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(13311, 328, '2014-01-20 06:01:25', '2014-01-20 12:01:25', '“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.” Lao Tzu\n\nLeadership is about results and positive outcomes, and so leaders want the hearts and minds of others directed toward a unified purpose. Presence is one way the leader can engage the energies and commitment of others to a common goal. Authenticity and effective communication skills are key to successful leadership.\n\nThe most successful leaders, visionaries and entrepreneurs have a leadership presence.  These leaders make others feel that they are an important part of their teams.   Presence is all about connecting to engage in a positive way.  After all, leaders must project good confidence and emotional intelligence to build trust and build a culture with their teams.\n\nLeadership presence allows the leader and the led to connect with something bigger than themselves. Cultivating a positive leadership presence allows leaders to better relate to their teams. When you lead with warmth and infectious positive attitude, you gain trust and guide with subtle, but effective influence.\n\nBelle Linda Halpern and Kathy Lubar in their book “Leadership Presence” define Leadership Presence as <b><i>“the ability to connect authentically with the thoughts and feelings of others in order to motivate and inspire them to achieve a desired outcome.”</i></b>  This ability to connect is essential for all people who lead or motivate others, whether you are a leader of a company or a volunteer in the community.\n\nPeople are drawn to and influenced by leaders who communicate authentically, connect easily with people, and have a positive impact.  People become more energetic and engaged with the common mission, positively impacting the team growth and performance.\n\n<b>So how do you become one of them?</b>\n\nLeadership presence requires positive confidence and self-knowledge. Leaders must communicate what matters to them in way that connects with what matters to others. One way to do that is by sharing stories about your challenges and how you overcame them instead of reflecting an all-powerful authority figure.\n\nLeadership presence is not about exercising your power and influence; but rather the ability to make others feel your engaged presence in a safe environment.  For those that desire to intimidate others with their power; their executive role and influence will be short-lived.\n\n<b>What does it take to have a leadership presence?</b>\n\nLeadership presence is about <b>being a good listener </b>and the ability to quickly connect the patterns of conversation in order to detect other people’s interests, leadership style and professional needs.\n\nLeadership presence is about earning the right from others to <b>explore a more meaningful and purposeful relationship.</b>  Leadership presence is not about you; it’s about others.\n\nLeadership presence is about having impactful, long-lasting presence that <b>inspires others to want to know more.</b>\n\nLeaders who have presence <b>display genuine connection with the people around them</b> through honesty, listening, clarity, appreciation for others and empathy. They create a comforting sense that allows people to trust and follow them.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;', 'Do you have leadership presence?', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'do-you-have-leadership-presence', '', '', '2014-01-20 06:01:25', '2014-01-20 12:01:25', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13311', 0, 'post', '', 9),
(13316, 328, '2014-01-29 06:27:31', '2014-01-29 12:27:31', 'If you want to be successful leader, you have to take 100% responsibility for everything that happens in your life. This includes your accomplishments, the results you produce, the quality of your relationships, your company’s successes and challenges. This is not easy for many people.\n\nMost of us have been conditioned to blame something outside of ourselves for the parts of our life we don’t like. We blame our parents, our bosses, our friends, the president, co-workers, the economy, or anything we can pin the blame on. <b>We don’t have the courage to look at where the real problem is—ourselves.</b>\n\n<b>There is only one person responsible for the quality of the life you live. That person is you</b>. Taking one hundred percent responsibility means that you acknowledge that you create everything that happens to you. If you are really interested in improving your life as a leader, then you will have to give up blaming and complaining.\n\n<b>So what can you do to take responsibility and become a great leader of your life?</b>\n\n<b>Look at the person in the mirror - </b>You can’t expect your followers to change their attitudes while you stay mired in your old blame-based approach. You had to begin with yourself. Ask the tough questions. The courageous questions of your leadership will reveal most fully in the questions you ask regarding performance.\n\n<b>It takes courage to face ourselves</b>. It takes courage to see the real you even when things are not going well. By accepting what you see and feel about yourself as a person is a beginning toward a positive change. If you are still focused on blaming and complaining, you are not moving forward.\n\n<b>Leaders who are focused on blaming and complaining are giving someone else the power to change the circumstances of their life.</b> When you begin to turn the finger back to you, it feels a bit strange but a true leader is comfortable with accepting full responsibility and owning the problems.\n\nThis exercise of looking in the mirror can be daunting and sometimes un-motivating to some but very powerful and enlightening.  Why do I say powerful?\n\nIt’s powerful because of the realization that we can’t change the past, but we can change the future. It’s also an honest realization that we are not here to change anyone but ourselves.  If you find yourself beginning to complain about everything but the choices you’ve made, then you need to take a step back. See if you can stop blaming outside factors for your results.\n\n<b>Successful leaders don’t waste their time and energy blaming and complaining</b>. They evaluate their own experiences and decide if they need to change them or not. They face the mirror as uncomfortable as it may be and take risks in order to create the results they want.\n\n<b> </b><b>Face the truth and take action-</b>You have to be willing to change your behavior if you want different results. You have to be willing to take the necessary action to get what you want. If you’ve already taken an initial step in the right direction, now’s the time to plan additional steps to keep moving you forward, with positive momentum.\n\n<b>Successful leaders commit to taking 100% responsibility for every aspect of their lives</b>. They decide to make changes, one step at a time. But once that decision is made, it will make a powerful impact in every area of your life.\n\n&nbsp;', 'The Mirror Test', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'the-mirror-test', '', '', '2014-01-29 06:27:31', '2014-01-29 12:27:31', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13316', 0, 'post', '', 4),
(13323, 290, '2014-01-21 06:12:39', '2014-01-21 12:12:39', 'I believe conversations make us stronger leaders. We need to explore topics, challenge ourselves to think and understand, and learn ways to be a better leader. In the <a title=\"Google+ - Lead Change\" href=\"https://plus.google.com/communities/101604474820777716727?partnerid=ogpy0\" target=\"_blank\">Lead Change Google+ group</a>, we pose a different question each week. A few weeks ago, we asked:\n<blockquote><strong>Which is a better leader:  A leader with big results and some respect, or a leader with limited results and much respect?</strong></blockquote>\nThere is no doubt that having respect, giving respect, and maintaining respect are all crucial. Respect is more than a leadership characteristic; it is a human one. However, in many organizations, there is a push to gain results quickly and often and some may take shortcuts to achieve the desired results. Although there may be some short-term benefits to this approach, the longer term impact can be very detrimental.\n<h2><b>Respect versus Results</b></h2>\nHighlighted below are some short clips from some of the Lead Change community insights:\n\n<a title=\"David Tumbarello - Google+\" href=\"https://plus.google.com/103543444672612470167\" target=\"_blank\"><b>David Tumbarello</b></a><b>: </b> This is one of those trick questions, right?  My first reaction is this:  How do you define results? I mean, if results mean my team produced 19 widgets per hour while the other team produces 17 widgets, then my team is producing more \"results.\" But if the leader of the other team is developing a platoon of aspiring leaders who produce better quality, help the company towards higher goals, and are ready to serve as leaders or mentors for future teams, then I would say that leader has me beat.\n\nThis question goes back to how I view leadership -- with the end in mind.  First define the \"end\" then ask “What is the most effective way to get this particular team to achieve that end?”\n\n<a title=\"Scott Mabry - Google+\" href=\"https://plus.google.com/101893890142121821024\" target=\"_blank\"><b>Scott Mabry</b></a><b>:</b>  Depends on your time horizon and a little bit of context. If you\'re business is in a crisis, you might choose results over respect in the short term ...which, paradoxically, might gain you respect later.\n\n<a title=\"Mike Henry Sr. - Google+\" href=\"https://plus.google.com/111988678152304378767\" target=\"_blank\"><b>Mike Henry Sr.</b></a>: I agree with both David and Scott in that results must be specific and they must have a deadline. Once we set a target for results, we can\'t trade results (at the deadline) with respect or anything else (except for different results) for that matter. Results are table-stakes. A leader who respects others will produce results or accept the consequences.  Then, they will be a leader who is respected, regardless of the short-term outcome of a particular effort. Heck of a non-answer, don\'t you think?\n\n<a title=\"Kate Nasser - Google+\" href=\"https://plus.google.com/110736151092414539538\" target=\"_blank\"><b>Kate Nasser</b></a>: Results without respect vaporize or worse, leave a legacy of brutality. Just read a <a title=\"Will Your Bad Boss Make You a Bad Boss Too? - HBR\" href=\"http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/11/will-your-bad-boss-make-you-a-bad-boss-too/\" target=\"_blank\"><i>Harvard Business Review</i> (HBR) article</a> quoting research that abusive leaders were mentored by abusive leaders. Since respect doesn\'t reduce results, I say there is no reason to choose!\n<h2><b>Real Leaders. Real Results. Real Respect</b></h2>\nNo one said leadership would be easy. The conversation is a thought-provoking one. Leaders are expected to achieve results. Leaders may not always have the expectation put on them to achieve <a title=\"The Role of Self-Esteem in Respect and Leadership\" href=\"http://www.thindifference.com/2013/10/05/role-self-esteem-respect-leadership/\" target=\"_blank\">results with respect</a>. After all, quarterly meetings and calls usually perform a check on results, not on how respect was maintained and enhanced. Imagine what would those interactions would be like!\n\nJust think though, the very definition of respect is “a feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements.” Abilities produce results. Qualities deliver integrity. Achievements occur when <a title=\"Team Building: Trends and Tips for 2014\" href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/team-building-trends-and-tips-for-2014/\">people collaboratively work</a> toward clear objectives.\n\n<b>A leader’s responsibility then is to:</b>\n<ul>\n	<li>Define the sound leadership qualities they want to exhibit and then consistently lead by them</li>\n	<li>Gather the right people with the right skills or train the right people to get the necessary skills</li>\n	<li>Deliver clarity of objectives, metrics, responsibilities, accountability, culture, and then let the teams do their work</li>\n	<li>Instill a culture of respect organization-wide, community-wide.</li>\n</ul>\nWhen a leader does this, politics disappear and more time can be spent on doing the work necessary to achieve the desired results in a respectful way. Time and context are better leveraged. In the HBR article Kate Nasser mentioned, it points out a plain fact:  When team leaders have to protect their teams from bad organizational leaders, much time is wasted. Doing this is exhausting. We have enough change to navigate without having to maneuver around leaders who don’t act with integrity and clarity.\n\nAs we lead for results, we need to remember to also lead with respect. Leading this way will make all involved much more productive and engaged.\n\n<b>Join in. What is the ideal balance between results and respect? </b>', 'Which Is a Better Leader? A Conversation on Results and Respect.', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'which-is-a-better-leader-a-conversation-on-results-and-respect', '', '', '2014-01-21 06:12:39', '2014-01-21 12:12:39', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13323', 0, 'post', '', 6),
(13328, 342, '2014-01-22 06:18:16', '2014-01-22 12:18:16', '\n\nAre you empowering your people to greater success?\n\nThis is a self-assessment process to determine the degree to which others are being empowered under your leadership. Prescriptive actions to create a more empowering environment are provided as you learn more about your empowerment style.\n<h2>Step 1</h2>\nWrite down every decision made for one week. Include not only specific decisions requiring approval, but also all FYI issues brought to your attention. This will likely be a long list with many decisions and issues coming from many individuals. For each item capture the following information:\n<ul>\n	<li>Who made the request or brought the information to your attention?</li>\n	<li>What was the decision that was required to be made?</li>\n	<li>Was it for your information, concurrence, or primary decision?</li>\n	<li>What was the dollar impact, if any?</li>\n	<li>This data can be collected in a spreadsheet or on paper that can later be cut up.</li>\n</ul>\n<h2>Step 2</h2>\nAt the end of one week, organize the above information into three groups that corresponds to your level of involvement in the decision-making process. For each type response subset groups again (the criteria for grouping is open and can be anything that makes some sense.) This grouping can be accomplished by adding additional columns to the spreadsheet and resorting. Or if using paper, cut into individual items and physically group into related piles. Once grouped, answer the associated questions below.\n<ul>\n	<li>Primary decisions where you were the <strong>ultimate decider</strong>.</li>\n</ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\">Did others have authority to make the decision, but deferred to you?\nShould others have had the authority to make the decision?</p>\n\n<ul>\n	<li>Issues where the decision was basically made by others and only your <strong>concurrence was sought</strong>.</li>\n</ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\">Was your concurrence really necessary?</p>\n\n<ul>\n	<li>Information sent to <strong>keep you informed</strong> of other\'s decisions.</li>\n</ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\">Was this information need to know, or only nice to know? Or was it totally unnecessary that you know?</p>\n\n<h2>Step 3</h2>\nStudy the groupings generated in Step 2. What was your first impression? Are there common issues in each group? Was your involvement really necessary or the result of an unempowered organization? Are the same individuals disproportionately represented in different groups?\n\nBottom line from this study: What would you prefer to have had happen? This establishes a potential state of empowerment throughout the organization.\n\nRemember, you can gain power by giving it away to others. Empowerment is built on the knowledge that organizational power is not a limited resource, but can be generated through leveraging what power you have through the efforts of others.\n<h2>Step 4</h2>\nStep 2 generated a statement of reality surrounding your involvement in organizational decision making. Step 3 established the desired state of having an empowered organization. Combined, they establish a performance gap. The necessary action steps may include communication, boundary clarification, goal alignment, and employee development.\n<h2>Step 5</h2>\nRepeat the process until you are getting the results you desire.