge as a stronger person.
2) Show gratitude for the blessings you've received.
Gratitude is not only the greatest of all virtues but the mother of all the rest.~ Cicero
To cultivate gratitude, Oprah recommends keeping a gratitude journal:
"Every night, list five things that happened this day that you are grateful for. What it will begin to do is change your perspective of your day and your life. If you can learn to focus on what you have, you will always see that the universe is abundant; you will have more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never have enough."
In addition to writing down what you're thankful for, take action to show gratitude to the people who have helped you over the course of the past year. Expressing thankfulness to others encourages them, strengthens your relationship with them, and positions you to receive their goodwill again in the future.
3) Turn the page on the past and take joy in today.
Hoping to get a glimpse into history, an interviewer asked an 87-year old woman, "What was the world like back in your day?" "Hmph!" she responded, "This is my day!" I love her attitude. Instead of being wistful about the years behind her, the elderly lady's mindset was on making the most of the day in front of her.
The close of the calendar year can be a time of reflection. We think back to the happenings of 2010 and assess where we are in life. Although life can only be understood looking backwards, it can only be lived moving forward. No matter what has transpired this past year, today is a blank slate. So set aside any regrets you may have about 2010, enjoy the holiday season, and look forward to a fresh new year.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Skills of Extraordinary Leaders
By Chris Widener. Another excellent leadership article by Chris. Outstanding!!!
What? You don’t think that you are a leader? You are! Everyone influences others to some degree. Now, you may not be a very good leader… but that is altogether a different story! Even if you are in need of some help in the leadership department, and we all are, here are some skills you can work on immediately to help you become the leader you want to be. Then you can influence those around you like never before!
1. Good Communicator. Extraordinary Leaders are those who can take the vision they have and communicate it in ways that their followers can easily understand, internal, and own. Then, and only then, can they carry it out! So focus on speaking and writing more clearly, and with the passion that you have for the vision you have. Use different ways of communicating, including different ways verbally and non-verbally. Above all, communicate often!
2. "Sees" the End Result Long Before Others. I think the greatest compliment on my leadership skills I ever received came from a gentleman who told me that “you see things about 6 months before the rest of us.” Without tooting my own horn (okay, a little bit maybe…), that is a skill of a leader. They are always looking out ahead of themselves and their situations. Followers are worried about what happens today, while leaders are thinking about and strategizing about what they see for tomorrow. Be constantly looking ahead. Practice making projections. Get good at “seeing” the future. When you can do this better than others, they will look to you for leadership!
3. Ability to Define Goals for Self and Others. Do you know what your goals are? Can you define them? Can you articulate them clearly (see number one)? Can you do this for those who follow? Can you define and set their goals? A Extraordinary Leader works at clarity and definition of goals so that they can be internalized and acted upon by others. Work hard at this skill and others will follow!
4. Ability to Set Strategy and Course of Action. What will you do to reach the goal? Many people can say where we should go, but it is the Extraordinary Leader who can lay out a plan for everyone to get there! Work at laying out a plan for you and your followers. Remember that there are people with different skill and passion levels, and take this into account! Get good at this and when people want to get to their goals in a hurry, they will call on you to lead!
5. Ability to Teach Others. One of the greatest leadership development companies in the world has been General Electric. This is because their CEO, Jack Welch, has always emphasized the need for current leaders to teach others. He himself spends what others would consider an extraordinary amount of time in the classroom teaching. But remember, he is an Extraordinary Leader and he is developing Extraordinary Leaders to follow behind him. Work hard at your teaching techniques, and be sure to use as many situations as possible for the opportunity to teach those who would follow.
6. Ability to Inspire Others. You may have a great goal, but if you want to be an Extraordinary Leader, then you will have to put a little oomph under your followers! This is the ability to inspire! Work at helping them to see the big picture, the great end results, and how good it is going to be for them and others. Above all, make it exciting. If it is a good goal, it should be exciting. If it isn’t exciting, then dump it and get a goal that others can get excited about! (See the next article, the MFS Classic, for more on inspiring others)
7. Delegates. An Extraordinary Leader is rarely a person who is doing everything him or herself. Extraordinary Leaders get there job done through others. They figure out the way, communicate the way, and inspire the followers to go that way, and then they get OUT OF THE WAY! Delegate to your people. Empower them! Set them free to soar! This is what an Extraordinary Leader does. Leaders who do it any other way are just extraordinarily tired at the end of the day with very little to show for it!
What? You don’t think that you are a leader? You are! Everyone influences others to some degree. Now, you may not be a very good leader… but that is altogether a different story! Even if you are in need of some help in the leadership department, and we all are, here are some skills you can work on immediately to help you become the leader you want to be. Then you can influence those around you like never before!
1. Good Communicator. Extraordinary Leaders are those who can take the vision they have and communicate it in ways that their followers can easily understand, internal, and own. Then, and only then, can they carry it out! So focus on speaking and writing more clearly, and with the passion that you have for the vision you have. Use different ways of communicating, including different ways verbally and non-verbally. Above all, communicate often!
2. "Sees" the End Result Long Before Others. I think the greatest compliment on my leadership skills I ever received came from a gentleman who told me that “you see things about 6 months before the rest of us.” Without tooting my own horn (okay, a little bit maybe…), that is a skill of a leader. They are always looking out ahead of themselves and their situations. Followers are worried about what happens today, while leaders are thinking about and strategizing about what they see for tomorrow. Be constantly looking ahead. Practice making projections. Get good at “seeing” the future. When you can do this better than others, they will look to you for leadership!
3. Ability to Define Goals for Self and Others. Do you know what your goals are? Can you define them? Can you articulate them clearly (see number one)? Can you do this for those who follow? Can you define and set their goals? A Extraordinary Leader works at clarity and definition of goals so that they can be internalized and acted upon by others. Work hard at this skill and others will follow!
4. Ability to Set Strategy and Course of Action. What will you do to reach the goal? Many people can say where we should go, but it is the Extraordinary Leader who can lay out a plan for everyone to get there! Work at laying out a plan for you and your followers. Remember that there are people with different skill and passion levels, and take this into account! Get good at this and when people want to get to their goals in a hurry, they will call on you to lead!
