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Four Season Planning

If you are in an executive leadership position, leading a team of employees, or running a business, regular thinking, planning, and contemplating is essential. Ideally, every day should include time for reflection, in solitude if possible. It may be the most important and most significant task that you do each day.

Similarly, big picture thinking needs to occur a lot more frequently than the annual planning retreat or strategic planning session at the beginning of your fiscal year. These annual rituals that may have worked years ago don’t work today – our world is simply changing too quickly.

The start of my business involved spending an entire day alone. With no computer or phone, I laid out the plan for where I wanted my business to go. I did this annually for many years. Annual planning may have been adequate years ago, but it’s not enough now. I needed more time to contemplate, and I think you probably do too.

Think Weeks – Many years ago, I read about Bill Gates and his think weeks. When he was CEO of Microsoft, Gates would retreat to a very secluded location twice a year for A “think week”. You may or may not like him, but there’s little doubt that your life has been impacted because of a Bill Gates Think Week. One of which led to the creation of Windows 95.

So how often should big picture “get-aways” happen?

Gates left his full-time position at Microsoft in 2008. That was 14 years ago. Twice a year for planning may not be enough today. So up the ante and gather your team (or do you own version of a think week, think weekend, or even a think day) Four times a year. Maybe two of these are individual and two are organizational.

I started thinking about this concept on one of my recent think walks. While walking at dusk, I was mesmerized by the beautiful colors in the sky. That lead me to think about daylight savings time and how that would be making evenings longer.   Why not use daylight savings time as an annual reminder to schedule a time to think about springing forward? Spend time pondering how to move your organization, business, or career forward. Consider making a ground rule that only forward-thinking (positive) ideas are allowed.

Roughly three months later is the longest day of the year – June 21st. Again, schedule time to think, plan, and create around this time. Questions you might consider include:

  • If I am in this organization, position, career, etc. for the long haul, what tools do I need? What learning, training, mentoring, or coaching do I need to lengthen my relevance or effectiveness?   

The first day of fall begins on September 21st and soon after another time change – this time falling back.  For purposes of this 3rd planning time, think back to what your organization has done well.

  • What needs to be repeated?
  • What needs to be retired?
  • What needs to be retooled?
  • What needs to be re-thought? If your organization has lost market share, customers, or profits, have the focus of your planning be how to get those things back.
  • If you have lost passion for what you do, think back to the beginning when your passion was high. What were you doing back then? What do you need to do to bring back that passion?

On December 21st, the winter solstice occurs when either of the Earth’s poles reaches its maximum tilt away from the sun resulting in the shortest day of the year for those in the northern hemisphere.  It’s the beginning of the 4th season of the year and an ideal time to consider a 4th planning event sometime around December 21st (ideally a week or two before or after for obvious reasons!). Consider using both the words maximum and minimum as discussion prompts.

 “Four Seasons Planning” could also involve benchmarking highly successful organizations like the Four Seasons Hotel and Resorts. You could even examine the Four Seasons Hotel and Resort mission statement and culture to compare and contrast it with your organization’s mission statement. You could even gather with your organization or team to do your planning at a Four Seasons resort, and yes, I’d be happy to come and speak.

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Growth Leadership Personal Development

Made a Mistake? Here’s How to Begin Fixing It

Whether it was intentional or unintentional, sometimes we simply screw up. 

Own It: 

There’s nothing more frustrating than when someone refuses to take responsibility for their behaviors and actions-especially when those behaviors and actions caused harm. While we’re often so willing to overlook and forgive an error in judgment or a transgression, we tend to hang onto it more tightly when the person who caused the harm refuses to own it. So, instead of blaming, making excuses, getting defensive, ignoring it or assuming the other person doesn’t need an explanation or apology, take responsibility for the part you played (whether it was intentional or unintentional) and own it. Now, in a case of betrayal or shattered trust, it’ll take more than that but you’re off to a good start.)