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nPhoto source: http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6210/6069754683_197eed30f6.jpg', 'Empowerment Self-Diagnostic', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'empowerment-self-diagnostic', '', '', '2014-01-22 06:18:16', '2014-01-22 12:18:16', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13328', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(13330, 342, '2014-01-30 06:12:04', '2014-01-30 12:12:04', '<a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/question-of-the-day/question-of-the-day/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-13410\">What question might you ask to move toward group alignment and shared vision?\n\nThe question of the day is designed to be an icebreaker that also gets everyone thinking. Over time these icebreakers are an aid in community building among the group, leading to alignment and developing a shared vision of what they can become as a group. Ideally the question would somehow relate to the agenda for that particular session, but this is not necessary.\n\nThe following questions are offered as suggestions. However the facilitator is encouraged to create her own icebreaker as needed on the pathway to developing a shared vision.\n<ul>\n	<li>How many years have you worked here? (Use this question if this is the first meeting of the group. Tally up and later announce the total number of years.)</li>\n	<li>How are you applying what you are learning in these sessions?</li>\n	<li>What positive change have you seen in another group member?</li>\n	<li>Describe a situation where you acted as a self-leader and what was the outcome?</li>\n	<li>Who is your role model for the topic of today\'s session and why?</li>\n	<li>Suggest either a \"do\" or a \"don\'t\" tip that would be helpful in today\'s topic.</li>\n	<li>Suggest a tip for working with a difficult person.</li>\n	<li>What is the greatest challenge you are now facing? (... at work? ... in your life?)</li>\n	<li>When did you learn something \"the hard way?\"</li>\n	<li>What was something you learned on your first paying job?</li>\n	<li>If you could have a conversation with a famous person who would it be and why?</li>\n	<li>What is your favorite color and what does that say about your personality?</li>\n	<li>What makes you unique?</li>\n	<li>What is your hobby?</li>\n	<li>If you were to give yourself a motto or slogan, what would it be?</li>\n	<li>What is something new that you have experienced in the last week?</li>\n	<li>Guess who? (Prior to the session, ask all participants to provide answers to a number of simple questions. Then see who can match the person to the answers. Some questions might be: favorite food, best vacation, where born, favorite movie of all time, last book read, dream car, etc.)</li>\n</ul>\nThe key to these questions is to get the group talking, not necessary to divine deep knowledge. As a discussion facilitator, you can watch for opportunities that are likely to emerge and use those to springboard into other issues related to the topic of interest that day. Defensive responses or side remarks are likely candidates to search for deeper issues.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nPhoto source: http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2257/3534516458_6be8f6ef9d_o.jpg\n\n&nbsp;', 'Question of the Day', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'question-of-the-day', '', '', '2014-01-30 06:12:04', '2014-01-30 12:12:04', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13330', 0, 'post', '', 2),
(13337, 243, '2014-01-24 06:12:36', '2014-01-24 12:12:36', '<img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-13338\" alt=\"Vince-Lombardi-Trophy\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Vince-Lombardi-Trophy-300x169.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" />As we get closer to the Super Bowl, I’ve got an American Football analogy to consider. On a football team, who are the leaders?  By \"leader\" I mean who is voluntarily granted the most influence with other members of the team?  Who is the most influential member of the team?\n\nWe don’t often think of the coach as the leader of the team, or at least I don’t. Sure, the coach has influence. But the coach can’t play.  The days of the player / coach have deteriorated in the age of specialization.\n\nMany great coaches were former players. Few were great players. Coaches who played professionally include Jeff Fisher with St. Louis, Jim Harbaugh with San Francisco and Jason Garrett with Dallas. None were hall-of-famers as players.  So the best players may not be the most influential either.\n\nThink of the best athlete in any position in modern football and many never even become coaches. Many go into the commentator booth or administrative leadership. John Elway is the President of the Denver Broncos. Dan Marino, Troy Aikman and Steve Young are commentators. Joe Montana, none of the above. Each were great players and many were successful team leaders but they couldn’t or wouldn’t try to turn their on-the-field talents into coaching.\n\nMost leaders aren’t even easily recognizable to the fans. You often assume the leader is the quarterback or the middle linebacker since they call most of the formations and the plays for their respective parts of the team, but they’re not necessarily the most influential leader in the locker room.\n\nWould you agree with me that leadership on most sports teams doesn’t rest with the coach and it may not rest with the best players or athletes either? Leadership, or more accurately, influence is granted from peers to peers; teammates to teammates, based on ability <em>and</em> character.  We don\'t have to think long at all to find talented, skilled players who fail to become influential because they\'re simply not great people. They may be selfish or egotistical. It take ability (you must pull your weight) and character to become influential.\n\nWhat other types of organizations can you think of that aren’t necessarily “led” by the people up front? And which organizations might you consider to be better led from within rather from up front?\n\n<img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-13339\" alt=\"Church\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/iStock_000006210199XSmall-300x199.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" />I can think of one… the church. Pastors often are totally in charge of everything that happens in a church. But should they be? I’ve been in a number of churches, and it seems many (in my limited experience) do a poor job of developing leaders. When the congregation looks to the pastors for leadership in every area, the pastors and the congregation never seem to develop many leaders outside the staff. In fact, sometimes, they turn people who are leaders outside the church into volunteers and assistants inside the church. I’ve seen corporate CEO’s and department leaders who can only engage their faith by teaching Sunday School or being responsible for grounds maintenance.\n\nDoes your church do a good job creating, mobilizing and equipping leaders? Care to share why that might be? Are you a pastor with something to say on this issue? Please add a comment or share a relevant post in the comments below.\n\nFinally, what other organizations come to mind when you think of groups or organizations who are not necessarily led by the people up front? And what do those organizations do to develop more leaders? What should they do? Comment below and let us know what you think.', 'Who are the Real Leaders?', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'who-are-the-real-leaders', '', '', '2014-01-24 06:12:36', '2014-01-24 12:12:36', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13337', 0, 'post', '', 5),
(13345, 330, '2014-01-23 06:29:22', '2014-01-23 12:29:22', 'A few years ago, while facilitating a leadership development workshop, I asked the CEO of a multi-billion dollar construction company to share a little known secret with the budding leaders in the room. He scratched his chin, waited a beat, and then said, “Leadership is freak’n hard.” Except he didn’t use the word freak’n.\n\nThere certainly is no shortage of leadership advice in the world. Most of it peddled by consultants who have never actually been in a leadership role. Read any leadership blog today and you’re bound to get a bullet-pointed list of “just do this” advice, as if being a leader was as easy as a clicking on plug-and-play app.\n\nThe result of all this cheap advice is that leadership, as a concept, becomes attractive. If it’s easy, after all, and if a person can make more money in a leadership role, everyone should aim to be a leader. Were the cheap advice actually true, of course, there would be more actual leaders.\n\nThe truth about leadership, as the construction company CEO reminded us, is that being a leader is anything but easy. Here’s why:\n<ul>\n	<li><b>It Takes Experience:</b> You can read all the bullet points you want, but until you actually lead others, you won’t be a leader. Stop reading and start leading.</li>\n	<li><b>Your Job is Discomfort:</b> Ginny Rometty, the CEO of IBM, put it best, “Growth and comfort don’t coexist.” Your job as a leader is to bring about growth through change. By definition, that requires you to make people uncomfortable.</li>\n	<li><b>Speed and Accuracy Don’t Mix: </b>Decisiveness is a hallmark of leadership. Leaders need to render fast decisions, lest they become bottlenecks. Rarely will you have enough perfect information to make a perfect decision. Translation? Decisions come with risks.</li>\n	<li><b>You’ll Have a Bull’s-eye On Your Back:</b> Oscar Wilde once said, “Whenever there is a man who exercises authority, there is a man who resists authority.” Especially in America where independence is a virtue. Leadership requires a certain degree of control over the behavior of others. Yet what self-respecting person likes to be controlled?</li>\n	<li><b>It Takes Humble Confidence:</b> If you get too big for your leadership britches, you’ll lose people’s loyalty in a heartbeat. But if you aren’t confident, you’ll be seen as weak. You’ll need to be simultaneously confident and humble.</li>\n</ul>\nFaced with the hard realities about leadership, the first decision an aspiring leader should make is whether they really want to lead. Here are a few questions to help you discern your answer:\n<ul>\n	<li>What attracts you to the concept of leadership? Why do you want to lead?</li>\n	<li>On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 equating to “very thin” and 10 equating with “very thick,” how thick is your skin? When people second-guess your decisions, how upset are you likely to get?</li>\n	<li>How comfortable and fast are you when it comes to taking risks? What is your greatest failure and what did you learn from it?</li>\n	<li>What natural skills, talents, and abilities will make you a good leader? What skills, talents, and ability do you still need to develop?</li>\n</ul>\nThe real attraction of serving in a leadership role isn’t the potential for making more money, or having people be at your beck and call. The real attraction should be the positive difference you may be able to make through your leadership influence. Whenever I ask seasoned leaders what they are most grateful for about being a leader, the most common answer is the chance to make a difference in people’s lives. That’s the leadership reward for all that freak’n hard work.\n\n&nbsp;', 'Leadership is Freak’n Hard', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'leadership-is-freakn-hard', '', '', '2014-01-23 06:29:22', '2014-01-23 12:29:22', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13345', 0, 'post', '', 2),
(13352, 335, '2014-01-23 12:04:45', '2014-01-23 18:04:45', 'I’ll admit it, ever since I started writing this blog, I’ve been much more aware of potential leadership lessons lurking in the mundane circumstances of life. I discovered another one this past week.\n\nWe’re moving. As we began packing the boxes, it was obvious to me how much we’d accumulated since our last move. This realization led to a fascinating conversation with my wife about de-cluttering our lives. My mind immediately went to my leadership. What is the clutter I’ve accumulated as a leader that’s hindering my impact? Here are a few ideas to consider. <a href=\"http://greatleadersserve.com/personal-effectiveness/de-clutter-leadership/\" target=\"_blank\">Read more here...</a>', 'De-Clutter Your Leadership', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'de-clutter-your-leadership', '', '', '2014-01-23 12:04:45', '2014-01-23 18:04:45', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13352', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(13357, 274, '2014-01-22 12:28:43', '2014-01-22 18:28:43', '<em>[This blog post is based on concepts from <a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Love-Em-Lose-Getting-Business/dp/160994884X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1389820285&amp;sr=8-2&amp;keywords=love+em+or+lose+em\">Love ‘Em or Lose ‘Em: Getting Good People to Stay</a> by Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans.]</em>\n\n<em>Or do you tend to yield? </em>Do you give power away to your talented people?\n\nVeronika, a manager in a global drug research and development company, woke up one morning and recognized that 20 percent of her employees were doing 80 percent of the thinking. She was concerned for a number of reasons - read more <a href=\"http://www.weavinginfluence.com/from-our-authors/is-your-way-the-only-way\">here.</a>.', 'Is Your Way The Only Way?', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'is-your-way-the-only-way', '', '', '2014-01-22 12:28:43', '2014-01-22 18:28:43', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13357', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(13365, 323, '2014-03-06 06:18:55', '2014-03-06 12:18:55', '<a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/legacy.jpg\"><img class=\"wp-image-13771 alignright\" alt=\"legacy\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/legacy.jpg\" width=\"335\" height=\"155\" /></a>\n\nI was recently asked to give a talk at a conference where the theme was “Define Yourself.” In preparation for outlining what I might talk about, I reflected on all the ways that one can define themselves. Two ideas immediately popped:\n<ol>\n	<li>You define yourself by the things you do or don’t do - what you accomplish or don’t accomplish.</li>\n	<li>You define yourself by the things you’re good at - natural talents or skills that you develop over time.</li>\n</ol>\nThis seemed like a good starting point, so I was off and running.  But, as I began to draft an outline, something else popped. I suddenly remembered a recent experience I had.\n\nA few weeks prior to being invited to speak at this conference I attended a farewell reception for an executive who was celebrating 20 plus years with his company. The reception began, as may events like this do, with drinks, hors d\'oeuvres, and a little mingling. After a while, it turned into speeches, reading letters from coworkers-past, storytelling, and gift giving.\n\nAs I listened to the stories about this executive\'s illustrious career, what struck me the most were the words people used to describe him. The most memorable and oft-repeated were:\n<ul>\n	<li><em>You were compassionate</em></li>\n	<li><em>You lead with class, integrity and dignity</em></li>\n	<li><em>You cared about people</em></li>\n	<li><em>You helped me grow and develop</em></li>\n	<li><em>We\'re here today because of you</em></li>\n</ul>\nThese words, selected in the moment and pulled from the heart, were meant to be the most important descriptors that would sum up this leader\'s legacy, said by the very people that he had led. There was even a wager going around on who would cry first because everyone knew that he had touched each of their careers in a significant way.\n\nYes, a little was said about sales, revenue, and margin, things that he accomplished and things that he was good at. But a disproportionate amount was said about this person\'s impact on people.\n\nWhen it was this executive\'s turn to speak, he didn\'t talk about his many accomplishments and his talents - though he could have and everyone would have nodded in agreement. Instead, he spent those precious moments talking about everyone else in the room. He called on people by name and explained how he would have been nowhere without them.\n\nThe most memorable thing he said:\n<blockquote>I\'m really not that smart.  I surrounded myself with smart people.  It is because of you that we\'ve accomplished so much.</blockquote>\nI was honored to observe and experience this heartfelt walk down memory lane as this wonderful leader was bid farewell. The way people talked about him, and how he talked about everyone else, was truly inspirational; and when you put all the words together they point to one incredibly salient point.\n\n<img class=\"wp-image-13772 alignleft\" alt=\"kids-on-dock2\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/kids-on-dock2.jpg\" width=\"208\" height=\"155\" />\n\n<strong>Success is about relationships.</strong>\n\nAt the end of the day, what matters most - after all the dollars are counted and the trophies are neatly stacked on the shelf - is how you impacted others. Consider this reality: This individual has left the building and someone has replaced him. That someone will carry on his job. So, there’s nothing unique about that job, not necessarily. <strong>The only unique impact that we can control is our impact on each other.</strong>\n\nWhat can we learn from this and other leaders who have left a lasting legacy of good relationships? Maybe, this:\n\nTo lead successfully, one must\n<ol>\n	<li>Respect others</li>\n	<li>Care for others</li>\n	<li>Develop others</li>\n</ol>\nOn the surface, each of these sounds incredibly easy. They also sound very touch-feely. But I caution you to brush them aside as if to say \"I’m not like that; I’m not good at that; that’s not important.\" I beg to differ; as I speak from personal experience and can also draw on the experiences of others to support my idea.\n\nSo, how can we do this? What does it mean to respect, care for, and develop others? This can be very easy to talk about, but hard to do. And there is no prescription, as this may look different for each of us. These are simply ideas to live by - nice ones.\n\nI leave you with one last thought. I think back on my first two ideas about how to \"define yourself,\" which were through our accomplishments and our skills, and I still think we can do that. There\'s nothing wrong with that. These ideas are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they are complimentary. It is okay to focus on yourself, to want to accomplish things and to want to make yourself better. <strong>Because by making ourselves better we are able to further enable others.</strong>\n\nTo illustrate this idea, watch this powerful video (<a href=\"http://youtu.be/-l9zo1tYSwQ\">Tribute to Coaches Poem by Elliott Hulse</a>) where the narrator says this:\n<blockquote>I grow strong only that I might strengthen you.</blockquote>\nIn closing, the big idea here is that we should define our leadership legacy through our relationships. The people that surround us and those who are surrounded by us. Let\'s be a part of each other\'s legacy.\n\n<em><span style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5em;\">[Image: firstpost.com, jeffcalloway.com]</span></em>', '1 Way to Define Your Leadership', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', '1-way-to-define-your-leadership', '', '', '2014-03-06 06:18:55', '2014-03-06 12:18:55', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13365', 0, 'post', '', 2),