5. Ability to Teach Others. One of the greatest leadership development companies in the world has been General Electric. This is because their CEO, Jack Welch, has always emphasized the need for current leaders to teach others. He himself spends what others would consider an extraordinary amount of time in the classroom teaching. But remember, he is an Extraordinary Leader and he is developing Extraordinary Leaders to follow behind him. Work hard at your teaching techniques, and be sure to use as many situations as possible for the opportunity to teach those who would follow.
6. Ability to Inspire Others. You may have a great goal, but if you want to be an Extraordinary Leader, then you will have to put a little oomph under your followers! This is the ability to inspire! Work at helping them to see the big picture, the great end results, and how good it is going to be for them and others. Above all, make it exciting. If it is a good goal, it should be exciting. If it isn’t exciting, then dump it and get a goal that others can get excited about! (See the next article, the MFS Classic, for more on inspiring others)
7. Delegates. An Extraordinary Leader is rarely a person who is doing everything him or herself. Extraordinary Leaders get there job done through others. They figure out the way, communicate the way, and inspire the followers to go that way, and then they get OUT OF THE WAY! Delegate to your people. Empower them! Set them free to soar! This is what an Extraordinary Leader does. Leaders who do it any other way are just extraordinarily tired at the end of the day with very little to show for it!
Thursday, December 2, 2010
How to Fulfill Your Second Half Career Dream
Great article for all of you who are considering a second career! Well done Steve - great article!! Enjoy!
By Steve Tobak
December 1, 2010
About ten years ago I was having lunch with a long-time business friend. It was a sunny day in the Bay Area so we sat outside on the patio. I happen to think that el fresco dining - or working outside in general, for that matter - leads to inspired thinking, but that’s just me.
Anyway, I somehow got to spilling some of my crazy ideas of what to do next. You know, what to do after getting fed up, fired, or otherwise burned out at the company I was with at the time. My friend just smiled and said, “Oh, you mean your second half plan.”
“What do you mean, second half plan?” I asked, puzzled.
“You know, you work for 20 or 25 years in the same industry, pretty much doing the same sort of thing, and if you’re lucky enough to be reasonably successful at it, you get to try a different game plan in the second half,” he said. “Maybe something you’re more passionate about.”
It sounded so obvious coming out of his mouth, I wondered why I hadn’t thought of that analogy myself. My friend hit the nail on the head. For as far back as I could remember, I’d been planning, plotting, dreaming, and fantasizing about my second half plan. I just didn’t know what to call it.
So, now that I’m deep into the second half, I can look back and see four factors that not only made it possible, but also made it important for me to do it. So, if there’s something you’ve always wanted to do and it’s not what you do for a living, you’ve got to check out:
How to Fulfill Your Second Half Career Dream
• A goal and a plan. Yogi Berra famously said, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you may not get there.” Let me put it this way. If you don’t have goals and at least some semblance of a plan, you’ll never get there. For one thing, you’ll be leaving things more or less to hope or chance, and you’ll need better odds than that. Then there’s your own inertia - tough to stop without a damn good reason.
• The entrepreneurial lure. Sure, I was proud of my career and the management level I’d achieved, but I had always worked in somebody else’s company, a corporation with a CEO, a board of directors, tons of employees, and a boatload of shareholders. I wanted to plot my own course at my own company. I wanted to be an entrepreneur.
• The need to test yourself. Even though I played a key role in the companies where I worked, including taking risks and achieving great rewards, I was still part of an executive team and there were so many success factors that accomplishments were really company accomplishments. I wanted it to be me, just me, taking on a new profession. I wanted to test my metal on my own without a big corporate safety net.
• A dream. Although I loved high-tech and marketing, I actually had a dream that started decades before that career even began. Since I was a little boy I’d loved reading books, so much that I romanticized the profession. And now that I had something to say and a voice with which to say it, I wanted to put pen to paper and fulfill that dream.
Of course, some people want to go right from working to retirement. Sure, I could have milked the high-tech marketing gig and then retired, but then I’d forever wonder what could have been. So that wasn’t for me. I opted for the second half, instead.
Incidentally, thanks for being part of my second half plan. If you’ve got one of your own, maybe someday I can return the favor.
By Steve Tobak
December 1, 2010
About ten years ago I was having lunch with a long-time business friend. It was a sunny day in the Bay Area so we sat outside on the patio. I happen to think that el fresco dining - or working outside in general, for that matter - leads to inspired thinking, but that’s just me.
Anyway, I somehow got to spilling some of my crazy ideas of what to do next. You know, what to do after getting fed up, fired, or otherwise burned out at the company I was with at the time. My friend just smiled and said, “Oh, you mean your second half plan.”
“What do you mean, second half plan?” I asked, puzzled.
“You know, you work for 20 or 25 years in the same industry, pretty much doing the same sort of thing, and if you’re lucky enough to be reasonably successful at it, you get to try a different game plan in the second half,” he said. “Maybe something you’re more passionate about.”
It sounded so obvious coming out of his mouth, I wondered why I hadn’t thought of that analogy myself. My friend hit the nail on the head. For as far back as I could remember, I’d been planning, plotting, dreaming, and fantasizing about my second half plan. I just didn’t know what to call it.
So, now that I’m deep into the second half, I can look back and see four factors that not only made it possible, but also made it important for me to do it. So, if there’s something you’ve always wanted to do and it’s not what you do for a living, you’ve got to check out:
How to Fulfill Your Second Half Career Dream
• A goal and a plan. Yogi Berra famously said, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you may not get there.” Let me put it this way. If you don’t have goals and at least some semblance of a plan, you’ll never get there. For one thing, you’ll be leaving things more or less to hope or chance, and you’ll need better odds than that. Then there’s your own inertia - tough to stop without a damn good reason.
• The entrepreneurial lure. Sure, I was proud of my career and the management level I’d achieved, but I had always worked in somebody else’s company, a corporation with a CEO, a board of directors, tons of employees, and a boatload of shareholders. I wanted to plot my own course at my own company. I wanted to be an entrepreneur.