Use Their Language: 

Gary Chapman, author of The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts explains how there are different ways to communicate love and the secret to a love that lasts is found in communicating in the way your partner wants and needs to hear it. So, when trying to fix a major screw up, the same idea applies. It’s not about communicating your awareness, understanding or apology in a way that works for you but in the way that’ll resonate with the person you hurt. Do they need a kind gesture or a sincere apology? Convey your message in a way that works for them.

Remorse, Empathy, and Restitution: 

According to the dictionary, remorse is deep regret or guilt for a wrong committed. Empathy is the feeling that you understand and share another person’s experiences and emotions. Restitution is an act of restoring or a condition of being restored. When it comes to fixing a major screw up, these three conditions work beautifully together and lay the foundation for forgiveness. Now, sometimes an action can’t be fixed but is there something you can do to show your willingness to right the wrong? Here’s what these three together may sound like: “I’m so terribly sorry (remorse). I understand why you’d be upset. I get it and I’d be upset and hurt if you did that to me (empathy). What can I do to make it up to you?” (restitution).

Learn From It: 

Our actions emerge from our current level of awareness. When we’re coming from a place of fear and lack, our actions will represent that. When we’re in a place of love and abundance, our actions will represent that too. A major screw up is most likely coming from a place of fear and lack. If it’s coming from love and abundance, it was most definitely unintentional. In either case, learn from it to make sure you don’t do it again. Did you act without thinking? Fail to consider the consequences or the other person’s needs? Did an inflated ego or pride cause you to say or do something you now regret? Maybe learning from it and implementing a simple rule like: “Would I like that done to me?” If the answer is yes, do it and if the answer is no, don’t.

Self-Forgiveness and Paying it Forward:

Once you’ve taken responsibility for your actions and behavior, communicated in a way the person you hurt will understand, were remorseful, empathetic, offered restitution and learned from it, there are still a few more things you can do. Forgiveness takes time along with consistent effort to repair the damage done so have patience. The bigger the screw up the longer it can take because the person you hurt may be reeling from the shock, pain or anguish you caused and has to find new footing as they readjust to what they’ve just experienced by your actions. This process is now about them as they learn what role they may have played, what changes they need to make to feel valued, safe and secure again. While they’re working through it, healing, changing and growing as a result of what they’ve just been through, now is also the time to work on self-forgiveness. Sure, you may feel guilt and shame for the pain you caused but that doesn’t help anyone.

Forgiving yourself allows you to use what you’ve learned to grow, become a more awakened and enlightened version of yourself, and use your new awareness to not only ensure it won’t happen again, but to help others by what you now see so clearly. Paying it forward by preventing someone else from experiencing that pain doesn’t mean you didn’t cause the harm, but may just be what’s needed to prevent someone else from causing or being the recipient of a painful experience. Paying it forward also contributes to the greater good and that’s what life is all about.

Dr. Debi
Founder and CEO, The PBT (Post Betrayal Transformation) Institute

Categories
Growth Leadership Personal Development

Made a Mistake? Here’s How to Begin Fixing It

Whether it was intentional or unintentional, sometimes we simply screw up. 

Own It: 

There’s nothing more frustrating than when someone refuses to take responsibility for their behaviors and actions-especially when those behaviors and actions caused harm. While we’re often so willing to overlook and forgive an error in judgment or a transgression, we tend to hang onto it more tightly when the person who caused the harm refuses to own it. So, instead of blaming, making excuses, getting defensive, ignoring it or assuming the other person doesn’t need an explanation or apology, take responsibility for the part you played (whether it was intentional or unintentional) and own it. Now, in a case of betrayal or shattered trust, it’ll take more than that but you’re off to a good start.)

Use Their Language: 

Gary Chapman, author of The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts explains how there are different ways to communicate love and the secret to a love that lasts is found in communicating in the way your partner wants and needs to hear it. So, when trying to fix a major screw up, the same idea applies. It’s not about communicating your awareness, understanding or apology in a way that works for you but in the way that’ll resonate with the person you hurt. Do they need a kind gesture or a sincere apology? Convey your message in a way that works for them.