(13369, 342, '2014-02-04 06:24:04', '2014-02-04 12:24:04', ' How can you approach organizational change without first knowing where people are in their change readiness? The change model presented here is the Transtheoretical Model (TTM) coupled with key components of Lewin’s Change Theory.  This approach to organizational change focuses attention on the individual with the assumption that organizational change is the collective change of many individuals along the same path. This model of change was developed by Prochaska and DiClemente through the comparative analysis of 18 major psychotherapy and behavioral change theories, hence, the name transtheoretical.[i]  From this analysis came the identification of ten change processes that were employed with different emphasis by each major theory and applied with different weighting of experiential and environmental interventions.  They also identified five stages through which people progress in the change process.  As will be seen, there is a close relationship between these stages and those identified by Lewin’s theory of how change occurs in individuals.\n<h2>Stages of Change</h2>\nThese are simple definitions with some information on how the stage might be identified through the behavior exhibited while in that stage of change.\n<ul>\n	<li>Precontemplation – “You are in a state of benign ignorance where you think what you don’t know won’t hurt you.”[ii]  The situation is totally outside the individual’s frame of awareness or outside their perceived need.  Therefore, there is no problem because there is no awareness of the situation as it might pertain to them.  Obviously, there is no intention to change at this stage and defenses may be raised if pushed to change.</li>\n	<li>Contemplation – Some level of awareness of the problem has been attained and the individual is starting to search for more information.  While the search may not be very active or focused, there is some willingness to learn more.  There is some knowledge of the benefits, but a large degree of fear of the unknown and the amount of work that may be needed.  These feelings lead to procrastination.  If forced to change, defenses remain in place leading to compliance that is not lasting.  The individual may welcome assistance in clarifying cost/benefit trade-offs and suggestions on how to change.</li>\n	<li>Preparation – A decision has been made for future action, but the individual is not yet prepared to actually take the action now.  Additional thought is needed on the individual steps that need to be taken prior to the new behavior being attempted.  Seeing peers in the earlier precontemplation and contemplation stages (80% of peers in many research samples) can cause discouragement and questioning of their decision to take action.  Culture plays a further function in reinforcing the role implicit assumptions in perpetuating the status quo.</li>\n	<li>Action – “Just do it.”  The new behavior is tried and may be continued for a while.  However, old habits and tendencies toward the old behavior are still in place and a relapse to the old behavior is quite likely.  A key part of the TTM model of change is recognition that change does not happen all at once, but requires recurring attempts.  Each time a relapse to old behavior occurs there is another learning occasion for identifying the environmental cues to old behavioral patterns.  In these cases additional preparation is needed.</li>\n	<li>Maintenance – What had been the old behavioral habit has been replaced by the new behavior.  Planning and thinking about the new behavior is no longer necessary as the behavior becomes more automatic.  The benefits of the change are being realized and confidence is building on the ability to continue with the change in behavior.  However, in times of stress or unusual environmental conditions a reversion to the old behavior is still likely.  This is because only the normal or routine environmental cues that triggered the old behavior have been altered or the past reaction replaced with new behavior.  However, not all triggering cues that may be possible will have been altered, creating the possibility for a shift to an earlier stage in an abnormal situation not yet addressed in the change process to the new behavior.  Again, reversion to old habits is not a failure of the change process, but the identification of another behavioral cue that needs to be addressed.  The goal of maintenance is not necessarily action but relapse prevention.<span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\"> </span></li>\n</ul>\nWhere should the change process be started? \"Many people might assume that the way to bring about change is to advocate their position vigorously while showing others why or how their assumptions are flawed.  This example of linear thinking encourages change agents to respond to resistance with greater and greater force.\"[iii] The answer then is to start at whatever stage the individual is at and not to expect them to be as ready to change as you are to have them change.  A problem is that too often change programs start with the focus on the action step, expecting the change to occur with a forceful call to action.  When that fails, there is an attempt to take a step back and help the individual get prepared for the action step of making the change.  But even here, there is the possibility that the individual may be at either of the two earlier stages of change and any effort will be wasted because the intervention will not match the needs of the individual at their point in the change process.\n<div>\n\n<hr align=\"left\" size=\"1\" width=\"33%\" />\n\n<div>[i] Madsen, S. R. (2003).  An evaluation of the Transtheoretical Model of individual change and its implications for human resource development.  Presented at the Academy of Human Resource Development Research Conference of the Americas.  Retrieved from <a href=\"http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1037&amp;context=susan_madsen\">http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1037&amp;context=susan_madsen</a></div>\n<div>[ii] Booth-Butterfield, S. (1996).  Stages of Change.  Retrieved from <a href=\"http://www.healthyinfluence.com/wordpress/steves-primer-of-practical-persuasion-3-0/intro/stages-of-change/\">http://www.healthyinfluence.com/wordpress/steves-primer-of-practical-persuasion-3-0/intro/stages-of-change/</a>   (Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/61SI5BtDm on September 4, 2011)</div>\n<div>[iii] Ramsey, P. L. (2001).  Learning to be complete: the challenge of cultural dynamics.  <i>Reflections</i>, 3(1), 49-56, 55. Photo source: <a href=\"http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/HK_Sai_Ying_Pun_%E8%A5%BF%E5%8D%80%E7%A4%BE%E5%8D%80%E4%B8%AD%E5%BF%83_Western_District_Community_Centre_outdoor_stairs.JPG\">wikipedia.org</a></div>\n</div>', 'Stages of Change', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'stages-of-change', '', '', '2014-02-04 06:24:04', '2014-02-04 12:24:04', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13369', 0, 'post', '', 3),
(13375, 338, '2014-01-27 06:12:40', '2014-01-27 12:12:40', 'If only it were that easy.\n\nHow many times have you surfed the net instead of reviewing that financial report?\n\nor hit the snooze button more than once on your alarm clock?\n\nor put off that big project because of the resistance you might encounter?\n\nThe word procrastination comes from Latin: Pro, \"in favor of\", and cras, \"tomorrow.\" This is a pretty good description of procrastination--putting off what ought to be done now until some future date.\n\nThe irony of procrastination is that most people think it’s harmful, but nonetheless do it anyway for various kinds of short-term payoffs.\n\nProcrastination does no one any good, whether you do it or your people do it. When people procrastinate, opportunities are lost, deadlines are missed, preparation is incomplete, performance sinks, and revenues drop.\n\nSo if procrastination has such negative effects, why continue to do it?\n\n<strong>5 Reasons Why You Procrastinate</strong>\n\nAccording to research, there are five main predictors of procrastination:\n\n1. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Task Aversion</span>. if you don’t like a particular task or it’s unpleasant, your tendency to procrastinate increases.\n\n2. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Task Delay</span>. The longer you delay the start of a task, the less important it seems to become unless you associate the delay with a reward or future benefit.\n\n3. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Self-Confidence</span>. The lower your self-confidence, the more likely you are to give up when you encounter an obstacle or even to start a task in the first place.\n\n4. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Impulsiveness</span>. Someone who lives in the moment and gives no thought to future goals or consequences is prone to procrastination.\n\n5. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Conscientiousness</span>. The less self-control you have, the less organized you are, and the less achievement oriented you are, the greater the chance you’ll procrastinate.\n\nIn motivational psychology, the well-established Expectancy-Value model sheds light on why you continually check email instead of tackling next month’s sales goals.\n\nThis formula says that we tend to prefer 1) immediate rewards over delayed benefits, 2) bigger rewards over smaller prizes, and 3) sure rewards over uncertain rewards.\n\nSo, the less immediate, smaller, and uncertain the rewards, the more willing you might be to delay a task and procrastinate.\n\n<strong>How to Eliminate the Plague of Procrastination</strong>\n\nIn essence, procrastination is a form of incompetence. So to turn it around, the idea is to become more competent in skills and habits that counteract procrastination.\n\nFortunately, there is solid research that points to a solution, but like anything it takes time, hard work, and commitment to implement. Here are 5 elements to overcoming procrastination:\n\n1. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Emotional strength</span>. A positive attitude, goal-directed future orientation, a sense of gratitude, and simply being in touch with your moods can go a long way toward increasing your emotional strength to tackle the tasks that you tend to set aside. Also, increasing your stress tolerance through regular exercise, good nutrition, and a getting plenty of sleep helps you have the physical resources to backstop your emotional energy.\n\n2. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Focused, rational thought</span>. Clearing space so that you can think is key to overcoming procrastination. Make sure your work environment in conducive to being able to concentrate on your work. Also, think through what you need to do and the consequences of doing or not doing the task.\n\n3. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Time-management skills</span>. One of the outcomes of not having good time-management skills is that it becomes easier to procrastinate. Time-management is one of the foundational skills of a leader. Being able to set goals, plan, schedule, and prioritize goes a long way towards reducing the tendency to procrastinate.\n\n4. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Learning how to change habits</span>. If you’re in a habit of not getting started, it’s time to create a new habit of starting. It’s been well-documented that it takes around 21-days to change a habit. Make sure you identify specific behaviors to change and then practice those new behaviors over that 3-week period.\n\n5. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Task completion abilities</span>. The ability to hang-in and keep going despite obstacles is critical. Make sure you maintain your perspective, stay cool, and use the 4 other elements to keep you on track. It’s also OK to celebrate the small successes along the way—encouragement can often be the difference between moving forward or falling back into your procrastination rut.\n\n<strong>Get Started NOW!</strong>\n\nFew of us are strangers to procrastination. Fewer still actually enjoy it.\n\nMaster these skills and your productivity will soar and so will your satisfaction for getting the job done now rather than later.', 'Stop Procrastinating and Start Getting Things Done', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'stop-procrastinating-and-start-getting-things-done', '', '', '2014-01-27 06:12:40', '2014-01-27 12:12:40', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13375', 0, 'post', '', 1);
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(13379, 290, '2014-01-30 12:12:07', '2014-01-30 18:12:07', 'There is a smartness to authentic leaders. Smartness does not mean all-knowing; it does mean approaching your leadership craft with an authentic intelligence, knowing the impact of how you lead. To develop this intelligence, below are four ideas to consider in building your authentic leadership capabilities.\n\n<b>Embedded empathy.</b> Authenticity needs to be other-centered. If leading is all about an individual, then the self-centeredness will eventually harm many more than any potential good done. In other words, authenticity needs to connect to others, understand one another, and raise each other up to do more in better ways.\n\n<b>Enabled community.</b> Empathy leads to a leader’s embrace of community. How a leader enables a greater community raises their authenticity because it moves from a one-dimensional view to a multi-dimensional one. More than this, whatever action we take as a leader has a multiplier effect. The multiplier effect needs to be an enabled community working toward a higher-purposed mission or goal.\n\n<b>Empowering beliefs.</b> Every leader has a certain set of beliefs, whether defined or not. To be an authentically intelligent leader, the beliefs should be empowering, not limiting. Beliefs pursued by a leader need to pass a test of:\n<ul>\n	<li>Do they make others better?</li>\n	<li>Do they call on others to raise their game in how they work, live, and lead?</li>\n</ul>\n<b>Preventing harm.</b> Another key authentic leader idea is to always say and do things to prevent harm. The old principle of “do no harm” is as valid as ever. Authentic leaders do not incite others to act in harmful ways. Authentic leaders keep environments safe for honest, meaningful interactions and build cultures to encourage problem-solving, innovation, and productive working relationships.\n<h4>Read more about <a title=\"What Makes an Authentic Leader?\" href=\"http://www.thindifference.com/2013/12/14/what-makes-an-authentic-leader/\" target=\"_blank\">what makes an authentic leader</a>, including some checkpoints. Join the leadership conversation.</h4>', '4 Ideas for Authentic Leadership Intelligence', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', '4-ideas-for-authentic-leadership-intelligence', '', '', '2014-01-30 12:12:07', '2014-01-30 18:12:07', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13379', 0, 'post', '', 2),
