- Our Greatest Source of Security
The only real source of security any of us have in this time of change and downsizing and merging and new business models and all the other stuff we see, read and hear - is what? The only real security any of us have comes from our own accomplishments. Top performers - the people who will prosper even in the toughest of times - believe that. For others it's a frightening thought - or a frustrating thought - or just plain not true. - 7 Steps To Developing Personal Power
The most successful people are those who know who they are. They know that each of us is made up of three selves. Each of us is first, the person we think we are - our self concept; second, the person we want others to think we are - our mask; and third, the person others think we are - our perceived self. These can be three very different people. Successful people know that, and work hard to closely align their three selves. - Captain Sullenberger, Preparation, Routine and Opportunities
Hats off to Captain Sullenberger and his crew and their rescue - I can't think of a better word to describe what they did - in saving the passengers and themselves when they had to ditch in the Hudson River. The accolades and gratitude and respect that the crew have received are well earned. And there is a real lesson for all of us as we go about the business of our lives - How To Hire The Right People
"The first thing you have to do is hire the right people." Have you ever heard that profound piece of advice? Of course you're going to hire the right people - if you know who the right people are. If that's the case, why isn't more time spent defining what the job requires of the right person as the first step in any talent selection? - Ten Behaviors For Success In A Business Downturn
A lot is written about what to do after losing a job, but what about the people who don't lose their jobs, but are faced with the results of business slowdowns - layoffs, reduced expectations, salary freezes, greater responsibility with fewer resources and the uncertainty of what's next? Read on to get ten behaviors that can mean the difference between failure, survival or success in business downturns. - Use SMART Goals to Overcome the Tyranny of the Unimportant
Have you ever caught yourself rearranging your desk, or your E Mail files, or checking E Mail, or making a purchase on Amazon, or automatically answering your cell phone, even when you know the call isn't important - when you know, in your gut, that there is more important work to be done? Read on to see how to overcome the Tyranny of the Unimportant. - Where Success Happens
Success happens at that special intersection of passion, commitment, talent and persistence. Think of those four as separate paths that flow into one path - one powerful path that leads to success - in it's infinite variety. It's a special place, that path. - My Top Resolution For 2009
I'm not that great at keeping New Year's resolutions, but this one is going to stick - I promise. I resolve to wipe the F word "fair" from my vocabulary, from my thinking, from my emotions. How did I arrive at this resolution? Read on. - There Is Plenty For Everybody - Share It
A friend sent me a story about Heaven and Hell and sharing. It just struck me as such a good example of why a belief that there is plenty for everybody and a behavior of interdependence represent the highest order of living. At this time of year, and at this time in our economy, it's worth reminding ourselves of that fact. Read on. - How To Be A Top Contributor In Tough Times
In these times - tough times by anyone's measure - it's important to be seen as a contributor - a person who makes a positive difference in the success of their enterprise. So what does it take to be a top contributor? We asked some of the most successful contributors we know. Read on to get their answers: ten Behaviors, Attitudes and Personal Skills of top contributors. - Victors Do The Work, and Forget The Silver Bullets
Victors know success comes from doing the work. And that belief is even more important in tough times. At a time when resources have to be carefully committed, and when the need to focus on getting the really important things done is crucial, the temptation to look for silver bullets is greater than ever. - Use Goals To Stay In Play
Never has there been a more critical time to remind ourselves to "Stay In Play." "Stay In Play" tells us just how important it is to press on, to take the next step, to develop the best possible solution, to make the next sales call, to play the next down, to serve the next serve, to stay in the game. - Victor Or Victim - Your Choice
Right now it's tough to not feel like a victim. So many events seem to be beyond our control, and so many consequences of the decisions of others appear to have cost so many so much. Others choose to be victors. Faced with the same events and circumstances and consequences and outcomes as victims, they will continue to swim upstream - possibly more slowly and with more effort, but still working their way toward their goals. - Use SMART Goals To Get Through Tough Times
The most effective thing any of us can do right now is to focus on our goals - define them, refine them to reflect changing realities, test them to see if they remain realistic and relevant, and act to achieve them. It's hard. The steady drumbeat of bad news - about the economy, about the elections, about man's inhumanity to man can really divert attention from the really important things. That's where SMART goals come in. - SMART Goals Reduce Ambiguity and Increase Commitment
Ambiguity is a fact of life in all organizations. In many cases it can be an advantage. But in most cases, the clearer the requirements, the better. Use SMART goals, keep them simple, and watch people respond with a high level of commitment to the enterprise. They can be, as in this case, the difference between success and failure. - Make Sure Dreams Are Your Servant, and Not Your Master
In effective goal setting, using dreams to establish ideal outcomes is a critical step in creating the vision and purpose that become the building block for goals. When used that way, dreams are your servant. But when the word dreams is mentioned, many people are turned off - to them dreams are a waste of time - a trip into fantasy. They feel dreams are not for the real world. They see dreams as taking away from action and accomplishment. - How to Ensure Dissatisfaction Is A Key To Success
In the important areas of our lives, dissatisfaction is a positive - a way to constantly improve. At the same time, dissatisfaction has its limitations. Applying dissatisfaction to many areas of life just leads to frustration and regret. - When Is The Best Time To Change?