Remorse, Empathy, and Restitution: 

According to the dictionary, remorse is deep regret or guilt for a wrong committed. Empathy is the feeling that you understand and share another person’s experiences and emotions. Restitution is an act of restoring or a condition of being restored. When it comes to fixing a major screw up, these three conditions work beautifully together and lay the foundation for forgiveness. Now, sometimes an action can’t be fixed but is there something you can do to show your willingness to right the wrong? Here’s what these three together may sound like: “I’m so terribly sorry (remorse). I understand why you’d be upset. I get it and I’d be upset and hurt if you did that to me (empathy). What can I do to make it up to you?” (restitution).

Learn From It: 

Our actions emerge from our current level of awareness. When we’re coming from a place of fear and lack, our actions will represent that. When we’re in a place of love and abundance, our actions will represent that too. A major screw up is most likely coming from a place of fear and lack. If it’s coming from love and abundance, it was most definitely unintentional. In either case, learn from it to make sure you don’t do it again. Did you act without thinking? Fail to consider the consequences or the other person’s needs? Did an inflated ego or pride cause you to say or do something you now regret? Maybe learning from it and implementing a simple rule like: “Would I like that done to me?” If the answer is yes, do it and if the answer is no, don’t.

Self-Forgiveness and Paying it Forward:

Once you’ve taken responsibility for your actions and behavior, communicated in a way the person you hurt will understand, were remorseful, empathetic, offered restitution and learned from it, there are still a few more things you can do. Forgiveness takes time along with consistent effort to repair the damage done so have patience. The bigger the screw up the longer it can take because the person you hurt may be reeling from the shock, pain or anguish you caused and has to find new footing as they readjust to what they’ve just experienced by your actions. This process is now about them as they learn what role they may have played, what changes they need to make to feel valued, safe and secure again. While they’re working through it, healing, changing and growing as a result of what they’ve just been through, now is also the time to work on self-forgiveness. Sure, you may feel guilt and shame for the pain you caused but that doesn’t help anyone.

Forgiving yourself allows you to use what you’ve learned to grow, become a more awakened and enlightened version of yourself, and use your new awareness to not only ensure it won’t happen again, but to help others by what you now see so clearly. Paying it forward by preventing someone else from experiencing that pain doesn’t mean you didn’t cause the harm, but may just be what’s needed to prevent someone else from causing or being the recipient of a painful experience. Paying it forward also contributes to the greater good and that’s what life is all about.

Dr. Debi
Founder and CEO, The PBT (Post Betrayal Transformation) Institute

Categories
Best Practices Management Marketing Personal Development

Boundy’s Bookshelf: The Coaching Effect

I just read – and highly recommend – The Coaching Effect, What Great Leaders Do To Increase Sales, Enhance Performance, and Sustain Growth by Bill Eckstrom and Sarah Wirth.

Besides my involvement in teaching, guiding, and practicing coaching with clients, I read a lot about sales management and coaching. In fact, I was one of the first in Miller Heiman Group to be certified in their full sales coaching suite.  I wondered if I would pick much up from this book, and am pleased to say…yes, I did. I will be supplying this book to sales transformation clients from now on.

Coaching by Your Front-Line Sales Managers Improves Sales Performance

Based on over 100,000 real-world coaching interactions, this book shares some of the research behind its recommendations.  Most important:  Sales teams with great coaching average 110% of goal, vs. 91% of goal for the bottom 80%. Think about that. The most effective teams have the most effective leaders…the ones who behave like great coaches. These teams outperform the average team by over 20%.

I’ve seen similar data from other sources, including CSO Insights, who I consider to be the gold standard.

Anecdotally, I experience how focusing on coaching is the primary differentiator between successful sales performance initiatives…and those that fizzle.  I buy the difference coaching makes.

What’s a Good Coach?