(13388, 306, '2014-02-03 06:12:04', '2014-02-03 12:12:04', 'A significant dimension of leadership is coaching... engaging in conversations that help others make the leap from where they are to where they want (or need) to be. Whether the focus is on correcting a performance problem, expanding capacity, improving relationships, or developing within one’s career, coaching is a powerful tool for supporting others as they grow, achieve, and realize their full potential.\n\n\n\nWhether you’ve been formally trained or have simply picked it up by watching others, you’ve likely learned about the ‘mechanics’ of coaching.... and that questions are the tools of the trade.  Effective coaches construct a conversation (or, more likely, a series of conversations) around insightful questions that help the other person reflect deeply, make important connections, and activate their own internal motivation to move forward.\n\nThe most successful coaches use these questions to drive higher levels of ownership and accountability.  They act as guides and facilitators, always deflecting responsibility for the answers and action back to the coachee.  They also act from a spirit of curiosity, offering a framework or structure but always allowing the conversation to evolve organically. And they are hyper-vigilant for cues that might indicate an idea or reservation... or another nook or cranny to be explored.\n\nBut there’s one other thing that best-in-class coaches do that frequently goes unnoticed to the casual observer. It’s an invisible but perhaps the most invaluable contribution a coach can make: <b>Exceptional coaches hold the space for possibilities.</b>\n\nLet’s face it... change is hard. Depending upon your coaching focus, you may be supporting people in making significant adjustments to their approaches, relationships, working style, and behavioral habits. This doesn’t come naturally to everyone and for many the automatic response becomes, “I can’t do this!”\n\nAs a coach, you have the experience, perspective, and (perhaps most importantly) the objectivity required to recognize, highlight, explore, and throw a life-line to the opportunities for success. You can help override negative thinking, fear, immobilization, and other limiting emotions that get in the way of people making changes they really want in their lives.\n\nHolding the space for possibilities means:\n<ul>\n	<li>Helping people figure out even small steps that move them forward and toward their unique and self-determined definitions of success. Small victories generate confidence - in one’s self and in the fact that change is actually possible.</li>\n	<li>Reminding people of their intentions. Even the best goals and action plans can be obscured by the blur of day-to-day priorities and challenges that pile up on employees. It’s easy to become overwhelmed and let the ‘urgent’ overtake the ‘important’. But a coach can gently jog someone’s memory and quickly help them return to the path of possibility.</li>\n	<li>Participating in problem solving.  Perhaps it’s one of Murphy’s lesser-known laws... but it seems that the surest way to find a roadblock is to generate a plan. Problems and challenges are an eternal feature of the landscape of change.  And for someone who’s struggling to find the energy required to overcome the inertia of staying put, these problems can make change look like an impossibility. But a coach can anticipate these challenges and respond quickly when they emerge to help the employee see beyond the roadblock and imagine solutions, opportunities, and possibilities that might otherwise have been overlooked.</li>\n</ul>\nThe questions, curiosity, and all of the mechanics of coaching are important... but what’s happening between the words is also critical.  In today’s hyper-busy world, it’s challenging to stay focused, keep one’s eye on the goal, and maintain momentum toward it. Holding the space for possibilities is virtually invisible; yet it reframes reality for others, helping them imagine and envision ways to make the changes they’ve set out for themselves.\n\n<strong>What about you? </strong><em> What do you do as a coach that holds the space for possibilities for others?</em>\n\nImage: www.freedigitalphotos.net', 'Give ‘Em Some Space (for Possibilities)', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'give-em-some-space-for-possibilities', '', '', '2014-02-03 06:12:04', '2014-02-03 12:12:04', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13388', 0, 'post', '', 8),
(13394, 310, '2014-01-28 06:25:54', '2014-01-28 12:25:54', '<p align=\"center\"><b><i><a title=\"view quote\" href=\"http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/n/nelsonmand378967.html\">It always seems impossible until it’s done.</a></i></b></p>\n<p align=\"center\"><b><i>Nelson Mandela</i></b>  <b><i></i></b></p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\" align=\"center\">I consider my late maternal grandparents Joseph and Pearl Parker, of whom I was raised in their rural Virginia home, generational leaders and role models. From managing the many feats involved in cultivating our family’s garden, tending to the rest of the territory, raising children and supporting their church activities, my grandparents’ ability to sustain energy and stay on course was tested.  But they got it done and led the family anyway. Sometimes they needed additional tools, to enhance their physical as well as mental power, from external and internal sources. They kept inventory of a couple of each, imbedded in their character.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Some of these tools were acquired and sharpened from their life experiences, such as a stock of strong values, faith, determination and wisdom. From observing how they deployed these attributes, I learned many lessons on the importance of plugging into a reliable power source. Because there are times in our work, families or communities we will need this type of actionable force to withstand adversity, life’s obstacles, or whatever comes up against us. At those moments, a surge of inspiration is needed in order to keep going forward. Sometimes nothing can make me feel better or give me more power than to remember one of them saying, “You can get through this. God will make a way.”</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">My grandmother was a planner; rising daily at five a.m. to get started on the household work—cooking, stoking stoves, organizing to get the children off to school—while singing hymns as she was in action. My grandfather then used a couple of external power tools to support our landscape. One was his plow, which he brought out of his toolshed to break up the garden’s tough ground. Plowing was also thinking time for him. He could relax his muscles just a bit and focus his mind on the next project or problem. The other external tool my grandfather used was a gas fueled power saw, to cut down trees for wood to heat our house.  Every once in a while he’d use his axe only, but recognized when it was time to conserve his strength and supplement with this saw. He also had to take care of this back-up tool, removing the blades to be sharpened, so the saw could cut through the roughest and rawest of trees.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">I’ve discovered that it’s essential for leaders to have back up sources too, sharp and heartfelt, when our power goes out— to keep us until...</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">So what are you plugged into?</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">We can also identify this surge as an <b><i>internal power system</i></b>, a dashboard like tool that kicks in when we find ourselves lost or waning in our energy. From such causes as resource limitations, unmotivated followers, change, or lack of vision clarity, leaders can be thrown off course. Time to recharge!</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">From exercising a bit of self-awareness, we can journey within ourselves and often find the varied components of our power system.  Another source for me springs forth from the personal constitution of my stock, a heritage based connector. My grandparents also made sure I understood who we were in the world as African Americans, by sharing historical stories of struggles and pressing through. They relied on the syncing of their wits and purpose of better days to guide them and encourage future generations.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Leaders understand the power of knowing their foundations. I have not forgotten the collective and individual cultural narratives of my beginnings. As I watched footage honoring the 50<sup>th</sup> anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington, the intentional and determined movement of those who attended very much inspired me. Freedom summoned a power in those marchers to come from all over the country with beckoned direction, as courage and vision also became part of their internal power system.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">These generational and community observations became part of my leadership core, sustaining me when I served in the army, corporate positions, and now consultant. As a leader there’ve been problems to plow through, skills to sharpen and situations to supplement in seeking my desired results so I’ve sought power provisions.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Then what can other leaders glean from these narratives about my grandparents’ actions? Here are four sharpened power tools that I rely on to get things done.</p>\n<b>1)      </b><b>Make a right decision for the moment.</b>\n\n<b>2)      </b><b>Have a plan geared towards your resources.</b>\n\n<b>3)      </b><b>Inspire from observable action.</b>\n\n<b>4)      </b><b> Understand your core foundation.</b><b> </b>\n\nWhat are your leadership power sources?\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<b><i>Parts excerpted from my new book: Tools to Cultivate the Promised Land: Working Wisdom From My Grandparent’s Garden</i></b>\n\n<a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Tools-Cultivate-Promised-Land-Grandparents/dp/1489597581\">http://www.amazon.com/Tools-Cultivate-Promised-Land-Grandparents/dp/1489597581</a>', 'Sharpen and Supplement: Your Stock of Generational Leadership Power Tools', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'sharpen-and-supplement-your-stock-of-generational-leadership-power-tools', '', '', '2014-01-28 06:25:54', '2014-01-28 12:25:54', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13394', 0, 'post', '', 4),
(13418, 288, '2014-01-31 06:18:32', '2014-01-31 12:18:32', 'In a world that seems to be run by social media, it’s extremely important that business professionals never let their in-person social skills deteriorate. Whether you’re looking to move up the career ladder, improve your management skills, inspire growth and innovation within your company or simply build more personal relationships, utilizing social skills will always come in handy. Here are a few tips based on wise quotes from Dale Carnegie, the author of “<a href=\"http://www.dalecarnegie.com/events/how-to-win-friends-and-influence-people/\">How to Win Friends and Influence People</a>,” that can help you nourish your social skills.\n\n<b>Be Aware<a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/middlepage_teams.jpg\"></b>\n\n<i>“There are four ways, and only four ways, in which we have contact with the world. We are evaluated and classified by these four contacts: what we do, how we look, what we say, and how we say it.”</i>\n\nBeing aware of your own social skills and how people are responding plays a huge role in how successful you will be socially. Remind yourself that there are always improvements that you can make to your own social skills. Pay close attention to your body language, tone and the social cues of those around you. While you may think you have the ultimate social skills, after you take a look around at how others are truly responding, you might find out otherwise.\n\n<b>Get Other Perspectives</b>\n\n<i>“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”</i>\n\nKnowing when to listen is one of the most important social skills to master. Every person wants to feel as though someone genuinely cares about their opinions and thoughts. By listening to how other people feel, you can gain important insights that can be useful in business. Even simple conversations that may seem basic can really help you learn about a person and build rapport.\n\n<b>Remind Yourself That Everyone is Different</b>\n\n<i>“When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion.”</i><b></b>\n\nOne of the great things about people is that we all come from different backgrounds and have different beliefs. This can also make it easy to get frustrated by people who disagree with you or don’t understand the point that you are trying to get across. It’s important that you always try to relate to others. Remember to reflect on what others tell you. Even if you disagree, take the time to learn and understand another person’s perspective. Showing empathy and remaining positive is a great way to build relationships, even with people you disagree with.\n\nDon’t underestimate the impact that exceptional social and <a href=\"http://www.dalecarnegie.com/events/how_to_communicate_with_diplomacy_and_tact/\">communication skills</a> can have on your career. Tap into a deeper source of social power by working on your social skills today. What social skills have you found useful in your life? Please share your stories, insights and tips below!', 'Get Social - Tips to Help You Improve Your Social Skills', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'get-social-tips-to-help-you-improve-your-social-skills', '', '', '2014-01-31 06:18:32', '2014-01-31 12:18:32', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13418', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(13425, 343, '2014-02-13 06:07:19', '2014-02-13 12:07:19', 'The headlines occur virtually every week. Another person in a leadership capacity falters and brings calamity down on those around them. It\'s not only grievous to us as leaders, but also to those that are adversely impacted by their actions.\n\nWhy, we often wonder, does someone fall away in their leadership role? What happened within these individuals that allowed them to drift from promise to demise? And how do we not only spot the signs, but keep ourselves from meeting the same fate?\n\nLike a taproot that anchors a tree in order to weather the storms it\'s exposed to, we as leaders need to keep ourselves steady. It\'s a slow fade from having character to having no credibility, so we must put certain practices into our daily lives if we\'re to remain relevant and continue to make a positive impact in our worlds.\n\nThere are many good articles and posts written on why leaders fail. Two that seemed to strike a chord were from <a href=\"http://quickbase.intuit.com/blog/2013/08/21/top-10-reasons-why-leaders-fail/\">Dan Schwabel of Intuit Quickbase</a> and <a href=\"http://www.leadershipnow.com/sanborn.html\">Mark Sanborn of LeadershipNow</a>. Both men bring a good many insights into the dilemma. The points they bring up can be boiled down to 3 areas of failure:\n<ul>\n	<li><strong>Self-centeredness or pride</strong>. - Leaders that have these tendencies -  such as selfishness, arrogance, and unwillingness to be objective with themselves - all tend to see themselves as the beginning and end of everything. Ethics start to slip here, where the leader inserts their own set of values into the equation. They become poor managers of others, and eventually poor managers of themselves.</li>\n	<li><strong>Power or absolute control</strong>. - These leaders are ones who are afraid of their people learning or knowing more. They do not want to give up even the slightest bit of authority to another. They control situations by not communicating, adapting, or being proactive. You will see these individuals take fewer risks in order to prevent them being blamed and looking poorly.</li>\n	<li><strong>Discontent or greed.</strong> - Leaders who are greedy for more money or status, or who are more concerned with their career over what their actual role is, stop seeing the big picture. They steer their own agenda through politics, lack of direction to their teams, and squashing creativity. Their focus has shifted from the  first love of the common goals they were hired to achieve to their own self-interests.</li>\n</ul>\nSo how do we prevent ourselves from letting these subtle traits creep into our character?\n<ul>\n	<li><strong>Re-emphasize your core values, daily</strong>. True leaders embark on their path with the greatest of intentions. As they take their eye off of the values that got them to that position, they become more self-reliant. It\'s then a matter of time before that have forgotten their value system altogether. Write your core values down. Then read them aloud and remind yourself of what you stand for each day. This will reinforce who you are and ensure you never fall away.</li>\n	<li><strong>Realize it is <em>never</em> about you, it\'s about everyone else.</strong> Whatever you receive is only the by-product of putting people first. People are your greatest resources, your greatest assets, and your greatest allies. You cannot do the work of a thousand if you feel you\'re the only one who can do it right. Lose yourself in the development and service of your people and you will find an incredible aspect of leadership that leads to more opportunity for all.</li>\n	<li><strong>Be content in where you are and what you have</strong>. In the fall I laid out a <a href=\"http://upwardsleader.com/2013/11/27/the-thankful-leader/\">blog post</a> showing how one can be and stay thankful as a leader. That does not mean you are never ambitious to grow and move further along, but the core character here is to get to a place in your life that if you never moved on, you would be happy right where you are, and lack nothing. Only then will you be guarded against the covetous pull of greed.</li>\n</ul>\nOne final note - A key fourth method is to bring on some accountability partners. These are people that you trust to give you an honest assessment of your leadership and will not gloss over any mistakes. Choose these folks and tell them your intentions up front. They will be your guard rails in your career, and help you before you drift off the road. You can never have enough people looking out for you, in order that you may look out for others.\n\n(photo courtesy of www.theglassforest.org)', '3 Ways To Steady Your Leadership in a Changing World', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', '3-ways-steady-leadership-changing-world', '', '', '2014-02-13 06:07:19', '2014-02-13 12:07:19', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13425', 0, 'post', '', 5),