• The need to test yourself. Even though I played a key role in the companies where I worked, including taking risks and achieving great rewards, I was still part of an executive team and there were so many success factors that accomplishments were really company accomplishments. I wanted it to be me, just me, taking on a new profession. I wanted to test my metal on my own without a big corporate safety net.
• A dream. Although I loved high-tech and marketing, I actually had a dream that started decades before that career even began. Since I was a little boy I’d loved reading books, so much that I romanticized the profession. And now that I had something to say and a voice with which to say it, I wanted to put pen to paper and fulfill that dream.
Of course, some people want to go right from working to retirement. Sure, I could have milked the high-tech marketing gig and then retired, but then I’d forever wonder what could have been. So that wasn’t for me. I opted for the second half, instead.
Incidentally, thanks for being part of my second half plan. If you’ve got one of your own, maybe someday I can return the favor.
Five Essential Qualities of Leadership
Great article on leadership qualities by Angelo. Passion is the most important in my humble opinion!
Angelo Valenti, Ph.D., co-creator of the Fearless Leadership System™, leads a consulting practice known as “The Company Psychologist,” which provides psychological consulting services for clients in a wide variety of industries.
Leaders and leadership are top-of-the-mind subjects among businesspeople, coaches, athletes, politicians, clergy, and individuals in all walks of life. We demand more from our leaders every day but do little to prepare people for the leadership roles they take on during their lives. To paraphrase Shakespeare, some people are born leaders, some achieve leadership, and others have leadership thrust upon them. By whatever means a person attains a leadership position, there are five essential qualities that he or she must possess to be successful as a leader over time.
1. Above all else, a leader must have COURAGE. The majority of people fail to achieve the quality of life they seek because they are shackled by their own fears. Thoreau said, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” It’s not that the courageous leader is not afraid. Everyone is afraid at one time or another. Courage is the will to press on, to do what is necessary and what is right, to overcome obstacles even when afraid. It isn’t courage if you’re not afraid. The only antidote for fear is courage.
2. Fear has a partner in crime – self-doubt. Self-doubt is that little voice in your head that says, “You can’t get that promotion, you’ll never make the team, you aren’t attractive enough, or you just can’t cut it.” Fortunately, there is an antidote for self-doubt as well: CONFIDENCE. Confidence is the unshakable belief in yourself that you can make happen what you want to happen. It’s not the self-doubt that limits you; it’s your reaction to that self-doubt. Confidence allows you to keep trying until you get better, to seek help and advice, to ignore the well-meaning spectators who are ready at your first misstep to tell you that it can’t do it right, you never were good enough, and you never will be. Confidence is infectious. If you believe in yourself, others will believe in you.
3. Even if a leader is courageous and confident, if he or she does not have the capacity for intense CONCENTRATION, that leader is likely to drift off course. Concentration has two parts. The first is persistence, the most important determining factor in an individual’s success. Persistence is the unwillingness to quit until the goal is achieved. Persistence does not require talent, only determination. The second component of concentration is focus, or the ability to stay on track, organize oneself, and reduce debilitating distractions. Great leaders have the ability to separate what is immediately pressing from what is truly important.
4. Why are leaders able to inspire others? It’s because they have PASSION for what they do and what they believe in. They are consistently enthusiastic, upbeat, and optimistic. They bring a genuine joy to whatever they do. Even when things are not going well, they can instill in others the belief that together they can make the situation better. Great leaders are also committed to whatever they undertake. Commitment means throwing yourself into whatever you do with everything you have. It has been said that some people drink from the fountain of knowledge while others only gargle. Leaders don’t gargle.
5. Finally, leaders must have a strong sense of VALUES if they are to succeed in the long term. Values are enduring standards of behavior. They are the stuff upon which our reputations are built. They help us determine whom we can count on, how people will react in given situations, and whom we want as friends. The chances are good that if you follow the golden rule, do the right thing when nobody is looking, and live your life the way your grandmother told you to you will be demonstrating a sense of values that others will readily respect and follow.
Angelo Valenti, Ph.D., co-creator of the Fearless Leadership System™, leads a consulting practice known as “The Company Psychologist,” which provides psychological consulting services for clients in a wide variety of industries.
Leaders and leadership are top-of-the-mind subjects among businesspeople, coaches, athletes, politicians, clergy, and individuals in all walks of life. We demand more from our leaders every day but do little to prepare people for the leadership roles they take on during their lives. To paraphrase Shakespeare, some people are born leaders, some achieve leadership, and others have leadership thrust upon them. By whatever means a person attains a leadership position, there are five essential qualities that he or she must possess to be successful as a leader over time.
1. Above all else, a leader must have COURAGE. The majority of people fail to achieve the quality of life they seek because they are shackled by their own fears. Thoreau said, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” It’s not that the courageous leader is not afraid. Everyone is afraid at one time or another. Courage is the will to press on, to do what is necessary and what is right, to overcome obstacles even when afraid. It isn’t courage if you’re not afraid. The only antidote for fear is courage.
2. Fear has a partner in crime – self-doubt. Self-doubt is that little voice in your head that says, “You can’t get that promotion, you’ll never make the team, you aren’t attractive enough, or you just can’t cut it.” Fortunately, there is an antidote for self-doubt as well: CONFIDENCE. Confidence is the unshakable belief in yourself that you can make happen what you want to happen. It’s not the self-doubt that limits you; it’s your reaction to that self-doubt. Confidence allows you to keep trying until you get better, to seek help and advice, to ignore the well-meaning spectators who are ready at your first misstep to tell you that it can’t do it right, you never were good enough, and you never will be. Confidence is infectious. If you believe in yourself, others will believe in you.
3. Even if a leader is courageous and confident, if he or she does not have the capacity for intense CONCENTRATION, that leader is likely to drift off course. Concentration has two parts. The first is persistence, the most important determining factor in an individual’s success. Persistence is the unwillingness to quit until the goal is achieved. Persistence does not require talent, only determination. The second component of concentration is focus, or the ability to stay on track, organize oneself, and reduce debilitating distractions. Great leaders have the ability to separate what is immediately pressing from what is truly important.