Eckstrom and Wirth go into depth on what great coaching looks like.  The first thing that struck me was how seldom we measure coaching quality.  Most practitioners stick to the easy-to-measure stuff like quantity (more on that below).  The authors have a robust scoring system for the quality of coaching that’s as simple as it is intuitive and effective.  They measured major themes of impact/culture, relationship, cadence, and ability to wring performance improvement – each of which is broken down into components.

The second striking finding is that “quality” is measured in the eye of those being coached. This seems obvious to a guy like me who regularly harps that value is only in the mind of the customer.  Of course, that’s how you measure great coaching.  So why do so few other people do it?

A third, not-so-striking finding: the best coaches have their “coachees” best interests at heart.  Think about it. Coaches who have their subordinates’ trust are the ones with permission to push them to greatness.  Yes, this is everyone on your team, not just those oft-maligned millennials.

The Four Pillars of a Great Coaching Culture

My “coaching acumen” improved. The research behind Coaching Effect broadened my idea of what a great coaching culture looks like.  Eckstrom and Wirth describe four pillars (my term, not theirs) that sales leaders need to implement as part of a consistent coaching cadence.

  1. One-to-one meetings: Coaching Effect teaches that these are higher-level-than-you-might-have-thought meetings. They cover a seller’s personal updates, long-term goals, daily work, and priorities…combined with offers of manager support. It turns out that quality is far more important than weekly frequency.
  2. Team Meetings: Again, the research shows that quality is more important than frequency.  Meetings that share best practices, share successes, discuss team-side issues, etc. (the book has a lot of great examples) might be monthly, with as-needed team huddles on a given specific timely issue.
  3. Performance Feedback: This is where I’ve focused most of my own work, and I’m glad the authors and I agree on approaches.  There is solid advice on how to approach performance issues, using what another author called “compassionate directness”.  The personal updates and focus on long-term goals from one-on-ones build trust that’s needed during more difficult feedback conversations.
  4. Career Development: Isn’t it crazy how few coaching programs formally introduce career development into the regular coaching cadence? Great coaches use this component to inspire “discretionary effort” (I love that term, Bill) on the part of sellers.  There are great examples of specific actions a coach can engage in to become a meaningful force in the career of his team members.

Two Thumbs Up

As I said, this book helped me clearly articulate the differences between average and great coaching, and any serious sales leader should invest in it…and themselves

To your success!

Categories
Best Practices Growth Leadership Personal Development

The Power of Perspective

Why Perspective Matters

Today’s business environment, markets, and industries are nothing if not complex and multi-faceted. Apple owning Amazon $30million a month despite competing across multiple verticles attests to the complexities of the relationships that business leaders face daily. However, with every new relationship, with every new facet that we see in business and organizations, the complexity is only compounded by the fact that every one of us views these differently. This matters in working on customer and employee experience, product design and customization, marketing and sales outreach, financial and investor relations, every single aspect of business that involves people. Moreover, that is every part of our companies.

Putting Different Viewpoints Together

Being able to see other’s viewpoints, and putting yourself in someone else’s shoes can become one of the most challenging pieces in creating better relationships. After all, we all know our customers and what they want, but have we taken the time to truly understand what the customer goes through when interacting with our business.

One of my favorite stories is from Expereince Enterprises is how they had a call center manager call into his system and the (almost predictable) results that came about.

Taking the time, asking genuine—open-ended—questions, and reminding ourselves that our businesses are not one-sided, makes a difference in how we can grow and differentiate our organizations.

Omnipotence and Adaptability

None of us knows everything, and fewer of us can see the complex picture of today’s business ecosystems. Every strategic framework that I have seen and used presents an intriguing structure, but most leave more questions than answers.
Filling the gaps in our knowledge is essential, but to truly grasp, interpret, and act on this information we need people. We need different viewpoints, experiences, ideas, and motivations to become successful.

Moreover, this allows for increased adaptability and resilience in our organizations. The ability to critically think around problems, solve issues by using old ideas in new ways provides for far-reaching implications in our practices. It is not about re-inventing the wheel when anything goes awry but finding ways to reimplement and adapt old knowledge in new ways. Being mindful of the various perspectives, ideas, and abilities within an organization allow for this to happen. The greatest mistake in business is often saying, “We have always done it that way” and allowing no further room for additional input.