(13427, 244, '2014-02-25 12:30:51', '2014-02-25 18:30:51', 'In <a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/The-Invaluable-Laws-Growth-Potential/dp/1599953668\" target=\"_blank\">The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth</a>, John Maxwell illuminates the importance of learning to \"pause to allow growth to catch up with you.\" He refers to this as the Law of Reflection.\n\n<strong>There is another habit, however, often masquerading as reflection, that can undermine your success. That habit is processing.</strong>\n\nWhat I mean by \"processing\" is an intense stream of thoughts that are focused on analyzing why something didn\'t work, what you should have done differently, who was right and who was wrong, etc.\n\nFrom the outside, processing might look like you are reflecting in quiet solitude.  <strong><a href=\"http://wp.me/p339ZO-1UR\">Read more...</a></strong>', 'Reflect for Success', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'reflect-for-success', '', '', '2014-02-25 12:30:51', '2014-02-25 18:30:51', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13427', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(13435, 243, '2014-02-01 11:43:45', '2014-02-01 17:43:45', 'A special thank you goes to all of the readers of this blog.  Lead Change Group was recognized at #5 on the list of the <a title=\"Top 100 Most Socially-Shared Leadership Blogs of 2013\" href=\"http://www.cmoe.com/top-shared-leadership-blogs/\" target=\"_blank\">Top 100 Most Socially-Shared Leadership Blogs of 2013</a> by the <a title=\"Center for Management and Organization Effectiveness\" href=\"http://www.cmoe.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Center for Organization Management and Effectiveness</a> (CMOE).  It\'s interesting to see the number and impact of the great blogs on the list, including a large number of blogs from members of this group.\n\nThank you for sharing. This isn\'t just about our posts. It\'s also about the posts of the great authors throughout the community. Thank you for being part of the solution. And thanks go also to the CMOE for this recognition.  Check out the entire list here.', 'Top 100 Most Socially-Shared Leadership Blogs 2013', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'top-100-most-socially-shared-leadership-blogs-2013', '', '', '2014-02-01 11:43:45', '2014-02-01 17:43:45', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13435', 0, 'post', '', 3),
(13440, 342, '2014-02-11 06:12:33', '2014-02-11 12:12:33', 'Is resistance to change truly irrational?\n\nMany times, people being impacted by an organizational change initiative are called “irrational” or even worse by those leading the effort. However, even someone who is clinically insane is behaving rationally within their worldview. To themselves, people do not behave irrationally though they may be viewed that way by others. The challenge is to sufficiently understand their worldview in order to grasp why they are behaving the way they are. This resistance can then manifest itself in many different ways.\n\n• Inertia – comfort with the status quo\n• Timing – conflicts with other initiatives and/or priorities\n• Surprise – proper groundwork has not been done so people are caught off guard (need for change not established)\n• Misunderstanding – benefits not properly understood\n• Cultural pressure – some who may want to change are held back by others in the organization\n• Self-interest – conflicting personal priorities\n• Differing assessment – conflicting agreement over the value of the benefits associated with the change\n• Difficulty of change – organizational momentum and individual resistance\n\nTo close the loop then, who is being irrational?  The person resisting because of a factor known to the resister and not you?  Or you for believing everyone holds the same view regarding the desirability of the change?\n\n&nbsp;\n\nPhoto source: http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6055/6260624121_487edfe87e_o.jpg', 'Understanding resistance to change', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'understanding-resistance-to-change', '', '', '2014-02-11 06:12:33', '2014-02-11 12:12:33', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13440', 0, 'post', '', 3),
(13448, 243, '2014-02-05 06:18:03', '2014-02-05 12:18:03', 'The words “Elevate Purpose, Mobilize People” have been resonating with me for a while. So much in fact that I’m going to focus much of my writing on them over the next few months.\n\nYou see, I believe one of the most important things you can do to maximize your impact in 2014 is to narrow your focus and concentrate on your highest, most noble purpose.\n\nWhat is an elevated purpose? My definition of an elevated purpose is one that creates great value for others. An elevated purpose isn’t one that benefits only us. In the end, our legacy will be what we did for others. The hole we leave will only be measured by those we leave behind. Therefore our greatest purpose benefits others. And our most elevated purpose married with our greatest passion creates the greatest benefit for the whole world. Let me say that again. Your best energy working on the world’s greatest need will energize you and mobilize you. You will create impact. You will make a difference.\n<blockquote>\"Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.\" Howard Thurman</blockquote>\nGreat leaders are those who serve people in great causes. We don’t remember those who served few. We remember those who sacrificed and served many. What makes you come alive will meet a great need in the world. How do I know? I believe the bible, and there’s a verse in there that explains this phenomena:\n<blockquote>For we are His (God’s) workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we would walk in them. Ephesians 2:10 (NASB)</blockquote>\nThree steps to finding your most elevated purpose\n<ol>\n	<li>What do you hate? That’s right. No one likes using that word. But there is injustice in the world. If what you hate only relates to the injustices in your life that you experience, you need to begin to think of others. Is there a problem in the world you just can’t tolerate? Is it a problem for someone other than yourself? That problem may have something to do with your most elevated purpose. Take a minute and list some of these things and list why you hate them.</li>\n	<li>If you could do anything what would it be? Why? Again, make the list. List both the thing and the why. In the answer to the question “Why?” lies some secrets that will help you identify your most elevated purpose. Deep down inside, you want to do something. List those somethings and their reasons.</li>\n	<li>Force rank them. That’s right. Once you’ve got a list of 3-10 things, force rank them. Assume you’re invited to do them all right now. Which one will you do?</li>\n</ol>\nIt’s no accident that your greatest passions and your strengths lie along the line of your greatest calling. Focus on using your best strengths and your best energy, to maximize your impact and your value to others.\n\nShare below any ideas you have or anything you’d add to the conversation. Let’s all spend an hour more on our most elevated purpose this month and see where we end up. Never underestimate the power of a small group of committed people to change the world. Are you part of that small group? You are if you can elevate your purpose and use that to guide your impact.\n\n<em>Elevate Your Purpose is the first step in a new 6 week boot camp I’m putting together to help character-based leaders and coaches increase their influence and impact. If you’re interested in learning more about this upcoming program, please respond at our <a title=\"Contact Lead Change Group\" href=\"/contact-2/\">Contact Us</a> page.</em>', '3 Steps to Elevate Your Purpose and Maximize Your Impact', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', '3-steps-to-elevate-your-purpose-and-maximize-your-impact', '', '', '2014-02-05 06:18:03', '2014-02-05 12:18:03', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13448', 0, 'post', '', 3),
(13454, 251, '2014-02-10 06:12:55', '2014-02-10 12:12:55', 'I sit on the board of directors for a small 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—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.</span>\n\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">So all board members could fully participate in the strategy working session, a meeting facilitator was hired. An orientation session with the facilitator, staff and board was scheduled to bring the facilitator up-to-speed on the research and desired deliverables so she could design the flow of the meeting. </span>\n\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">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.</span>\n\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">Her questions were first 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.</span>\n\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">“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.”</span>\n\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">“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 can’t be done. Strategy work should span three to five years to be done properly.”</span>\n\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">More deafening silence.</span>\n\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">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?</span>\n\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">If “yes,” has anyone ever called you a buzzkill?</span>\n\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">Effort and ideas can be as fragile as grandma’s porcelain tea cup. Drink from them.</span>\n\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">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.</span>\n\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">Sometimes good enough is enough. Most work is beautiful alchemy—part art, part science. Go with it. </span>\n\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">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 long gone, and so are the companies that embraced those notions.</span>\n\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">Seize the moment, the momentum and make some leadership magic!</span>\n<h6><span style=\"color: #000000;\">*an external analysis reflecting the political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal components of an organization’s macroeconomic environment</span></h6>', 'Meet people where they are', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'meet-people-where-they-are', '', '', '2014-02-10 06:12:55', '2014-02-10 12:12:55', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13454', 0, 'post', '', 6),
(13464, 344, '2014-02-06 06:13:26', '2014-02-06 12:13:26', 'Leadership is a privilege but it is also a decision. People choose to follow you or you make a choice to lead them. Anyone can become a leader but because of the so-called \"<em>big expectations,</em>\" many of us back off of the responsibility to lead. Leadership is not complicated. Rather it becomes complicated if we associate it with unhealthy expectations.\n\n\n\n<strong>Expectation</strong> is such a big word. It is a standard which defines the effort and behavior of a person. Expectations can be motivating, healthy, and good, but they can also be discouraging, manipulative, and dangerous. Leaders have expectations of their subordinates and vice-versa. Setting expectations towards leaders are good but shouldn\'t become the team\'s goal.\n\nTo avoid getting plenty of disappointments and discouragements in an organization, it\'s time to reflect on yourself if you have unhealthy expectations towards your leaders that needs to change:\n<h2>You expect leaders to be perfect all the time.</h2>\nThis is a subconscious expectation of most people. You cannot always expect perfection to the people who are on the pedestal or who hold a position. Nobody\'s perfect so do not expect them to have no flaws. Committing mistakes and failure are part of the learning process. Failure doesn\'t make a leader inefficient, it only shows that they\'re merely humans and they are learning.\n\nLeaders are not born to be perfect at all times because they are also made to face trials and have faults. They don\'t have the power to control everything. The best leaders have a strong heart and a drive to achieve the team’s goals regardless of the challenges. If you don\'t want to get disappointed, stop looking for perfection because leaders will never live up to your expectations.\n<h2>You expect leaders to be the smartest individual in the team.</h2>\nKnowledge is important in leadership but it doesn\'t mean that your leader should be the smartest person in the room. The success of the team is because of teamwork and not because your leader is the smartest person in the group. A leader is generally judged based on his intelligence or particular skill set and not according to how he lead, how he understand each of his member\'s strengths and how he build a smart team. Some people were mistaken by this thought.\n\nTwo heads are better than one. We all know this saying and it is true when it comes to leadership. You should know that the success of the team lies not on the intelligence of the leader. The success of the team is because of teamwork. It is actually the team’s effort and contribution that makes a successful organization.\n<h2>You expect leaders to demand respect.</h2>\nSome people in authority make great demands from their subordinates. Demanding respect is bad for the team because demanded respect diminishes instantly. Leadership is not predicated upon a sense of entitlement. Team members don\'t follow position or authority, they follow leaders.\n\nEffective leaders do not demand respect; they earn it. They do it through actions, by being respectful of people\'s opinion and ideas. Leaders are not people-pleasers. Do not expect that your leader has to please you or make demands from you in order for you to respect them.\n\nRespect begets respect. If a leader knows how to give respect, team members will do the same in return and it will make the organization prosper. Submission is not insisted, it should be implied.\n<h2>You expect leaders to not give up under any circumstances.</h2>\nSome people say good leaders never give up. When leading gets difficult they expect leaders to keep moving forward until they reach their goals. This does not apply in all situations. When a particular tactic is not working anymore, the leader should know when to stop and re-route the team into the right direction.\n\nResponsible leaders should know when to give up or stop in pursuing unrealistic goals and how to stand up after a failure. Doing this will not lessen their capabilities in effectively leading people hence it makes them a versatile leader who can adjust in sudden changes.\n\nEach of us has our own expectations about effective leadership. Sometimes the kind of expectations we have are too ideal or unhealthy. It is natural to people to have a firm set of expectations towards leaders\' performance but it would be better for the team if you have a proper set of realistic and appropriate expectations.\n\nDo you have unhealthy expectations towards your leader that needs to change? Please share your thoughts about this topic.', 'The Danger of Unhealthy Expectations to Leadership', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'the-danger-of-unhealthy-expectations-to-leadership', '', '', '2014-02-06 06:13:26', '2014-02-06 12:13:26', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13464', 0, 'post', '', 4),