4. Why are leaders able to inspire others? It’s because they have PASSION for what they do and what they believe in. They are consistently enthusiastic, upbeat, and optimistic. They bring a genuine joy to whatever they do. Even when things are not going well, they can instill in others the belief that together they can make the situation better. Great leaders are also committed to whatever they undertake. Commitment means throwing yourself into whatever you do with everything you have. It has been said that some people drink from the fountain of knowledge while others only gargle. Leaders don’t gargle.
5. Finally, leaders must have a strong sense of VALUES if they are to succeed in the long term. Values are enduring standards of behavior. They are the stuff upon which our reputations are built. They help us determine whom we can count on, how people will react in given situations, and whom we want as friends. The chances are good that if you follow the golden rule, do the right thing when nobody is looking, and live your life the way your grandmother told you to you will be demonstrating a sense of values that others will readily respect and follow.
Best Leadership Advice from 7 Top Leaders
Great artcile by Paul. Definately worth a read. I might even buy his new book. Enjoy!!
Paul B. Thornton is President, Be the Leader Associates (http://www.betheleader.com) and author of seven books on management and leadership. His latest book is Leadership - Best Advice I Ever Got, is available from WingSpan Press.
Fortune magazine once published an article entitled “The Best Advice I Ever Got.” It was a great article that offered wit and wisdom about achieving business success. I liked it so much, that it motivated me to produce my newest book, Leadership—Best Advice I Ever Got, which describes the best leadership advice 136 successful CEOs, coaches, consultants, professors, managers, executives, presidents, politicians, and religious leaders received that most helped them become effective and successful leaders.
Here are 7 secrets to leadership success:
1. Leadership is about making things happen
If you want to make something happen with your life – in school, in your profession or in your community, do it. Perceived obstacles crumble against persistent desire. John Baldoni, Author, Leadership Communication Consultant and Founder of Baldoni Consulting LLC, shared this advice that had come from his father, a physician. He taught him the value of persistence. At the same time, his mother taught him compassion for others. Therefore, persistence for your cause should not be gained at the expense of others. Another bit of leadership wisdom!
2. Listen and understand the issue, then lead
Time and time again we have all been told, "God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason"...or as Stephen Covey said..."Seek to understand, rather than be understood." As a leader, listening first to the issue, then trying to coach, has been the most valuable advice that Cordia Harrington, President and CEO of Tennessee Bun Company has been given.
3. Answer the three questions everyone within your organization wants answers to
What the people of an organization want from their leader are answers to the following: Where are we going? How are we going to get there? What is my role? Kevin Nolan, President & Chief Executive Officer of Affinity Health Systems, Inc. believes the more clarity that can be added to each of the three questions, the better the result.
4. Master the goals that will allow you to work anywhere in today’s dynamic business world
Debbe Kennedy, President, CEO and Founder of Global Dialogue Center and Leadership Solutions Companies, and author of Action Dialogues and Breakthrough once shared this piece of advice that was instrumental in shaping her direction, future and achievements.
She was a young manager at IBM just promoted to her first staff assignment in a regional marketing office. For reasons she can’t explain, one of her colleagues named Bookie called her into his office while she was visiting his location. He then began to offer unsolicited advice, but advice that now stays fresh in her mind. He mentioned that jobs, missions, titles and organizations would come and go as business is dynamic-- meaning it is always changing. He advised her not to focus your goals toward any of these, but instead learn to master the skills that will allow you to work anywhere.
He was talking about four skills:
• The ability to develop an idea
• Effectively plan for its implementation
• Execute second-to-none
• Achieve superior results time after time.
With this in mind, Kennedy advises readers to seek jobs and opportunities with this in mind. Forget what others do. Work to be known for delivering excellence. It speaks for itself and it opens doors.
5. Be curious
Curiosity is a prerequisite to continuous improvement and even excellence. The person who gave Mary Jean Thornton, Former Executive Vice President & CIO, The Travelers this advice urged her to study people, processes, and structures. He inspired her to be intellectually curious. He often reminded Thornton that making progress, in part, was based upon thinking. She has learned to apply this notion of intellectual curiosity by thinking about her organization’s future, understanding the present, and knowing and challenging herself to creatively move the people and the organization closer to its vision.
6. Listen to both sides of the argument
The most valuable advice Brian P. Lees, Massachusetts State Senator and Senate Minority Leader ever received came from his mentor, United States Senator Edward W. Brooke III. He told him to listen to all different kinds of people and ideas. Listening only to those who share your background and opinions can be imprudent. It is important to respect your neighbors’ rights to their own views. Listening to and talking with a variety of people, from professors to police officers, from senior citizens to schoolchildren, is essential not only to be a good leader in business, but to also be a valuable member within your community.
7. Prepare, prepare, prepare
If you fail to prepare, you are preparing to fail. If one has truly prepared and something goes wrong the strength of the rest of what you've prepared for usually makes this something easier to handle without crisis and panic. One of the best pieces of advice Dave Hixson, Men’s Varsity Basketball Coach at Amherst College has ever received and continues to use and pass on is this anonymous quote—“Preparation is the science of winning."
Along with this are two expressions from Rick Pitino's book Success is a Choice, which speaks to preparation. Hixson asks his teams every year: "Do you deserve to win?" and "Have you done the work?" This speaks to the importance of preparation toward achieving your final goal. If you haven't done the work (preparation) the answer to the second question is an easy "no!"
Great advice comes from many sources – parents, other relatives, consultants, bosses, co-workers, mentors, teachers, coaches, and friends. The important point to remember is to stay open, listen to everyone, but also develop your own leadership style.
Paul B. Thornton is President, Be the Leader Associates (http://www.betheleader.com) and author of seven books on management and leadership. His latest book is Leadership - Best Advice I Ever Got, is available from WingSpan Press.