Ed Brzychcy is former U.S. Army Infantry Staff-Sergeant with service across three combat deployments to Iraq. After his time in the military, he received his MBA from Babson College and now coaches organizational leadership and growth through his consultancy, Blue Cord Management.

Categories
Growth Management Personal Development

The Fire Hose Effect

How the Power of Influence Can Keep You From Drowning 

I’ll be the first to admit that leaders have a tough gig. You wear hundreds of different hats, you shoulder an immense amount of responsibility, and it seems to never end. It can feel like you’re facing the fire hose every day! In my business, I meet leaders from all over the country, from different industries, and they all have the same challenges. I hear things like:

“Mona, even though the economy is great, and my industry is thriving, I’m still expected to do more with less.” Or,

“My customers have more buying power today than ever before making it harder and harder to secure customer loyalty.” Or,

“I’m struggling to keep employees engaged, and other companies are stealing my best talent, leaving me with open positions that are hard to fill.”

Sound familiar?

I get it, I used to be the consummate go-getter, can-doer, workhorse manager I thought my employer and my people needed… and sure, that got me results. But something was missing. I wasn’t getting the results I wanted or knew I could get!

Then someone told me that I just needed to shift my focus.

One of the biggest mistakes that leaders make today is that they overlook the vast amount of untapped wealth that’s right in front of them every day. We get so busy focusing on the projects, and customers right in front of us – above the surface – that we miss what we don’t see under the surface of the people we serve. And what lies beneath could potentially be a wealth of greatness!

So how do you tap into this greatness? The good news is, it’s not about working harder. And it’s definitely not about working smarter. I’m quite sure you do both very well. It’s merely about shifting your focus. Shifting from a traditional leadership model to an influential leadership model.

Let me ask you this: Do you believe talented leaders are born or made?

I think the answer is both.  Sure, there are some people with a raw talent they seem to be born with. But even the rest of us can learn the same skills – work the same muscles – and reach the same level of impact. While there are thousands of books on leadership, we tend to overcomplicate it.  Effectively guiding people to your common vision with excellence, really comes down to your ability to do one thing:

Influence.

This is where the rubber meets the road. So, what does it mean to influence? Or even more important – what does it take? Money? Prestige? Connections? A Best Seller? If those were true, how do you explain Mother Teresa, or Gandhi – who influenced the world with so little to their name?

Or how Abraham Lincoln was able to influence the world with a speech consisting of less than 300 words scribbled on a piece of paper?

Or how Martin Luther Kind drew over 200,000 to Washington, DC with no email or social media?

These people knew how to do one thing – influence.

Influence starts by building a connection. When we truly understand that connection and relationships are the ultimate fundamentals for us as leaders, we’re able to increase our influence, our effectiveness grows, and we become better leaders.

There’s power in influence, and this same power can be yours – right where you are – with the people you serve today. You HAVE the power to stop the fire hose. Not only could you be sitting on untapped wealth – it is your role as a leader, to bring out the strengths in you and your people.

In every person, just below the surface of what we think we know and what we think we’ve seen, lies untapped greatness.

What are you doing to tap into yours and that of the people you serve?

Categories
Entrepreneurship Leadership Personal Development

The Secret of Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurs change the world, but not in the way that you think.

Entrepreneurship can be one of the single most impactful ideas in business today. Entrepreneurial thinking, intrapreneurship, and innovation are pervasive ideas throughout the industry today. Many entrepreneurs that call themselves creatives, they know that they’re creating and building something — giving them a singular vision of what they want to bring into the world.

  • For many, it is malleable, able to change and adapt as they grow and learn.
  • For some, it is a straight-forward single-minded idea.
  • For everyone, it is a problem that they are passionate about solving.

Entrepreneurship makes lives better because it brings new ideas into the fold. Some stick, smartphones, social media, others fade, pet rocks, Beta Max, but all leave an impact, even if it is merely an example of something whose time hasn’t yet come, i.e., Apple Newton.