(13484, 270, '2014-02-06 12:35:31', '2014-02-06 18:35:31', 'I’m honored to host <a title=\"Great Leadership Blog by Dan McCarthy\" href=\"http://www.greatleadershipbydan.com/\">Dan McCarthy’s</a>Leadership Development Blog Carnival this month.\n\n<strong>January ended with MLK Day. This month we honor Washington and Lincoln.</strong>  So when Dan and I reached out to our leadership networks, we asked bloggers to share posts about what great leaders do, posts that highlight vision, passion, courage, commitment and even a willingness to sacrifice their very lives to create a legacy of change.\n\n<strong>24 Leadership Guru’s responded with stories, inspiration and tangible ideas to help each of us to lead at a higher level.  </strong>…And while we don’t all agree on where to stand on specific issues, we emphatically agree on what it takes to lead well.  Read more here....', 'Leadership Development Blog Carnival: What Great Leaders Do!', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'leadership-development-blog-carnival-what-great-leaders-do', '', '', '2014-02-06 12:35:31', '2014-02-06 18:35:31', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13484', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(13490, 252, '2014-02-07 06:29:52', '2014-02-07 12:29:52', 'You have your own way of getting work done through others.  As a manager, your own inherent values and ideas of how the world works (and <i>should</i> work) drive how you handle issues with the human beings in your charge.\n\nSomething I notice with my clients and myself is that we often suppress our initial reaction to an issue because we don’t think it’s reasonable or actionable.  Over time I’ve come to realize that our initial reactions — things we just toss off — often reveal something powerful about our leadership approach and philosophy.\n<h2>Learn from experience.</h2>\nEarly in my career as a corporate employee I found myself challenging my supervisor.  I didn’t like how he was keeping certain employees out of the loop around how their work was changing.  One day in a staff meeting I put him on the spot about it.  Afterward he came to my office, shut the door and proceeded to tell me (in a VERY loud voice) that I would never be management material, and by the way, \"whose side are you on?\"\n\nGranted, the way I handled myself in the staff meeting was not my finest moment.  I distinctly remember thinking thought, “If this is what it takes to be a manager, I’m going to keep on treating people like human beings and take my chances.”  I suspect my former supervisor would say I needed an attitude adjustment.  In retrospect I realize that, despite my rough start, there was a nugget of something dynamic in my initial reaction<i>.</i> I was committed to treating people at work like human beings.  This is the natural, typical place I start when faced with an issue.\n<h2>It doesn’t have to be all or nothing.</h2>\nWhen looking at decisions or actions, it’s always important to consider all relevant stakeholders, like employees, the organization, customers and even yourself.  And yet, don’t diminish the importance of your unique perspective, and bring it to the table when others may be missing it.\n\n<em>What have you learned about your own brilliance hiding in plain sight?</em>\n\n<span style=\"color: #888888;\">Image: BigStockphoto contributor Otna Ydur</span>', 'Is Your Brilliance Hiding in Plain Sight?', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'is-your-brilliance-hiding-in-plain-sight', '', '', '2014-02-07 06:29:52', '2014-02-07 12:29:52', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13490', 0, 'post', '', 1),
(13497, 252, '2014-02-06 17:57:20', '2014-02-06 23:57:20', 'You know those things that get done, and you really don’t know how they happen, until they don’t?\n\nOr those employees you see only once or twice a year in performance reviews? When you look at the data, they are clearly getting their jobs done, but otherwise, they seem invisible.\n\nMeet your secret workforce. You can always count on them. They “keep on keeping on” without any particular recognition, attention or prodding.\n\nRead more <a href=\"https://smartblogs.com/leadership/2014/02/06/are-you-overlooking-your-secret-workforce/\">here.</a>...', 'Are you overlooking your secret workforce?', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'are-you-overlooking-your-secret-workforce', '', '', '2014-02-06 17:57:20', '2014-02-06 23:57:20', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13497', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(13506, 244, '2014-03-05 12:08:05', '2014-03-05 18:08:05', '<em><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-13507\" alt=\"LoveEmOrLoseEm\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/LoveEmOrLoseEm_15-300x300.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" />This following guest article is based on concepts from <a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Love-Em-Lose-Getting-Business/dp/160994884X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1389820285&amp;sr=8-2&amp;keywords=love+em+or+lose+em\">Love ‘Em or Lose ‘Em: Getting Good People to Stay</a> by Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans. This bestselling book provides twenty-six strategies to keep talented employees happy and productive.  While their focus is on the employer, Beverly and Sharon pose some great questions we could all be asking ourselves even if our employer is not.</em>\n<blockquote><strong>What you ask and how you respond during a stay interview will determine the outcome of this important interaction. </strong><a href=\"http://ctt.ec/n4_cp\" target=\"_blank\">\n</a></blockquote>\nCharlie set up a meeting with his plant manager, Ken, for Monday morning. After some brief conversation about the weekend activities, Charlie said, “Ken, you are critical to me and to this organization. I’m not sure I’ve told you that directly or often enough. But you are. I can’t imagine losing you. So, I’d like to know what will keep you here. And what might entice you away?” <a href=\"http://wp.me/p339ZO-1V6\">Read more...</a>', 'Discovering Reasons to Stay', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'discovering-reasons-to-stay', '', '', '2014-03-05 12:08:05', '2014-03-05 18:08:05', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13506', 0, 'post', '', 0);
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(13523, 345, '2014-02-17 06:16:12', '2014-02-17 12:16:12', '<b><i> </i></b><b><i>“The key to sustained happiness, health, and longevity is flexibility.”\n--Ev Duran</i></b></h5>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><b><i></i></b><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em; text-align: center;\">There is a parable here in Afghanistan about a mule and a well that speaks to the value of flexibility in our lives.  Having fallen into a shallow well, an Afghan farmer\'s mule brayed incessantly while the farmer and his son considered their options.  After weighing the value of the animal, the son pointed out that burying the old mule might be the best choice.  As they started to shovel dirt into the well, the mule brayed louder in protest, then suddenly...quieted down.  The farmer looked into the well and noticed, to his surprise, the mule was shaking off each scoop of dirt and then stepping upon it.  As they continued to push dirt into the well, the mule rose higher and eventually was able to climb out of the well . . . on his own.</span></p>\n<span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">The point our Afghan partners attempt to express from this parable is that life will shovel dirt on you.  The challenge is shaking it off and taking a step up...and out.  With this in mind, each of us is capable of escaping the deepest of wells if we only choose not to fail.  Remaining flexible is key to our ability to shake it off and step off in a new direction.</span>\n\n<span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">The same can be said for our idea of work.  How many of us find ourselves in a well where the dirt continually rains down on our heads?  What if we took advantage of our perspective to find ways to capitalize upon the situation to make it better for all--our teammates, our leaders and ourselves?  Challenging typical notions of what defines the \"workplace\" and \"work\" is well within the job-jar of all of us, regardless of our position in the organization.  In doing so, we have the ability to expand boundaries and redefine our ecosystem to everyone\'s advantage.  The following ideas may be worth exploring for your environment as ways to capitalize upon flexibility for your team:</span>\n<ol>\n	<li><b><i>Flexibility in our work environment creates productivity.</i></b>  We all crave flexibility in the workplace, especially with the merger of traditional gender roles and balancing work responsibilities with those at home.  We may find ourselves worrying about picking up children before daycare closes or getting them to football practice on time, thus leaving important projects for the next day or missing that one important call from a client.  How many employees would be far more productive knowing they could achieve work/life balance and meet the demands of both their professional and personal lives without undue distractions? Carol Halsey, founder of Business Organizing Solutions, found employees who were able to complete tasks without interruptions or some level of stress increased productivity in their workplace by as much as 50 percent.   Think of how much time we already waste at work because we have to be in an office setting for 8-12 hours a day.  Rather than hanging around the water cooler, coffee-clutching with office mates, or reading a book at lunch, work place flexibility could allow employees to make their own schedules.  This could mean starting work earlier in the day or working later in the evenings, thus allowing time to fit in activities that a traditional schedule might not otherwise allow.  The increasing ability to balance work with home life can increase job satisfaction which, in turn, increases employee retention.  If employees are allowed to control their interactions throughout the work day and relieve some of the pressures of a busy home life, the company could reap productivity rewards…with smiles as a fringe benefit.</li>\n	<li><b><i>Flexible work environments lead to a higher quality workforce.</i></b>  Companies strive for quality and diversity among their workforce – not only to attract more clients, but also to draw in motivated employees eager to succeed.  Allowing for flexibility in the workplace broadens the pool of available personnel for businesses to pull from--around the globe.  Imagine a company based in California having the ability to hire a top-qualified candidate from Italy or even New Zealand?   According to a study done by the <a href=\"http://www.ccohs.ca/\">Canadian Center for Occupational Health and Safety</a>, offering employees the ability to work remotely provides companies higher qualified personnel that are more culturally and socially diverse, greater employee satisfaction, and increased initiative and teamwork among employees.  Additionally, the flexibility of working remotely eliminates the traditional bureaucratic hierarchy and allows companies to implement flatter, decentralized organizational structures, which often draw in more motivated and energized employees.  <a href=\"http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-leadership/wp/2014/01/03/zappos-gets-rid-of-all-managers/\">Zappos recently took this approach</a>, eliminating the traditional management roles and replacing their chain of command with self-governing “circles.”  These “circles” allow employees to get more involved in how the company is run and eliminates a lot of the rigidity that stifles creativity and flexibility.   Even <a href=\"http://www.bestbuy.com/\">Best Buy</a> attempted, and later revised, a similar approach by transitioning all 4,000 corporate workers into a new “results-only work environment” (ROWE), which allows employees to work any hours, anywhere, as long as they get their work done.  As technology continues to dominate the workplace, we will see more companies experimenting with more flexible and less rigid work environments.</li>\n	<li> <b><i>Flexibility controls costs.</i></b>  Of course everything comes down to the bottom line, because what good is flexibility without some level of cost savings?  So it is not only about what is best for the employee…what does the company gain?  By allowing employees to work from home, companies can cut their own costs – fewer workers in that traditional office environment requires less organic resources in terms of real estate, office space, desks, supplies, and facility costs such as heating and electricity.  Also the flexibility to work from home yields fewer sick days, thus increasing productivity and decreasing turnover, which all reap higher profits.  It’s interesting to note that these cost savings are not only for smaller companies—large companies can get in on the action, too!  Numerous studies by large companies tout the cost-benefits of a work from home structure: at <a href=\"http://www.ibm.com/\">IBM</a>, 40% of the workforce has no official office; over one-third of <a href=\"http://www.att.com/\">AT&amp;T</a> managers telecommute.  Additionally, nearly half of all employees at <a href=\"http://www.smart2020.org/case-studies/sun-microsystems-employee-open-work-telecommuting-program/\">Sun Microsystems work from home</a> – the company estimated a saving of $400M over six years in real estate costs by eliminating the requirement to work in an office.  We submit that eliminating the traditional requirements of an office structure can reduce the operating costs on a large scale, allowing companies the potential to invest more into their employees and strategic company growth.</li>\n</ol>\nSo by now you may be asking yourself, “If workplace flexibility yields more productivity, higher quality employees, and cost savings, what company wouldn’t want to implement this strategy?”  It is definitely safe to say that working from home is not for everyone or every organization.  However, for those with a high level of self-discipline, it can be very rewarding, improve job satisfaction and quality of life, and reap significant benefits for their organization. It is also worth pointing out that employers need take steps to keep in touch with the employee who is working from home to ensure open communication at all times and that employees are completing their assigned projects.  Harprit Singh, CEO of <a href=\"http://www.intellicomm.com/\">Intellicomm</a>, found that in order for a work-from home position to be effective, “it should emphasize the benefits of work-life balance to employees and equip them with the necessary technologies to be productive in a remote environment. Employers not only need to ensure that the teleworking employees do not miss out on the important matters at the office, but also remain conscientious about their productivity.”\n\nAs more employees seek a work/life balance, and as technology continues to improve—thereby shrinking the world we share--we might expect to see more companies implement strategies to provide flexibility in the workplace and reap the benefits that come along with it.  Of course, another option is to just keep scooping dirt into the hole . . . and see what climbs out.\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">This article was co-authored\nby <a href=\"http://en.gravatar.com/fritzmt\" target=\"_blank\">Matthew T Fritz </a>and colleague,\n<a href=\"http://www.gravatar.com/hlmcgeeusaf\" target=\"_blank\">Heather L. McGee </a>[<a href=\"https://twitter.com/heatherlmcgee\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter</a> || LinkedIn]</h2>', 'Flexibility: Stretching Traditional Notions of Work', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'flexibility-stretching-traditional-notions-of-work', '', '', '2014-02-17 06:16:12', '2014-02-17 12:16:12', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13523', 0, 'post', '', 2),