Fortune magazine once published an article entitled “The Best Advice I Ever Got.” It was a great article that offered wit and wisdom about achieving business success. I liked it so much, that it motivated me to produce my newest book, Leadership—Best Advice I Ever Got, which describes the best leadership advice 136 successful CEOs, coaches, consultants, professors, managers, executives, presidents, politicians, and religious leaders received that most helped them become effective and successful leaders.
Here are 7 secrets to leadership success:
1. Leadership is about making things happen
If you want to make something happen with your life – in school, in your profession or in your community, do it. Perceived obstacles crumble against persistent desire. John Baldoni, Author, Leadership Communication Consultant and Founder of Baldoni Consulting LLC, shared this advice that had come from his father, a physician. He taught him the value of persistence. At the same time, his mother taught him compassion for others. Therefore, persistence for your cause should not be gained at the expense of others. Another bit of leadership wisdom!
2. Listen and understand the issue, then lead
Time and time again we have all been told, "God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason"...or as Stephen Covey said..."Seek to understand, rather than be understood." As a leader, listening first to the issue, then trying to coach, has been the most valuable advice that Cordia Harrington, President and CEO of Tennessee Bun Company has been given.
3. Answer the three questions everyone within your organization wants answers to
What the people of an organization want from their leader are answers to the following: Where are we going? How are we going to get there? What is my role? Kevin Nolan, President & Chief Executive Officer of Affinity Health Systems, Inc. believes the more clarity that can be added to each of the three questions, the better the result.
4. Master the goals that will allow you to work anywhere in today’s dynamic business world
Debbe Kennedy, President, CEO and Founder of Global Dialogue Center and Leadership Solutions Companies, and author of Action Dialogues and Breakthrough once shared this piece of advice that was instrumental in shaping her direction, future and achievements.
She was a young manager at IBM just promoted to her first staff assignment in a regional marketing office. For reasons she can’t explain, one of her colleagues named Bookie called her into his office while she was visiting his location. He then began to offer unsolicited advice, but advice that now stays fresh in her mind. He mentioned that jobs, missions, titles and organizations would come and go as business is dynamic-- meaning it is always changing. He advised her not to focus your goals toward any of these, but instead learn to master the skills that will allow you to work anywhere.
He was talking about four skills:
• The ability to develop an idea
• Effectively plan for its implementation
• Execute second-to-none
• Achieve superior results time after time.
With this in mind, Kennedy advises readers to seek jobs and opportunities with this in mind. Forget what others do. Work to be known for delivering excellence. It speaks for itself and it opens doors.
5. Be curious
Curiosity is a prerequisite to continuous improvement and even excellence. The person who gave Mary Jean Thornton, Former Executive Vice President & CIO, The Travelers this advice urged her to study people, processes, and structures. He inspired her to be intellectually curious. He often reminded Thornton that making progress, in part, was based upon thinking. She has learned to apply this notion of intellectual curiosity by thinking about her organization’s future, understanding the present, and knowing and challenging herself to creatively move the people and the organization closer to its vision.
6. Listen to both sides of the argument
The most valuable advice Brian P. Lees, Massachusetts State Senator and Senate Minority Leader ever received came from his mentor, United States Senator Edward W. Brooke III. He told him to listen to all different kinds of people and ideas. Listening only to those who share your background and opinions can be imprudent. It is important to respect your neighbors’ rights to their own views. Listening to and talking with a variety of people, from professors to police officers, from senior citizens to schoolchildren, is essential not only to be a good leader in business, but to also be a valuable member within your community.
7. Prepare, prepare, prepare
If you fail to prepare, you are preparing to fail. If one has truly prepared and something goes wrong the strength of the rest of what you've prepared for usually makes this something easier to handle without crisis and panic. One of the best pieces of advice Dave Hixson, Men’s Varsity Basketball Coach at Amherst College has ever received and continues to use and pass on is this anonymous quote—“Preparation is the science of winning."
Along with this are two expressions from Rick Pitino's book Success is a Choice, which speaks to preparation. Hixson asks his teams every year: "Do you deserve to win?" and "Have you done the work?" This speaks to the importance of preparation toward achieving your final goal. If you haven't done the work (preparation) the answer to the second question is an easy "no!"
Great advice comes from many sources – parents, other relatives, consultants, bosses, co-workers, mentors, teachers, coaches, and friends. The important point to remember is to stay open, listen to everyone, but also develop your own leadership style.
A Failure to Lead - A Failure to Communicate
A great article for Private Club Managers. Reasearch show that Communication is one of the top leadeship traits need for club managers. Enjoy!
John Baldoni is a leadership communications consultant who works with companies and non profits organizations. He is the author of several books on leadership including Great Communication Secrets of Great Leaders (McGraw-Hill, 2003).
Two recent high profile catastrophes cast light on an age old problem. The first was the breakup of the Columbia shuttle as it speed across the Texas sky on February 1st, 2003. The second was the sudden power outage on August 14th that affected some 80 million consumers in the Eastern part of the United States and Ontario. The first accident cost the lives of seven astronauts; the second accident cost a loss of faith in the power grid as well as billions of dollars. While both accidents were different in root causes, both shared a single similar fault – a failure to communicate.
The most glaring communication failures make headlines, but failure to keep people in the know or to report an emergent problem are hardly unique to disasters. Communication lapses in fact are so recurrent that the very phrase, "failure to communicate" - popularized a generation ago in the Paul Newman movie, Cool Hand Luke - seems to be a near universal. Communication beakdowns occur routinely, but it takes a spectacular event like the Columbia disaster or the Eastern power outage to remind us how consequential they can be. What can we do to ensure that communications flourishes to the betterment of the enterprise?
Scan the horizon. Nothing remains the same for very long. Leaders are responsible for looking outside the organization to discover what customers are thinking and purchasing - and how competitors are responding to the changing market conditions. By scanning the organization's horizon, leaders help their organization anticipate the future to avoid blindsiding by it.
Keep an ear to the ground. Leaders listen to what people are saying - but also what they are not saying. Problems occur in all organizations, but it is the well lead organization that learns about incipient problems before they emerge. Front-line military officers, for instance, frequently look over the shoulder of their troops not only to assure performance but also to learn of early warning signs of threats to performance.