The key to this is, whatever you want to do, it is entirely up to you to figure it out.
Entrepreneurs’ ideas don’t have to be game changing. In fact, among our communities the most impactful entrepreneurs often have some of the most mundane ideas; they merely do it better and bring a little extra to the table.

The one common element that every entrepreneur has is resilience.

Resilience merely is the ability to remove “I can’t” from your vocabulary. Period. This simple lesson is the most important and is what primes entrepreneurs for success. Because every venture with either will either fail, face hardship, or require grit and determination to move forward.

Never giving up is what separates the successful entrepreneurs from those who fall short.

Entrepreneurship doesn’t have to be a world-changing idea. It has to be something that someone is passionate about and willing to see through to the end.
The smallest venture can have the most significant effect. Moreover, for many entrepreneurs, it is not about changing the world. It is merely having an impact on their lives, families, and neighborhoods — the idea of building a career for themselves that bring value into their communities in new ways.

I had a great lunch the other day with The Hero Club, another great organization within the C-Suite Network and had a chance to sit down with some fantastic entrepreneurs that have stared some significant and highly impactful ventures.

I asked them, what was the one thing that kept you going and truly helped you build your business. After some thinking, I received a multitude of answers, all along similar lines; persistence, determination, unwillingness to let go, plain old stubbornness. In short, it was the will to succeed that drove them to create something bigger, better, more profound. It is the will to carry on that creates successful entrepreneurs, not a fancy pitch deck.

It is looking at the world in slightly different ways, finding a problem, proposing a solution, then running with it. However, and more importantly, it is the ability to be able to bounce back from mistakes and missteps. Learn from them, grow, and continue to move forward. Be stubborn about what you’re passionate about. The never give up, never quit, learn, adapt, improvise, and overcome attitude is everything in this area of business.

We don’t have to change the world, but entrepreneurs everywhere are finding ways to improve their lives and their communities. If you look at the aggregate, incremental, impact of all their ventures, it does change the world.

You can find our podcast conversation on entrepreneurship and local impact on The Leadership Update Brief on C-Suite Radio.

Ed Brzychcy is former U.S. Army Infantry Staff-Sergeant with service across three combat deployments to Iraq. After his time in the military, he received his MBA from Babson College and now coaches organizational leadership and growth through his consultancy, Blue Cord Management.

Categories
Best Practices Growth Management Personal Development

Focus on What Matters Most

Whatever You Focus on Expands

Just as a photographer focuses on taking the shot of their subject, leaders need to focus on.  Seeing things as a photographer sometimes has its advantages to a leader. You need to look from every direction to see what’s working and what’s not. Solving problems, challenges, and difficulties allow you to visualize better for what you are looking for. Imagine what your sense of accomplishment will feel like when you are able to focus and get done what you need to complete. You can actually create habits to help you focus without distractions to get things done.

“Life is like a camera…focus on what’s important, capture the good times, develop from negatives, and if things don’t work out, take another shot.” – Unknown Author

Focus means paying attention. Essentially, if you want to develop focus, develop the skill of paying attention to a particular thought, task, or goal for a specified amount of time – without allowing distractions to break your concentration. Don’t expect it to take place overnight. Be patient and pay attention each time you are about to do and say things that pull you back to your old habits and patterns.

There are so many ways where your attention gets distracted. If you want to try this out, start working on something and your phone will ring, you want to look at your emails, and then again you have someone who wants your attention to ask you something or …You get the idea. So it is very easy to focus on something you don’t need to really focus in on. Your mind wonders and your attention drifts off somewhere else.

Is Your Leadership as Focused as You’ll like it to be? 

“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.” — Steve Jobs

Everyone has a different meaning for the word “Focus”. The word focus means the concentration of attention or energy on something. Focus means paying attention. So if you want to develop focus, develop the skill of paying attention to a particular thought, task, or goal for a specified amount of time – without allowing distractions to break your concentration. The more you focus your attention, the more you get accomplished.