(13539, 346, '2014-02-14 06:11:24', '2014-02-14 12:11:24', 'Subsequent to the mapping of the human genome, a project completed just over a decade ago, we have seen a number of human traits linked to heredity and one of the more recent is the quality of leadership. Quality may not be the appropriate word here. After all, <strong>Kim Il Sung</strong>,<strong> Adolf Hitler</strong>, <strong>Genghis Khan</strong> and<strong> Idi Amin</strong> <strong>Dada Oumee</strong> are each technically defined as leaders.\n\nBefore we go further, I would like to share this definition of leadership as put forward by Dr. Paul Hersey. Dr. Hersey defines leadership as “<em>working with and through others to achieve objectives</em>.”\n\nWhile some leaders inherit their leadership role, for example, the United Kingdom’s Queen Elizabeth II and North Korea’s Kim Il Sung (apologies to Her Royal Highness), to suggest that the trait of leadership is passed down through genetic material is a bit of a stretch.\n\nIn a recent <a href=\"http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2262759/Great-leaders-really-ARE-born-taught-researchers-say.html\">study by University College London</a>, which tested DNA samples from 4000 donors, concluded that those possessing the rs4900 genotype were 25 percent more likely to hold a leadership role. The study also revealed that roughly 50 percent of the human population possess this genotype, which may explain why we live in a dog-eat-dog world, but offers less than convincing proof that leaders are born, not made.\n\nEven the proponents of this position acknowledge that other factors are in play. As Dr. Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, spokesman for the University College London research team acknowledged, experience and environment play a greater role.\n\nI have both feet firmly planted in the camp which believes that <strong><em>great leaders are made, not born</em></strong>, while at the same time conceding that natural talent inherited or not, can help the process of creating a leader. There are plenty of studies just as convincing as Dr. Neve’s to support the position that leaders are made not born.\n<h2>Developing the Talent</h2>\nHoning leadership skills is a process that can be aided by:\n<ul>\n	<li>Reflecting critically on your past behavior, knowing your strengths and acknowledging your weaknesses without prejudice, much in the way a juror would review evidence against an accused.</li>\n	<li>Work diligently to change the behaviors not conforming to your role as a leader.</li>\n	<li>Cultivate friendships with people who want the best for you and are not only capable, but willing, to be completely honest with you to further that goal.</li>\n	<li>Learn to listen to others with an honest expectation to learn something new.</li>\n	<li>Understand that great leaders inspire then move out of the way because true leadership is about guidance and support.</li>\n	<li>Have the courage to acknowledge when you are wrong or mistaken. This is not a sign of weakness but of strength.</li>\n	<li>Periodically, assess your progress and make any adjustments necessary.</li>\n</ul>\nThese suggestions are only a few of many ways to improve leadership skills. There are dozens, probably hundreds, of additional suggestions on how to improve your leadership skills in the pages of self-help books, scholarly papers, and of course the ubiquitous Internet.\n\nOne could make the argument that the very existence of all these leadership tomes, white papers and web pages is proof in itself that leadership is an acquired skill.\n\nI am going to make this bold observation. It is not necessary to know if leadership is an inherited trait or an acquired skill. We all know that people with an inherent talent can choose to develop or not develop that talent. We all know people with an ear for music, a penchant for drawing or a great singing voice. Do these same individuals automatically transform into world-class musicians, famous artists or singing sensations. Of course not!\n\nI believe it this to be equally true of leaders. Regardless of our view with regard to the origins of leadership ability, I believe we can all concede that it is for naught unless the trait is nurtured, developed and practiced.\n\nIn this sense, the idea of a born leader is nothing short of ludicrous. There are no <strong><em>born</em> </strong>leaders anymore than there are <em>born</em> Olympic figure skating gold medalists, heavyweight <em><strong>world</strong> </em>boxing champions, NBA MVPs and star NFL quarterbacks. These people worked very hard to achieve that status in their respective sports—and so it is with leadership.\n\nThere are a relatively few truly great leaders in a veritable sea of mediocre ones. The degree to which a leader achieves his greatness is directly proportional to the effort he/she puts into becoming a great leader. If talent is the seed, then hard work is the soil.\n\nThe debate will no doubt rage on but in my view it is an irrelevant one if you accept the premise that only hard work develops great leaders.\n\n<span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\">Photo © nikesidoroff - Fotolia.com</span>', 'Is There a Leadership Gene?', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'is-there-a-leadership-gene', '', '', '2014-02-14 06:11:24', '2014-02-14 12:11:24', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13539', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(13543, 243, '2014-02-12 06:11:02', '2014-02-12 12:11:02', '<img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-13544\" alt=\"Susan Steinbrecher\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/susansteinbrecher.jpg\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" /> Many of you know Susan Steinbrecher (<a title=\"Susan\'s Twitter Profile\" href=\"http://twitter.com/steinbrecherinc\" target=\"_blank\">@SteinbrecherInc</a>, LinkedIn) or are connected with her in some way on LinkedIn or Twitter. She and I have been connected for a few years now and she\'s helped promote Lead Change and many of the members over the years.\n\nShe and Dr. Joel Bennett just released a new and updated 2nd Edition of their book Heart-Centered Leadership: Lead Well, Live Well.  So I thought I\'d take a minute to ask Susan a few questions about the effort.\n\n<em>Lead Change: </em>Susan, Tell us a little about yourself? How did you get involved in professional leadership development?\n\n<em>Susan: </em>I started my career early, right after high school. I was intrigued by the hotel business as I had a brother who was in the hospitality business and he really enjoyed it. I later went to college while I continued to build on my professional experience. It wasn’t long before I found myself in a supervisory role.\n\nAs I continued to advance I took on more and more responsibility and led larger numbers of employees. You could say that I “learned the hard way” when it comes to effective leadership and what motivates employees to work at their highest levels.\n\nTwenty-one years ago I decided to start my own business and I’ve never looked back. My ultimate goal was, and still is, to provide others with the guidance and expertise to lead with respect and compassion for others.\n\n<em>Lead Change: </em>How did you get connected with the Lead Change Group?\n\n<em>Susan: </em>When I joined Twitter in 2009 some of the first connections I made were with a small group of like-minded coaches, consultants and forward thinkers who had the grand vision of creating a community of business people to collectively brain-storm and instigate change in the future of leadership. Their ideas were driven by values, compassion and a vision for a better world. I have since then followed and championed the Lead Change movement and witnessed its expansive growth, while forging some wonderful relationships and connections along the way.\n\n<a href=\"http://www.heartcenteredleadership.com\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-13545\" alt=\"Heart Centered Leadership by Susan Steinbrecher and Joel Bennett PH.D.\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/hcl-202x300.jpg\" width=\"202\" height=\"300\" /></a><em>Lead Change: </em>Where did you get the idea for the book, <a title=\"Heart-Centered Leadership Website\" href=\"http://www.heartcenteredleadership.com\" target=\"_blank\">Heart Centered Leadership</a>?\n\n<em>Susan: </em>After working with many leaders as an executive coach I noticed patterns of success, and frankly, patterns of leadership failures. I sincerely wanted to share what I had learned with others in hope that leaders would embrace the concept that if you take really good care of your associates/employees – they will take great care of your customers who will in turn take great care of your bottom line.\n\n<em>Lead Change: </em>What\'s the key message? What\'s the idea you want people to \"know in their heart\" when they\'re finished reading the book?\n\n<em>Susan: </em>Leading with heart allows us to connect with employees at a level that is ultimately incredibly gratifying because you directly impact the lives of others. To have that deep-felt connection – and therefore making a difference – is truly an honor and a privilege.\n\n<em>Lead Change: </em>How can people find the book or connect with you?\n\n<em>Susan: </em>The book’s website is <a title=\"Heart-Centered Leadership Website\" href=\"http://www.heartcenteredleadership.com\">www.heartcenteredleadership.com</a>. I hope people will drop by – the introduction that outlines the Seven Principles of Heart-Centered Leadership (HCL) is available for download on the homepage, as well. We are thrilled with the many testimonials and endorsements HCL has received to date. <strong>On Valentine’s Day 2014, the book will be offered at a special discounted price of $14.99 at <a title=\"Heart-Centered Leadership Website\" href=\"http://www.heartcenteredleadership.com\" target=\"_blank\">www.heartcenteredleadership.com</a>!</strong><em> (emphasis, courtesy of Mike...)</em>\n\nI can always be reached through my consulting website at <a href=\"http://www.steinbrecher.com\" target=\"_blank\">www.steinbrecher.com</a> or my speaker’s website, <a title=\"Susan\'s speaker site\" href=\"http://www.steinbrecherspeaks.com\" target=\"_blank\">www.steinbrecherspeaks.com</a> and my Twitter handle is <a title=\"Susan\'s Twitter Profile\" href=\"http://twitter.com/steinbrecherinc\" target=\"_blank\">@SteinbrecherInc</a>.\n\n<em>Lead Change: </em>Thanks very much Susan! Best wishes.', 'An Interview With Susan Steinbrecher', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'an-interview-with-susan-steinbrecher', '', '', '2014-02-12 06:11:02', '2014-02-12 12:11:02', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13543', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(13553, 309, '2014-02-18 06:24:32', '2014-02-18 12:24:32', 'Everything has a life cycle. Plants, animals, humans, businesses, products - all have a time of birth, growth, maturity, and death. It\'s the whole \"circle of life\" thing.\n\nLeadership has a life cycle. There is a time when a leader is \"born,\" a time when he or she grows, matures, and finally reaches legacy. A leader can also die. Leadership death is not necessarily physical death. It can come in the form of broken trust, unethical behavior, apathy, incompetency, or abuse of authority. A leader may be in the prime of their leadership life cycle, and come quickly to death through a series of unwise decisions. If I had you list out the leaders that come to mind whom you would say are \"dead,\" the list would not be short.\n\nEach phase of the cycle requires a new set of skills, knowledge, and implementation. What worked for you as a leader when you were just starting, doesn\'t necessarily work the same way when you are a mature leader. Let\'s look at the leadership life cycle:\n\n<strong>Birth:</strong>\nThis usually happens when a leader is young in age, but can happen at any point. A mature leader recognizes leadership abilities and talent in the emerging leader and begins to call it out. He encourages them to explore this gift and develop it. Since leadership is part of who they are, they naturally gravitate toward this role and are excited to take on new challenges.\n\n<strong>Growth:</strong>\nA young leader begins down the path of growth with the aid of a mature leader, mentor, or coach. Some of the growth comes from observing and learning from other leaders successes and mistakes. Some of the growth comes from being in the trenches and experiencing success and failure first hand. This is a very productive time for the leader and the focus is on achievement.\n\n<strong>Maturity:</strong>\nA leader at this stage in the cycle begins to think less about achievement and more about legacy. She might seek out new leaders to pour into and mentor. She might look toward making a bigger impact that her position and role affords her. There is a focus here on continued growth as a leader but also passing on what is learned.\n\n<strong>Legacy:</strong>\nWhat marks the legacy stage of the leadership life cycle is when the vision outlives the leader. When a leader retires, or passes, when the vision carries on in the life blood of younger leaders, legacy is born. All the high ideals, vision, and values of the leader continue past their physical presence among younger leaders. It is a true, lasting achievement that is a worthy pursuit of any leader.\n\n<strong>Death:</strong>\nThe non-physical death of a leader is evident by their actions and behaviors. Some typical indicators are:\n<ul>\n	<li>Lack of accountability</li>\n	<li>Incompetency / lack of desire or effort to grow and learn</li>\n	<li>Apathy</li>\n	<li>Not developing a new generation of leaders</li>\n	<li>Unethical behavior</li>\n	<li>Dishonesty</li>\n	<li>Duplicity</li>\n	<li>Interested in only promoting themselves, often at the expense of others</li>\n	<li>Lack of respect by their team or staff for the leader\'s authority</li>\n</ul>\nThese are only some indicators. I\'m sure you have had experience with other indicators of a dying or dead leader. Have you worked under a leader who was \"dead\" but didn\'t recognize it?\n\nDeath in the leadership life cycle ends all hope of legacy (at least on a positive level). A leader finds themselves at this stage by continually making unwise choices - a small indiscretion here, a bit of dishonesty there, and so on. Slowly, the lack of teachability and accountability prevent the leader from seeing their demise.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<em><strong>What stage of the leadership life cycle are you in? What is your plan to go to the next level? Are there indicators from the \"death\" category that you recognize in your own leadership? What are you going to do to change this situation and get your leadership back on track?</strong></em>', 'The Leadership Life Cycle', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'the-leadership-life-cycle', '', '', '2014-02-18 06:24:32', '2014-02-18 12:24:32', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13553', 0, 'post', '', 3),
(13576, 282, '2014-02-20 06:12:29', '2014-02-20 12:12:29', 'We\'re all going to fail or let someone down sooner or later.  The cause of our failure may be legitimate, or it may not.  As much as leaders want results, they despise excuses even more.  A trust relationship can be destroyed in an instant, and the weapon of its demise is an excuse.\n\nI remember vividly my experience with Big George, the owner of the Box Car BBQ.  Big George sang in a Gospel quartet, had a laugh that could be heard across the county, and he always had the sweet, ever faint scent of BBQ and smoked meat around him.  I was the Youth &amp; Recreation Pastor at the church he attended, and it was my responsibility to lead the planning and execution of the Church Wide picnic.  We invited people to bring a vegetable and a dessert, and the church took care of the main course- BBQ Brisket from the Box Car BBQ.\n\nMy responsibility was simple.  Give a headcount to Big George by the Wednesday before the big Sunday event.  That would give him enough time to buy, smoke and cut up the meat without interrupting his regular business.  Easy enough to do.  It hit me at lunch on Friday, two days past my deadline, that I had forgotten to give the count to Big George.  I panicked as I thought about 400 hungry Baptists standing in line expecting BBQ, with me at the head of the serving line passing out hot dog wieners instead.  It was not a pretty picture.  So I mustered my courage and drove to the Box Car BBQ.  George had just climbed into his truck to leave when I pulled up.  I caught his eye, so he put his truck in park and rolled his window down slowly as I approached his truck.\n\nThe moment of truth had arrived.  Would I blame it the hospital visits I had made that week, or on the funeral I had attended?  Maybe ask him if he was supposed to have contacted me?  Distract or blame... hmmm.  But I couldn\'t do it.  As he sat in his truck, staring straight ahead with a cloudy countenance, I took a deep breath and said, \"George, I owe you an apology.  I was supposed to have called you on Wednesday, and I simply forgot.  There\'s no excuse. I\'m sorry I let you down, and I\'ll understand if it\'s too late now.\"  Then the most amazing thing happened.  He turned to look me straight in the eye, and he paused for what seemed like an eternity.  Then nodding his head in assent, he smiled and said, \"That\'s OK, preacher boy.  I\'ve got you covered... and thank you.\"\n\nIn that moment the consequences of what might have been hit me.  Had I distracted, blamed, whined or made excuses, I\'d have not only been handing out hot dogs instead of brisket, but I\'d have lost the respect of a good man.  