Ask questions. One of the surest ways to find out what is going on within an organization is to pose questions. Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, is an inveterate questioner. He helps keep himself up to speed by incessantly posing queries during his many forays around Amazon facilities.
Create feedback loops. It is useful to install devices by which employees can voice an opinion and receive a response. Feedback systems are easy to implement with e-mail, but providing a thoughtful response requires a commitment to active communication. But then again, that's what communications is all about – two-way feedback and follow-up.
MBWA. David Packard pioneered "management by walking around" as he built Hewlett-Packard. Doing so took him out from behind his desk and into meeting, hallways, cafeterias, shop floors, and sales centers where the real work occurred, and his MBWA has become an industry standard.
Integrate communications into your disaster plans. Have a disaster plan in place with two way communications, and test it so that employees feel comfortable with it. Most fire, rescue, and trauma teams maintain such plans and rehearse them regularly. In the absence of a rehearsed disaster plan, effective communication is one of the first casualties of a catastrophe.
Communication is the glue that holds organizations together. It helps prevent calamity and fosters performance. Through self-conscious development and frequent practice of the art of organizational communication, communication failures should become communication successes.
John Baldoni is a leadership communications consultant who works with companies and non profits organizations. He is the author of several books on leadership including Great Communication Secrets of Great Leaders (McGraw-Hill, 2003).
Two recent high profile catastrophes cast light on an age old problem. The first was the breakup of the Columbia shuttle as it speed across the Texas sky on February 1st, 2003. The second was the sudden power outage on August 14th that affected some 80 million consumers in the Eastern part of the United States and Ontario. The first accident cost the lives of seven astronauts; the second accident cost a loss of faith in the power grid as well as billions of dollars. While both accidents were different in root causes, both shared a single similar fault – a failure to communicate.
The most glaring communication failures make headlines, but failure to keep people in the know or to report an emergent problem are hardly unique to disasters. Communication lapses in fact are so recurrent that the very phrase, "failure to communicate" - popularized a generation ago in the Paul Newman movie, Cool Hand Luke - seems to be a near universal. Communication beakdowns occur routinely, but it takes a spectacular event like the Columbia disaster or the Eastern power outage to remind us how consequential they can be. What can we do to ensure that communications flourishes to the betterment of the enterprise?
Scan the horizon. Nothing remains the same for very long. Leaders are responsible for looking outside the organization to discover what customers are thinking and purchasing - and how competitors are responding to the changing market conditions. By scanning the organization's horizon, leaders help their organization anticipate the future to avoid blindsiding by it.
Keep an ear to the ground. Leaders listen to what people are saying - but also what they are not saying. Problems occur in all organizations, but it is the well lead organization that learns about incipient problems before they emerge. Front-line military officers, for instance, frequently look over the shoulder of their troops not only to assure performance but also to learn of early warning signs of threats to performance.
Ask questions. One of the surest ways to find out what is going on within an organization is to pose questions. Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, is an inveterate questioner. He helps keep himself up to speed by incessantly posing queries during his many forays around Amazon facilities.
Create feedback loops. It is useful to install devices by which employees can voice an opinion and receive a response. Feedback systems are easy to implement with e-mail, but providing a thoughtful response requires a commitment to active communication. But then again, that's what communications is all about – two-way feedback and follow-up.
MBWA. David Packard pioneered "management by walking around" as he built Hewlett-Packard. Doing so took him out from behind his desk and into meeting, hallways, cafeterias, shop floors, and sales centers where the real work occurred, and his MBWA has become an industry standard.
Integrate communications into your disaster plans. Have a disaster plan in place with two way communications, and test it so that employees feel comfortable with it. Most fire, rescue, and trauma teams maintain such plans and rehearse them regularly. In the absence of a rehearsed disaster plan, effective communication is one of the first casualties of a catastrophe.
Communication is the glue that holds organizations together. It helps prevent calamity and fosters performance. Through self-conscious development and frequent practice of the art of organizational communication, communication failures should become communication successes.
5 Irrefutable, Non-Negotiable Laws of Leadership
A very good article by Kevin. Worth the read and worth keeping close at hand. Enjoy!
by Kevin Berchelmann.
Leaders, new and old, sometimes lose sight of the most fundamental tenets of leadership. Here’s a reminder…
I frequently tell executives that leadership and its concepts, theories and core applications haven’t changed in a millennium. Some of our demographics may have changed. This forces us to use alternative applications of those concepts. But the basic leadership concepts and theories remain.
So, why don’t we “just do it?”
Sometimes we aren’t motivated. Sometimes the “time” just doesn’t seem right. Maybe we simply forgot some of the basics… hence this article.
When I train companies and corporations worldwide on how to improve management and organization performance, I start off with these 5 laws new and experienced leaders should never ever forget.
Kevin's Leadership Skills Training Survival Kit for New & Experienced Managers
Leadership Law #1: Never delay a decision that must be made.
Make your decision and move on. You may have to immediately make another decision. This doesn't mean your first one was wrong. It merely means that your second one had the benefit of additional knowledge.
Leadership Law #2: When you want something specific done, say so specifically, using clear, plain language.
Employees generally have some difficulty doing their basic jobs. By adding "mind-reading" to their description is just plain unfair. Do not use hints, implications, or innuendos. Say what you want, and use plain English! Directness counts.
Leadership Law #3: Never answer every employee’s every question.
Questions are teaching moments -- don't rob employees of the opportunity. But don’t spend your whole time answering questions.
When you always answer every employee’s every question, you'll forever be answering your employee’s every question. This will leave you with no time to spend on areas that need your direct attention now. Sounds trite, and I don’t mean it to.
If employees are asking because they’re stupid, get rid of them. If they are decent employees asking because they do not know, then teach them. They’ll know next time, and you’ll both be better for it.
Leadership Law #4: Make your expectations clear, then back up a bit and give employees room to do their job.
That doesn't mean to never look back. To inspect what you expect isn't micromanagement. It's good management.