It’s easy to focus when you have a clear goal. How do you maintain your focus when you don’t have a well-defined goal, or when your mind is confused with many thoughts? Choosing what matters is incredibly hard because no one can do it for you. Staying focused on the task, clarifying the goals, articulating the vision, and encouraging others to stay the course are characteristics of determined leaders.

Prioritizing tasks is the First Step toward Working Easier

“If you focus on results, you will never change. If you focus on change, you will get results.” -Jack Dixon

The smallest things can make the biggest difference. Take a few minutes to think about how focused you are as a leader. No matter what you do your thoughts, ideas and opinions distract you from focusing on what you need to do is key to getting things done. How you manage to focus on what matters most needs you to constantly stop and re-focus to work on what’s in front of you. Focusing on where you’ve been slowing your progress.

Keeping the Focus on What Matters Most

“My key to dealing with stress is simple: just stay cool and stay focused.” -Ashton Eaton

Are your best efforts where you should place your focus? Often that focus isn’t the best direction for the company. How distracted do you get while working on a project or task? What do you do to get back on track?

“Don’t dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next. Spend your energies on moving forward toward finding the answer.”

– Denis Waitley

Sometimes when you focus on negative situations they can paralyze you by making you stuck. Where You Look Is Where You Go. It is very easy to lose sight of what you need to do as so much information overload comes at you every second of every day. How you keep things straight and knowing what to focus on takes skills and training.

Where You Put Your Efforts

“Focus is a matter of deciding what things you’re not going to do.” – John Carmack

Moving yourself or your organization forward requires you to focus on what you want to accomplish and where you want to go. If you continue the way you are going, most likely everything and anything will distract you. Phones rings, having to look at emails, having others asking you questions or just wanting to chat, and so on are just a few examples of distractions you need to close off.

“How can I focus on positive stuff when all I have in my life is negative stuff?” By making a choice to create a new habit and find something positive to focus on. Where you focus is your choice. What will you focus on today? When you focus on things do you notice the detail or are you oblivious to the specifics around you?

Shift Your Priorities

If you’re stuck in a rut you are unable to go anywhere. By shifting your priorities you get to think better in order to uncover valuable insights to help move you and your organization forward. You then can see other things that are more important to focus on. You are blinded by one thing that is not what matters most. The problem, challenge or difficulty may not go away, yet it does not need to be the centerpiece you focus on.

“The one thing you can always control is how you REACT to the uncontrollable.” -Dr. Alan Goldberg

Have you figured out what matters to you and your business?

In the end, Focus on What Matters Most for greater productivity and the results you work towards. You choose where to put your focus. Be aware of what you are doing to accomplish your goals.

Categories
Growth Leadership Personal Development

What an Orchestra Can Teach Your Company About High-Performance Teams

Do you ever feel like you’re conducting an orchestra? It’s hard to get all the people and parts moving harmoniously, isn’t it?

On a recent episode of Talking Business Now, I talked with Maestro Roger Nierenberg, the founder of The Music Paradigm. Nierenberg believes organizations can learn many critical lessons from orchestras, including insights into team collaboration and how to be more productive.

The Music Paradigm is an immersive learning experience Nierenberg created for business leaders, using actual orchestras. Company participants discover how the orchestra mirrors their company’s own culture.

Nierenberg made his New York conducting debut at Avery Fisher with the Pro Arte Chorale and Orchestra. He’s conducted numerous American orchestras as well as several abroad, including recording with the London Philharmonic and conducting at the Prague Spring Festival and the Beijing Festival. While he was with the Jacksonville Symphony, he made an astute observation after listening to many business and civic leaders: the challenges and opportunities organizations face during times of rapid change could be demonstrated with an orchestra. The Music Paradigm was born.

The format itself is simple enough: customized two-hour sessions consisting of a pre-meeting, the session with the orchestra and follow-up discussions. Nierenberg meets with the leadership team to explore their challenges and goals. He then creates interactive exercises for the orchestra designed to bring the company’s issues to life.