When is the best time to change? It's when preparation and the opportunity to create interest and urgency come together around some incident or condition that can focus attention and effort. That's when real lasting change occurs. Use that answer to focus your own personal and organizational change efforts for maximum impact and value. - Looking At Life Through Your Rear View Mirror
Have you ever had the experience of suddenly being confronted, in your mind, with something you did in the past that you wish you hadn't, or that you regretted, and that "something" flashes up on your brain screen and sends a chill down your spine, or a flop to your stomach, or a tear to your eye - or a song to your heart? - Valuing Individual Differences - Key To Team Success
Leaders place a high value on being able to see things through different lenses. Successful problem solving teams and project teams value individual differences as the means of arriving at innovative ways to meeting their goals. The keys in valuing differences as key to team success involve two dimensions. - Ten Steps To Empowerment
Empowering people can take many forms. In most organizations, there are many actions that can be taken, without financial risk to the organization, to start empowering people. From the biggest for profit corporation to the smallest non - profit, there are empowering behaviors that can add tremendous amounts of energy and leverage. Here are ten behavior driven actions to take to empower people. - How To Set SMART Goals - Start With The End In Mind
Setting worthy SMART goals can be a real challenge. SMART is the acronym for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic/Relevant and Time framed. For a lot of people, getting to goal statements that meet those criteria is tough. So where to start in this process of establishing SMART goals? - Your Attitude Is Showing - Now What?
Your attitude is showing - and it's not good. What to do about it? A story about an attitude needing adjustment - and about critical personal decisions. - Become Thirty Percent More Effective In Selecting The Right People
Success starts with the right people in the right jobs. Particularly in leadership positions. But if that's really the belief of most organizations, why is it that so many selections fail at their jobs - or - even worse, just hang on and take up space? It doesn't have to be that way. In fact, every organization striving to improve their selection batting average can become at least 30% more effective. Here's how: - The Biggest Barrier To Building Relationships- One Way Conversations
One - way conversations make it easy to come to the conclusion that the person doing the talking thinks they have more to say than the listener does. It may be a bad conclusion to draw, but it's a very human one. And in arriving at that conclusion, potential relationships slips away. Read on to see what to do about it. - The More Trust, The More Time To Succeed
Bill Oncken, in his book Managing Management Time, says that the more trust you have with your "universe " of people, the more time you have to do the things that lead to success. Trust is hard to earn. Once lost it's hard to regain. It's the most precious asset in any relationship - at any level - at any time. Read on to see how a successful Division President builds trust. - Excellent Customer Service Starts With Excellent Employee Service
Nothing sets the standard for excellent customer service more than excellent employee service. It's critical to measure the level of customer service. It's also critical to measure the level of employee service. There is a direct correlation between the two. Take the six elements of excellent employee service listed in this article and see where your organization stands. - How To Increase ROI On People Development Investments
How to ensure your critical people development investments are effective and carry a high ROI? Read on and ask yourself seven questions. The answers will help define the best way to go about developing the skills, expertise and abilities of your people while increasing your ROI on development investments. - Nine Essentials Of Employee Termination
It comes time to part company. At that point, the most critical part of the termination process takes place. It's the place where the people remaining evaluate how it was handled - it's critical because well handled terminations create positive emotions toward the organization, and poorly handled ones cause the organization to lose credibility in the eyes of its employees. - Overcome The Wall Through Worthy Goals
The Wall and worthy goals go together. Notice how the Wall only appears on the truly important, demanding, stretch goals? The goals that spell real progress, real success and real accomplishment? The Wall saves itself for the really important things. - Turn Negative Expectations Into Positive Outcomes
How often do we let negative expectations create negative results? If you're like me, it's more often than I like to admit. And yet, when I work to overcome negative expectations and project positive behavior, I am pleasantly surprised. Things end up better than I expected. What I've learned is to spend more time on positive behaviors, and less time trying to dwell on the reasons for negative expectations. - Qualities Of Resourceful Leaders
Resourceful leaders get more done with available resources than less resourceful managers. It results in outcomes that far exceed expectations. It What are the qualities resourceful leaders share - regardless of position within an organization? We asked our clients - here's what they identified as eight essentials for resourceful leaders. - How To Increase Your Personal Energy
Successful people have an energy about them. It's one of their most valuable resources. We asked many of the most successful people we know where they would put energy on the scale of requirements for success. All placed it in their top three. How do they get and maintain their high level of personal energy? - Organizational Silos - How To Deal Effectively With Them