Even your top performers need clear expectations. Give them a target. Provide resources and guidance. Remove obstacles when necessary. Then let them do their job. But, don’t forget to check back later, since you still have management responsibilities.
Leadership Law #5: Employees need their managers to be leaders
Your employees don't need a shoulder. They don’t need a buddy, a sympatico, or a commiserator. If you want a friend, buy a dog.
We all struggle with this. Everyone wants to be liked, and it always seems difficult to decline a beer after work, or something similar. I’m not advocating a monk-like existence, disallowing any contact with your troops. I’m just merely reminding you that they would like to have a friend, but they need a leader if they are to be successful.
You do want them to be successful, don’t you?
Closing Leadership Thoughts
These leadership laws are fairly intuitive, and certainly not rocket science or brain surgery. They are simple management and leadership truths that have passed the test of time.
Print these out. Laminate it. Put in your top desk drawer and don’t forget them!
by Kevin Berchelmann.
Leaders, new and old, sometimes lose sight of the most fundamental tenets of leadership. Here’s a reminder…
I frequently tell executives that leadership and its concepts, theories and core applications haven’t changed in a millennium. Some of our demographics may have changed. This forces us to use alternative applications of those concepts. But the basic leadership concepts and theories remain.
So, why don’t we “just do it?”
Sometimes we aren’t motivated. Sometimes the “time” just doesn’t seem right. Maybe we simply forgot some of the basics… hence this article.
When I train companies and corporations worldwide on how to improve management and organization performance, I start off with these 5 laws new and experienced leaders should never ever forget.
Kevin's Leadership Skills Training Survival Kit for New & Experienced Managers
Leadership Law #1: Never delay a decision that must be made.
Make your decision and move on. You may have to immediately make another decision. This doesn't mean your first one was wrong. It merely means that your second one had the benefit of additional knowledge.
Leadership Law #2: When you want something specific done, say so specifically, using clear, plain language.
Employees generally have some difficulty doing their basic jobs. By adding "mind-reading" to their description is just plain unfair. Do not use hints, implications, or innuendos. Say what you want, and use plain English! Directness counts.
Leadership Law #3: Never answer every employee’s every question.
Questions are teaching moments -- don't rob employees of the opportunity. But don’t spend your whole time answering questions.
When you always answer every employee’s every question, you'll forever be answering your employee’s every question. This will leave you with no time to spend on areas that need your direct attention now. Sounds trite, and I don’t mean it to.
If employees are asking because they’re stupid, get rid of them. If they are decent employees asking because they do not know, then teach them. They’ll know next time, and you’ll both be better for it.
Leadership Law #4: Make your expectations clear, then back up a bit and give employees room to do their job.
That doesn't mean to never look back. To inspect what you expect isn't micromanagement. It's good management.
Even your top performers need clear expectations. Give them a target. Provide resources and guidance. Remove obstacles when necessary. Then let them do their job. But, don’t forget to check back later, since you still have management responsibilities.
Leadership Law #5: Employees need their managers to be leaders
Your employees don't need a shoulder. They don’t need a buddy, a sympatico, or a commiserator. If you want a friend, buy a dog.
We all struggle with this. Everyone wants to be liked, and it always seems difficult to decline a beer after work, or something similar. I’m not advocating a monk-like existence, disallowing any contact with your troops. I’m just merely reminding you that they would like to have a friend, but they need a leader if they are to be successful.
You do want them to be successful, don’t you?
Closing Leadership Thoughts
These leadership laws are fairly intuitive, and certainly not rocket science or brain surgery. They are simple management and leadership truths that have passed the test of time.
Print these out. Laminate it. Put in your top desk drawer and don’t forget them!
10 Management Lessons
Great leadership article. Enjoy!
By Ryan Allis.
Over the past five years, as iContact and Virante have grown, I've learned a lot about managing people. A business amounts to little without the people behind it. The two most important things I look for when hiring are initiative and work ethic. I cannot overestimate the importance to the eventual success of your business of bringing on good people. But once you have hired these good people, how do you manage them?
I certainly admit that I have much left to learn about leadership and management, but here are a few tips that might be helpful:
• Have a vision and communicate it. Make sure you clearly communicate your vision for the company. No one follows a leader who cannot communicate the way in which the company will succeed. The future of all your employees is tied closely to the success of your company. Make sure they believe in your company, what it stands for, and its products and services, and make sure they know that the hard work they are putting in now will payoff.
• Show respect. Treat people, including your customers, suppliers, partners, and employees, with respect at all times.
• Share your success. Make sure your employees share in the success of your company. As the company is able, provide additional benefits such as health care and dental coverage, a stock options plan, and a 401(k) plan. As your employees' skills and abilities grow, reward them with fair compensation. Finally, consider incentivizing your top employees and managers with ownership in the company. Few things can make a person work harder than a piece of the action.
• Don't be too serious. Make the business environment fun at times. While being professional and taking things seriously is important, nothing can beat the effects of a companywide midnight round of bowling after you reach an important milestone, a lunchtime pizza party once a month, or a spontaneous Nerf-dart duel.
• Work with your employees. Make sure the employees see you there and working with them. No one likes to work hard for someone who doesn't work hard him -- or herself. Especially early on, be the first to arrive and the last to leave whenever possible.
• Keep your door open. Whether or not you have your own office yet, keep your "door" open. Make sure your employees and managers know that you are approachable at any time about any problem they are having.
• Listen. You have built a great team and are paying top dollar for it. Hold meetings with your management team at least every other week. Also have frequent informal ad hoc discussions with your partners, managers, and employees. Get their feedback, discuss the business and its strategy, and inquire every so often if there is anything that is frustrating them that you can help with. A few weeks ago I had a quick spur-of-the-moment meeting with the lead developer for iContact. After inquiring whether he had any job frustrations, it came out that he felt he was working in an environment in which he became distracted too often. We quickly devised a solution whereby he would work at home four hours a day until we could move into a larger office where the development team could work in a separate room, away from the distraction of the sales and support team. This small change has doubled the developer's productivity.