Next, the organization’s participants are seated within the orchestra. As participants observe the musicians, they focus on the dynamics at play. Because the orchestra is mirroring the actual dynamics of the company , participants discover some surprising and fascinating lessons about dysfunction, diversity and leadership.

“I’m asking them to adopt certain behaviors that are very much like the kinds of behaviors that either they want to bring about in their own organization, or else, they don’t want to admit that it’s holding them back,” Nierenberg said. “And so the orchestra becomes kind of a mirror for them to look at themselves and see themselves more clearly than they can in real life.”

Afterwards, Nierenberg conducts a discussion with participants about what they have just experiences and the key lessons that can be drawn.

If you’re interested in more details about The Music Paradigm and what your organization can learn from it, click here to listen to the full podcast.

Categories
Growth Management Personal Development

The Power of Great Mentorship

Building a business, managing change and transition in our personal and professional lives, and entrepreneurship are all difficult — they amount to some of the most challenging things that many people will attempt throughout their lives.

How do we consistently rise to meet the challenges in front of us? The answer is simple; have a mentor.

Transformation and growth can dominate our lives, and appear overwhelming, especially when things don’t go according to plan. Mentorship holds the answers to these problems.

There are two reasons to have a good mentor, ideas and accountability.

A mentor is a person who is going to keep you going, hold you accountable, and ensure that you’re doing what you said that you’re going to do. Secondly, they are there to bounce ideas around. When you’re stuck, when you need help, when you need another set of eyes to look at a problem, a mentor is there to bounce those ideas off of and find a more robust, all-inclusive, solution to the challenge that you’re facing.

This idea of mentorship resonates well because it solves the problem of how to effectively meet our most significant challenges. We cannot do it alone.
Seemingly insurmountable challenges in leadership, change, and transformation happen all the time. A recent survey published in the Harvard Business Review from VitalSmarts found that, while under pressure, managers:

  • 53% of leaders are more closed-minded and controlling than open and curious.
  • 45% are more upset and emotional than calm and in control.
  • 45% ignore or reject rather than listen or seek to understand.
  • 43% are more angry and heated than cool and collected.
  • 37% avoid or sidestep rather than be direct and unambiguous.
  • 30% are more devious and deceitful than candid and honest.
Figures from VitalSmarts – https://www.vitalsmarts.com/press/2018/11/the-manager-effect-1-out-of-3-managers-cant-handle-high-stakes-situations-and-as-a-result-their-teams-are-less-successful/

These results are intolerable. These pressure points are the hallmarks for great success, not points to be misstepping.

I wonder, if these managers had a solid mentor by their side how much more effective they would be at overcoming their challenges.
Because we all need help, no one should undertake a great challenge alone. And we all need that space to go and bounce ideas off of, have a little accountability added into our routines, and sometimes, to go and vent that things are not well right now.

By having this space, people can:

  • Remain open and curious.
  • Stay calm, collected, and in control
  • Gain a greater understanding of their situations
  • Provide direct support and guidance to their teams
  • Feel secure in remaining candid and honest

Leaders need to do all these things. A great mentor offers the space and insights to allow it to happen.

Mentorship is the key, and every great leader, entrepreneur, or anyone who is facing change and transition should have one. It is the outliners where we see our greatest successes. We are all good at accomplishing the day-to-day. It is when things change, or the unexpected occurs when we face our most significant challenges. The fundamental truth is that we don’t know what we don’t know. Mentorship fills these gaps, educates us on what we don’t know, and gives us an outlet to create an action plan to fill these spaces. We all aspire for greatness, but the critical skill we have to develop to get there is how, and who, to ask for help.

You can find our podcast conversation on mentorship and growth with Ed Marsh on The Leadership Update Brief on C-Suite Radio.

Ed Brzychcy is former U.S. Army Infantry Staff-Sergeant with service across three combat deployments to Iraq. After his time in the military, he received his MBA from Babson College and now coaches organizational leadership and growth through his consultancy, Blue Cord Management.