I was driving through dairy country in Virginia, and the silos at every farm reminded me of a client I was working with at the time - a successful manufacturing company undergoing change. They had organizational silos - much tougher to deal with than the ones on the farm. But they do share certain characteristics. - Eleven Ways Leaders Create Focus
Focus is a key Personal Skill of leaders. The ability to bore into the most important things and stay attentive and focused on them, and continue that behavior as a means of solving problems, contacting prospects, writing a report, preparing a presentation, doing an analysis, maximizing the value of a meeting, is key to success. Focus maximizes time - it results in more being done in less time. - Ten Ways To Ensure Your Goals Are Leading You To Success
Success,energy, passion and commitment are created by success - success at accomplishing the goals we have set for ourselves, and the goals that others have set for or with us. Nothing is more powerful than accomplishment. At the same time, our goals can work against us. Read on about ten ways to make sure your goals work for your success. - How To Create Survival Tools For Tough Times
Tough times are a big part of what makes us successful, as survivors and leaders. Getting through them effectively and positively depends on how we treat that space. Our personal survival tools go a long way to getting us through tough times. Some may call them coping tools - they're much more than that. We're talking about tools to help us stay positive and focused and optimistic. - Five Ways To Gain Self - Knowledge - Key To Success
Accurate self knowledge is the key to successful relationships. Notice the use of accurate? Who you think you are and who others think you are is often very different. The closer our understanding of our own behaviors, attitudes and personal skills is to how others perceive us, the better our chances for success - in anything. - Ten Key Questions - Renew Commitment Or Seek New Opportunities?
So much is written about finding the right job, the right relationship, the right career. Little is written about how to know when to stay committed to the present course or seek new opportunities. Knowing when to move on - look for new opportunities, relationships, and challenges - is critical to success.Use the ten key question sets to make the best possible decision for you. - Procrastination - The Tomorrow Effect On Your Success
Nothing, nothing at all, will screw you up more than putting off until tomorrow the important things you know must be done today. Read on - now - to learn about the Tomorrow Effect on your success. - Goal Setting - Six Steps To Keeping Focus
We ask every leader we work with what they would do more of, better, or more often when they look back on their career, and the top answer is "Focus." When asked how they would do that, they answer that they would be even more goal oriented than they had been. In their opinion, goals create focus that creates accomplishment. - Ten Ways To Make Time For The Important Things
Making time for the important things in life is a real challenge. Have you ever ended the day with the feeling that you were as busy as you could possibly be, but didn't make any progress on the really important things? Have you been resentful of the time and energy you have to spend on meeting the demands of others? Here are ten ways you can make time for the really important things in your life. - Lessons in Survival - A Critical Leadership Skill
To survive - to hang in there - to keep your head while all around you others are losing theirs - to stay in play - is a critical skill of leaders. Let's face it - even the most astute, successful person will suffer setbacks, and surviving and overcoming those setbacks is the true measure of a leader. Read on for an example of survival and leadership. - Eight Times When Good Enough Beats Perfect
When does Good Enough beat Perfect? When Good Enough clears space for action and accomplishment - for moving forward. Perfect, on the other hand, almost always gets in the way of action and accomplishment - it keeps real progress from being made. Waiting for perfect is a sure recipe for failure. Here are eight times when "Good Enough" will beat perfect: - Ten Ways Leaders Overcome Analysis Paralysis
One of the biggest challenges leaders have is to ensure that preparation and analysis add real value and provide the framework for action. The biggest enemy to action is analysis paralysis. Analysis paralysis is the graveyard of many organizations and careers. Here are ten ways leaders have ensured they and their organizations don't fall victim to analysis paralysis. - How To Keep Top Candidates From Falling Through The Cracks
Top people are scarce - just ask any organization how tough it is to attract the best, let alone select the best. At the same time, I'm willing to bet that more top people - the right people for the right jobs - slip through the cracks in the selection process than anyone could imagine or admit. Here are ten of the top, invisible ways those cracks occur. - How To Increase Your Personal Value
Your personal value is the most important value you can create. Unfortunately, 7 out of 10 people in the US underestimate their personal value. It's easy to do - without even knowing it. It shows up in invisible ways - in risks not taken, jobs not applied for, opportunities not identified, relationships that never occur. - How To Gain Optimism Through Accomplishment
Nothing creates a greater sense of optimism than accomplishment. And optimism is one of the core beliefs and attitudes of successful people. It's estimated that only 30 percent of our population are optimists, but that the majority of successful people are optimists. That estimate says that the better chance of accomplishment and success lies with the optimists. - How Leaders Increase Their Personal Energy
I recently posted an article titled " How Leaders Create The Energy Essential To Success." It dealt with ways leaders create energy in their organizations through their beliefs and behaviors. This article deals with how leaders sustain and increase their personal energy. - How Leaders Create The Energy Essential To Success