• Build relationships. Without understanding at least the basics of what is occurring in an employee's out-of-office life, it can be hard to connect with the person on a professional level. One tactic I've used successfully to get to know each employee personally is to take the person and his or her significant other to dinner the first evening of their employment. It serves as a way to celebrate the occasion as well as learn a little bit about the employee that would not come out in interviews or through reading a resume.
• Commend more than you criticize. Too many business owners (and I have been guilty of this as well) speak to an employee only when he or she has done something wrong or something that has negatively affected the company. While constructive criticism and appropriate guidance have their place, if you seem to only condemn and never praise, your employees will quickly either dislike you or show apathy toward their jobs. Continual properly placed praises can be as powerful in getting quality results from employees as a large pay raise. Many people thrive on peer and superior recognition just as much as on money. Instituting an employee-of-the-month award and a quarterly performance review can be extremely valuable to your company.
• Consciously build a culture. At iContact, we truly are a family. In fact, we call ourselves the iContact Family. When someone is moving into a new house or needs a ride home from the airport, we're there to help. We believe in building people up, not tearing people down. We put people first and have respect for the individual. We believe that we should work hard and be innovative, yet maintain a balance in our lives. We believe in not letting balls drop, and that we're all working together on the same mission. We have foosball and Ping-Pong tables in our office, free sodas, Bagel Monday, and monthly birthday celebrations and Outstanding Performance Award ceremonies. We have a young, dynamic, fun, and innovative culture. It exists because we have consciously built it.
As a manager and business owner, you are charged with an immense responsibility. You control the activity and purpose that your employees dedicate half of their waking hours to. Make your company's purpose meaningful, communicate your vision, respect and praise your employees, and share your success. If you can succeed in building a team of highly motivated and happy employees who take initiative, have a bias toward action, respect you, and truly care for the business, you will have done much of the work toward building a strong and fast-growing organization.
By Ryan Allis.
Over the past five years, as iContact and Virante have grown, I've learned a lot about managing people. A business amounts to little without the people behind it. The two most important things I look for when hiring are initiative and work ethic. I cannot overestimate the importance to the eventual success of your business of bringing on good people. But once you have hired these good people, how do you manage them?
I certainly admit that I have much left to learn about leadership and management, but here are a few tips that might be helpful:
• Have a vision and communicate it. Make sure you clearly communicate your vision for the company. No one follows a leader who cannot communicate the way in which the company will succeed. The future of all your employees is tied closely to the success of your company. Make sure they believe in your company, what it stands for, and its products and services, and make sure they know that the hard work they are putting in now will payoff.
• Show respect. Treat people, including your customers, suppliers, partners, and employees, with respect at all times.
• Share your success. Make sure your employees share in the success of your company. As the company is able, provide additional benefits such as health care and dental coverage, a stock options plan, and a 401(k) plan. As your employees' skills and abilities grow, reward them with fair compensation. Finally, consider incentivizing your top employees and managers with ownership in the company. Few things can make a person work harder than a piece of the action.
• Don't be too serious. Make the business environment fun at times. While being professional and taking things seriously is important, nothing can beat the effects of a companywide midnight round of bowling after you reach an important milestone, a lunchtime pizza party once a month, or a spontaneous Nerf-dart duel.
• Work with your employees. Make sure the employees see you there and working with them. No one likes to work hard for someone who doesn't work hard him -- or herself. Especially early on, be the first to arrive and the last to leave whenever possible.
• Keep your door open. Whether or not you have your own office yet, keep your "door" open. Make sure your employees and managers know that you are approachable at any time about any problem they are having.
• Listen. You have built a great team and are paying top dollar for it. Hold meetings with your management team at least every other week. Also have frequent informal ad hoc discussions with your partners, managers, and employees. Get their feedback, discuss the business and its strategy, and inquire every so often if there is anything that is frustrating them that you can help with. A few weeks ago I had a quick spur-of-the-moment meeting with the lead developer for iContact. After inquiring whether he had any job frustrations, it came out that he felt he was working in an environment in which he became distracted too often. We quickly devised a solution whereby he would work at home four hours a day until we could move into a larger office where the development team could work in a separate room, away from the distraction of the sales and support team. This small change has doubled the developer's productivity.
• Build relationships. Without understanding at least the basics of what is occurring in an employee's out-of-office life, it can be hard to connect with the person on a professional level. One tactic I've used successfully to get to know each employee personally is to take the person and his or her significant other to dinner the first evening of their employment. It serves as a way to celebrate the occasion as well as learn a little bit about the employee that would not come out in interviews or through reading a resume.
• Commend more than you criticize. Too many business owners (and I have been guilty of this as well) speak to an employee only when he or she has done something wrong or something that has negatively affected the company. While constructive criticism and appropriate guidance have their place, if you seem to only condemn and never praise, your employees will quickly either dislike you or show apathy toward their jobs. Continual properly placed praises can be as powerful in getting quality results from employees as a large pay raise. Many people thrive on peer and superior recognition just as much as on money. Instituting an employee-of-the-month award and a quarterly performance review can be extremely valuable to your company.
• Consciously build a culture. At iContact, we truly are a family. In fact, we call ourselves the iContact Family. When someone is moving into a new house or needs a ride home from the airport, we're there to help. We believe in building people up, not tearing people down. We put people first and have respect for the individual. We believe that we should work hard and be innovative, yet maintain a balance in our lives. We believe in not letting balls drop, and that we're all working together on the same mission. We have foosball and Ping-Pong tables in our office, free sodas, Bagel Monday, and monthly birthday celebrations and Outstanding Performance Award ceremonies. We have a young, dynamic, fun, and innovative culture. It exists because we have consciously built it.
As a manager and business owner, you are charged with an immense responsibility. You control the activity and purpose that your employees dedicate half of their waking hours to. Make your company's purpose meaningful, communicate your vision, respect and praise your employees, and share your success. If you can succeed in building a team of highly motivated and happy employees who take initiative, have a bias toward action, respect you, and truly care for the business, you will have done much of the work toward building a strong and fast-growing organization.
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