“Tell me why you didn’t give Kyle any feedback about his job performance problems.”
“I didn’t want to hurt his feelings.”
This exchange occurred during legal discovery in an unlawful termination lawsuit. Fed up with an employee’s ongoing failure to meet job requirements, the supervisor had fired him. (more…)
Today’s guest contributor is Dan Waldschmidt, author of Edgy Conversations: How Ordinary People Achieve Outrageous Success, international business strategist, speaker, author and extreme athlete. His consulting firm solves complex marketing and business strategy problems for savvy companies all over the world.
Great people throughout history often fail, quite miserably, before finally reaching their goals.
Van Gogh sold only one painting during his lifetime; Winston Churchill lost every public election until becoming prime minister at age 62; Henry Ford went bankrupt five times; Albert Einstein was a terrible student and was expelled from school; and Sigmund Freud was booed from a stage.
Ideas, brilliance, genius—they all mean nothing without the guts, passion and tenacity necessary to make your dream a reality. But often, people fall back on excuses and give up on trying to reach their goals.
Most of us have dreams, and many of us have big ones, but few of us actually see them through.
Today’s guest author is Becky Robinson, writing in support of the launch of Lead Positive, the latest book from Kathryn D. Cramer, PhD. Dr. Cramer, who is passionate about possibilities and potential, is an Emmy-winner, business consultant, psychologist, and author who has written nine books, including the best-selling Change the Way You See Everything. She created and has dedicated her life to asset-based thinking (ABT), a way of looking at the world that helps leaders, influencers, and their teams make small shifts in thinking to produce extraordinary impact. Her latest book, Lead Positive: What Highly Effective Leaders See, Say & Do , shows leaders how to increase their effectiveness through her revolutionary mindset management process, Asset-Based Thinking.
Last week at a business lunch, one of my colleagues said a surprising thing.
In referencing some subcontractors who left our company last summer, she declared “Their leaving our company is one of the best things that have happened to our team.”
I remember how I felt when they left. I cried. I took it personally. I felt discouraged. I wanted to quit. I struggled to identify the right people to fill in the gaps they left. (more…)
Today’s guest post is from Dr. Richard R. Reichel, author of Everybody is an Actor. Dr. Reichel has a long and varied experience in the film and TV industries and holds multiple degrees including a doctorate in counseling psychology. Dr. Reichel created an innovative and comprehensive acting system that’s also helpful for anyone looking to have more confidence and be more assertive at work, social situations, school or even at home.
Having more confidence, having less stress, discovering inner resources, and improving relationships—there are thousands of self-help books to help us accomplish these goals, but do they work?
Self-help books can work, as far as they go, but they don’t address a key component that affects everything from how we feel about ourselves to how successfully we interact with others. That key component is the fact that we’re all actors—at work, school, home, even alone in front of the bathroom mirror.
We’re always playing the character of “Me,” but we also have to play other characters. The better we are at it, the happier and more successful we’ll be. (more…)
In survey after survey, meetings get knocked by everyone from employees to senior executives as being among the biggest waste of work hours.
In an Office Team poll, 45% of senior executives said their firms would be more productive if they banned all meetings at least one day a week! (more…)
I sit on the board of directors for a nonprofit that’s in the process of fine-tuning its mission and strategy.
Over the last few months, the organization has done its due diligence about how it runs itself—conducting focus groups and surveys; studying program participation; reviewing revenue, expenses, and donor history; checking out its competitors and assessing its differentiators; doing a SWOT analysis; gauging available resources, etc.
Not bad for a small organization working within the confines of a very limited budget.
So that all board members could fully participate in the strategy working session, the organization hired a meeting facilitator. An orientation session with the facilitator, staff and board was scheduled so the facilitator could be brought up-to-speed on both the research and the desired deliverables so she could design the flow of the meeting.
After listening to the readout, the facilitator’s first response was to ask for a copy of the organization’s balanced scorecard for the last ten years. She also inquired if the organization had worked with an outside consultant firm to create a PESTEL* analysis.
Her questions were greeted with silence and a few averted gazes, then a few audible sighs followed. Those from the corporate world understood her ask; those from smaller businesses or other nonprofits didn’t.
“In an ideal world, especially a for-profit one with deep pockets, having those data points in a highly organized way would be helpful,” responded a meeting participant. “Truth is, most of the needed information for the incremental changes being proposed is already here. We just have to dig a little.”
“But still, having all the information in a single, organized report would be much better,” countered the facilitator with some emphasis in her voice. “And besides, the six-month timeframe being discussed for the work can’t be done. It’s too short. Strategy work should span three to five years to be done properly.”
More deafening silence.
Can you hear yourself asking similar questions?
Are you a stickler for data, lots of it and all beautifully organized? Are you a genius at pointing out the reasons things can’t be done? Do you assume simplicity equates to stupidity? Do you like using words that people don’t understand?
If “yes,” has anyone ever called you a buzzkill?
Effort and ideas can be as fragile as grandma’s porcelain tea cup. Be gentle with them.
Sometimes you have to meet people where they are and start from there. That starting place may not be ideal according to your standards, but at least it’s a beginning.
Sometimes good enough is enough. Most work is beautiful alchemy—part art, part science.
Go with it.
Securing every last piece of researchable information takes valuable time and may not yield a better solution. The days of working with three to five year time horizons for creating strategy are gone, and so are most of the companies that embraced those notions.
Seize the moment, the momentum and make some leadership magic!
Ever worked with a facilitator like this one? How did you handle it?
Image source before quote: morgueFile | A version this post first appeared on Lead Change Group