Leaders know high energy individuals, workgroups and organizations create success. How to create and sustain that high energy is the key challenge leaders face every day. The following behaviors and beliefs are keys that leaders we have worked with have found work to achieve consistent high energy with their people. - Keeping It Simple Isn't Simple
KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid - it sounds so --- simple. It's not. Read on to see how to make it happen, from an author who really knows how to"get tangled up in his underwear." - Become More Effective - Keep It Simple
It's goal time. I'm getting all tangled up in the complexity of goal setting and getting it right. Then it hit me - I needed to work on a goal that will help me be more effective - in every way. Read on the see what I mean. - How To Choose Your Response - The 24 Hour Rule
How often have you made a snap decision and lived to regret the outcome? Read on to acquire a behavior tool that can help you improve your decision making skill by choosing your response to any situation. - Think Outside The Box - A key Question To Make It Happen
Think outside the box - how to do that? My experience tells me to look to others, ask the key question "what do you think?" and then use collective thinking to form a solution no one person would be capable of coming up with. The most important belief in thinking outside the box is that the product of focused thought and collaboration and communication of a knowledgeable group is the best way to arrive at new and unique solutions. - Create Focus - Eliminate Self Inflicted Distractions
I was trying to focus on my 2008 goals; it's been tough going and my mind kept moving to all the other things I could/should be doing right now. And the idea for this blog came to me. A self inflicted distraction. I have a lot of them. - How To Gain Respect
There's a secret to gaining respect - one that I had the good fortune to learn early in my career - and from a most improbable source. The secret to getting respect is to give respect. Read on to see how that lesson was taught to me by a very special person. - Career Suicide - Proclaim Yourself A Victim
There is no quicker way to career suicide than to proclaim yourself a victim. No one likes victims – people are attracted to problem solvers and people in the know – they are repelled by self proclaimed victims. A true story to describe my point: - Perseverance and Commitment - Never Give Up
Never give up. I just finished a terrific book - The Road by Cormac McCarthy. In it was a quote that struck me - it has to do with perseverance and commitment and dreams, and how you will know if you are pressing forward, or giving up. - A Leadership Tool To Encourage Thinking Outside The Box
Thinking outside the box is a critical Personal Skill - one that will make the difference between success or failure. The real critical leadership skill is accessing the thinking of others to help see what possibilities lie outsidethe box – outside the individual world of thoughts and beliefs and biases. Try this tool to get the "out of box" thinking flowing with your “universe” of people. - Eight Bad Assumptions We All Make and How To Remedy Them
These eight assumptions have the potential to get us in trouble - big trouble. They destroy clarity, create distrust, and stand in the way of organizational success and personal success. These assumptions are the ones we make based on our own behaviors, attitudes, and skills. - Creating Goals - Dealing With Reality - The Power of Keeping Track
Keeping track – creating goals - dealing with reality – creates clarity and keeps me honest to myself. It keeps me accountable for my behavior - for my own choices. I find when I keep track, good things happen - probably because I am dealing with reality, and not with that enemy of clarity - selective memory. - Act In Today - Nine Steps To Make It Happen
Act in today - take these nine steps to achieve that worthy goal - that day when accomplishment and achievement are reached - when the overhang of things waiting to be done is manageable, and guilt and remorse are replaced with optimism and confidence. That sure sounds good - and it can happen - starting today. - Success Depends On Our Self Talk
What we tell ourselves about ourselves – our self talk, will create success – or not. Our success depends so much on the messages we constantly send ourselves. We can be our best friends – or we can be our own worst enemies. - Leaders Provide Advice On How To Succeed - Part 2
Leaders provide advice on how to succeed. Certain beliefs and advice keep being repeated in our conversations and seminars and feedback sessions with leaders What follows is Part Two in our series dealing with the issues that are critical to success. Share them with your own universe of people and be amazed at how effective they can be as a tool to begin discussions - Focus On Possibilities To Achieve Success
Focus on creating possibilities - it's the way to achieve personal success and organizational success. That conclusion came to me the other day - a day I fooled myself into believing was highly productive. I had been busy - worked hard - got a lot done. But I didn't feel like I had really accomplished very much. I had organized, managed, read, prepared and drafted a whole lot of stuff - but something was missing. - Leaders Provide Advice On Achieving Success - Part 1
After working with many leaders certain beliefs, statements and convictions keep being repeated in our conversations and seminars and feedback sessions. This is the first in a series of articles providing advice from leaders we have known on achieving personal and organizational success. - Hiring The Right People - Keys To Increased Success
The most effective action you can take to improve success in hiring the right people for the right jobs, particularly for leaders and emerging leaders, is to evaluate your own selection process. Find out how your organization appears from the viewpoint of candidates - you'll be amazed at what you find.
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