Even today the smell of a good BBQ joint reminds me of the test I passed that day.  The question I have for you is this:  When you have messed up, how do you tell if you\'re communicating an honest reason for failure, or a coward\'s excuse?   It has to pass the SMELL test.\n\n<strong>S- Sincere.</strong>  When you fail, those you have let down primarily want to know that you\'re as upset as they are, if not more.  They want any communication from you to be sincere and authentic.  If they sense a cover up or a phony attitude behind your explanation, then you just flunked the SMELL test.\n\n<strong>M- Misleading.</strong> Distraction and deception are two sides of the same bad penny.  If you\'re trying to play the blame game and pass the buck to someone else, or convolute the situation in such a way that blame seems to lie anywhere but where it genuinely belongs, it\'s just wrong.  You\'ve flunked the SMELL test again.\n\n<strong>E- Egotistical.</strong>  Another way to describe this is a \"martyr syndrome.\"  As a way to avoid responsibility for our shortcomings, we go to great extremes to persuade others that we too are a victim.  Victim\'s of our schedule, our budget, our co-workers or of circumstance, it doesn\'t matter.  But explanations that paint us as the one who has truly suffered will totally miss the mark with your audience, and absolutely will not pass the SMELL test.\n\n<strong>L- Lie.</strong>  Dishonesty seems to be a comfortable option for more people than we\'d like to believe.  Their motto is, \"Why tell the truth when a good lie will do?\"  Remember, honesty means what it means- we tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.  Lies of omission are just as deceptive as lies of commission, and both stink.\n\n<strong>L- Lumps.</strong> If you want your explanation or reasons for your failure to be heard, accepted and respected, then you must be willing to take your punishment or accept the consequences of your failures.  This needs to spoken out loud rather than assumed.  My grandmother used to say, \"Crow always tasted better when you feed it to yourself.\"  A direct and voiced acceptance of our deserved consequences not only brings increased respect from others, but helps us move ahead with a greater amount of self-respect.  If you\'re not willing to face the music, then your stinky excuses won\'t pass the SMELL test either.\n\nSo the day will come when you\'re looking at a train wreck of your failure. How will you react?  Will you stand tall, take responsibility and honestly confront the issues?  I hope so, because anything else just smells up the room.\n\nBy the way, we had a great picnic, and the BBQ was amazing.\n\nWhat else is important when confronting others about your failures?\n\n<iframe src=\"//www.youtube.com/embed/wlnXHPawXVM?rel=0\" height=\"450\" width=\"600\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"></iframe>\n\n\"Excuses\" by Alanis Morissette', 'Reasons or Excuses - Do Yours Pass the SMELL Test?', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'reasons-or-excuses-do-yours-pass-the-smell-test', '', '', '2014-02-20 06:12:29', '2014-02-20 12:12:29', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13576', 0, 'post', '', 5),
(13586, 244, '2014-03-12 12:12:03', '2014-03-12 17:12:03', '<img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-13587\" alt=\"The Hard Truth About Trust\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Trust-Word-Cloud-300x300.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" />To effectively cultivate trust we must recognize that trust is more than just a feeling.\n\nIt is an assessment we make, either consciously or unconsciously, regarding the extent to which we can count on someone to honor their promises, as well as the sincerity of their commitment to act in service of the commitments we share.\n\nOn a very personal level we also make assessments about whether someone “has our back.” Can they truly be counted on to consider our best interests, not only their own?\n\nUnfortunately conversations about trust all too often digress into nebulous assessments made based on feelings, personality preferences, and ungrounded interpretations of intentions.  <a style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\" href=\"http://wp.me/p339ZO-1Vf\">Read more.</a>', 'The Hard Truth About Trust', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'the-hard-truth-about-trust', '', '', '2014-03-12 12:12:03', '2014-03-12 17:12:03', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13586', 0, 'post', '', 1),
(13595, 243, '2014-02-15 12:55:56', '2014-02-15 18:55:56', 'We’ve been kicking around some new ideas here at Lead Change. We’re grateful that you read our blog. We’re glad to be connected. We believe in creating influence based on who we are and using that influence to make a positive difference. Your best you will create your greatest influence, assemble the most exciting community and generate your greatest impact.\n<blockquote>Character in Action equals Influence and Impact</blockquote>\nIf we are the type of person who elevates others and adds value, we begin to associate with others who elevate and add value. We find people we like who will eventually help us when we might be tempted to slack off. Those around us are <a title=\"Inspiring People | Lead Change Group\" href=\"/inspiring-people/\">like charcoal</a>. We all burn longer and hotter together.\n\nThe reverse is true too. If we’re simply “in it for ourselves” never giving more than we take, effectively driving others away by our own selfish focus, we find after a while that we don’t like the people around us. We’re either surrounded by people who give less than they take, or we’re alone. Either way, everyone around us seems to only be about themselves.\n\nFor me, the great fun of the Lead Change Group is that is has enabled me to connect with a hundreds of exciting, encouraging people, purposeful and passionate about making a positive difference. We’ve held a conference, a <a title=\"Lead Change Tulsa\" href=\"/local-leadership-impact\">number of breakfasts</a> and lunches in different cities, webinars, conference calls and we’ve even <a title=\"The Character Based Leader website\" href=\"http://characterbasedleader.com\">written a book</a>. Last year <a title=\"Authentic Leadership Dallas\" href=\"http://authenticleadershipdallas.com/\">Authentic Leadership Dallas</a> got going. <a title=\"Leadercast Lead Dallas website\" href=\"http://leadercast.com/location/leaddallas\">They’re even hosting the Leadercast this May</a> as is the <a title=\"Leadercast Lead Change Group \" href=\"http://leadercast.com/location/leadchangegroup\">group in Tulsa</a>.\n<h2>Next Up - Boot Camps</h2>\nThis year, I want to help others expand their influence, locally, regionally or globally, on-line and in real life. Enter the <em><strong>Revolutionary Impact Boot Camp</strong></em>. Seven people and I will meet virtually over 2 months to focus intensely on our impact, making sure 2014 is unlike any other year. Our topics will include:\n<ol>\n	<li>Elevate Your Purpose - What is your most compelling outcome?</li>\n	<li>Identify Your Community - Learn the key to find and connect with people who will become your community.</li>\n	<li>Plan Your Strategy - Develop a plan you can execute over the long haul.</li>\n	<li>Prioritize Your Efforts - Find the single most important action out of a sea of options.</li>\n	<li>Execute Your Plan - Begin the march toward you elevated purpose.</li>\n	<li>Evaluate Your Progress - What will you measure to know you’re making progress?</li>\n</ol>\nYou will come away with a strategic plan for increasing your impact, a tactical plan of the most important activities you can undertake, and your own customized method for measuring your unique progress. In addition to that, you’ll have 7 new friends and comrades helping each other maximize your impact. Your energy combined with the commitment of the team will encourage you to focus your message and engage your community. Never underestimate the power of a small group of people committed to leading change. Will you be a part? Will 2014 be the year you do something different?\n\nLead Change Group began with the click of a button. Begin your adventure toward your most compelling future. To find out more, simply fill out the form below. The boot camp costs $399 including the live calls, recordings of the calls, access to me and the other members from the camp, shared connections and tons of ideas. Lead Change Instigators get a $100 discount. Are you in? The initial camp will be limited to 7 participants and once those people are identified, we will schedule the calls and get this started. If you’d like to find out more, please fill out the form below. No money will be paid until the dates and times of the calls are scheduled. Are you in?\n\n[gravityform id=\"9\" name=\"Revolutionary Impact Boot Camp\" ajax=\"true\"]\n\n<a href=\"http://ctt.ec/va0fw\"><img alt=\"Tweet: Expand your influence! Join me 4 the #LeadChange Revolutionary Impact Boot Camp http://ctt.ec/va0fw+\" src=\"http://clicktotweet.com/img/tweet-graphic-4.png\" /></a>\n\nThis service is provided by the Lead Change Group and all proceeds from this effort will work to encourage, energize and equip character-based leaders to lead change in themselves, in others, and in their communities.\n\n<span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\">Photo © photobee - Fotolia.com</span>', 'Revolutionary Impact Boot Camp', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'revolutionary-impact-boot-camp', '', '', '2014-02-15 12:55:56', '2014-02-15 18:55:56', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13595', 0, 'post', '', 1),
(13609, 338, '2014-02-21 06:12:00', '2014-02-21 12:12:00', 'The fact that you’re reading this article means that you were impelled to action.\n\nYou were motivated.\n\nPerhaps it was because of an internal need to learn more about leadership or to become a better leader. <span> </span>Maybe your boss told you to read it or you’re doing some research for a paper.\n\nWhatever the reason, you chose to act, you put forth effort, and you took the time to complete the task—all of which are the constituent elements of motivation.\n\nMotivation is an indisputable part of leadership, especially because as a leader you have a great deal of control over the work environment.\n\nThe question for you is if that environment is inspiring or crushing motivation.\n\nIn either case, the following seven findings from over 80 years of formal research into motivation will help you better understand motivation and what you can do influence the motivational situation for yourself and your people.\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">1. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">You have needs</span>. Your psychological needs are the basis of motivation. Needs affect your survival and well-being. They are physiological, psychological, and spiritual. Satisfying your needs is pleasurable. Need frustration is painful, or at least uncomfortable, but it can also be life-threatening (e.g. starvation). First articulated by Abraham Maslow, needs are front and center when it comes to motivation. Understanding the needs of your employees can thus help you understand what motivates them. Then you can create conditions to satisfy their need—as that enhances the goals and health of the organization of course.</p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">2. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Take this job and shove it</span>. Job characteristics matter. Research over the years (e.g. Herzberg, Hackman, Oldham) has established that task variety, autonomy, recognition, opportunities to increase skills, and feedback all serve to motivate people. Motivation drops to the extent that these characteristics of the job are missing. So, make sure you explicitly address them in your hiring, job development, personal development processes to keep motivation high.</p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">3. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Whatever the mind can believe, you can achieve</span>. The value you place on a goal or outcome and whether you expect to obtain it affects your motivation. For instance, you may place high value on winning the lottery, but you may not expect it to happen. In turn, this could lower you motivation to buy a ticket. Or, perhaps an employee comes into work early and stays late, expecting that this behavior will lead to a promotion down the road.</p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">4. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">And justice for all</span>. Organizational justice—fairness and trust in the workplace—matter. When individuals believe they are being treated fairly, they tend to exhibit higher levels of job performance and more organizational citizenship behavior. They also engage in fewer conflicts and less counterproductive activity. Motivation drops when a person thinks that someone is getting a better deal, if processes are biased against an individual or group, or when leadership is perceived as being unfair.</p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">5. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">I believe in me</span>. The beliefs you have about your abilities (self-efficacy) impact your success. The stronger your belief in yourself, the more likely you are to be successful. People with high self-efficacy are more likely to relish taking on difficult tasks, work harder to overcome tough challenges, and persist in them.</p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">6. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Think big</span>. Setting goals works. Performance goes up when goals are set. Especially specific goals that are hard but achievable. When those goals are committed to as a team and linked to mutually valued outcomes, the resulting performance is even better. Well-constructed goals focus attention, energize effort, inspire persistence, and activate resilience in the pursuit of the goal’s achievement.</p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">7. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">So you think you know us</span>. Finding out what your people are thinking is an indispensable way to diagnose the good, the bad, and the ugly going on in your organization. There are a plethora of well-constructed surveys on employee attitudes out there. Use them to understand at a deeper and more comprehensive level what’s going on in their heads. And then use that data to figure out how to improve the motivational environment of the organization. Or if you don’t want to be that formal, just walk around and talk to them. In all likelihood, you’ll find out plenty.</p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">As a leader, your job is to bring people together to achieve common goals. Leadership is thus fundamentally wrapped up with motivation.</p>\n<!--[if gte mso 9]&gt;-->\n\n<!--[if gte mso 9]&gt;-->\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Now you know 7 well-founded principles of motivation. Put them to good use to bolster the motivational environment surrounding you.</p>', '7 Rock-Solid Leadership Lessons from Decades of Research on Motivation', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', '7-rock-solid-leadership-lessons-from-decades-of-research-on-motivation', '', '', '2014-02-21 06:12:00', '2014-02-21 12:12:00', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13609', 0, 'post', '', 1),
(13617, 347, '2014-02-27 06:10:28', '2014-02-27 12:10:28', '<blockquote>\"The greatest gift that you can give to others is the gift of unconditional love and acceptance.\"\n\n<span style=\"font-style: normal;\">- Brian Tracy</span></blockquote>\nInspiring speeches evoke change for one reason: they make you believe you matter. You shift from doubt towards the belief a different future is possible no matter how bad you feel.\n\nFeeling a belonging, an acceptance, a validation drives self-esteem, contribution, and motivation. It’s the feeling that what you do and who you are matters. By developing this social skill of leadership, you don’t develop people, but help people develop themselves.\n\nI believe feeling important is as much about self-belief and validation of your experience than anything to do with ego, compliments, and games. It is an unstoppable human trait that has lead great accomplishments.\n\nAs a leader or hopeful leader, how can you improve this one social skill? In my helping <a href=\"http://www.towerofpower.com.au\">shy men build their social skills</a> for over 8 years, there is a three-step process. It is one of the most powerful social skills you can develop as a leader of people when someone has a problem.\n\nThe key is to emotionally relate to people. The understanding helps people feel centered then capable of progressing forward.\n\nFirstly ask, “What is the problem?” You are not understanding the problem purely for your own sake as much as getting the person to think what is their problem.\n\nThe second key question to ask is, “How does that make you feel?” Men tend to ramble about the problem failing to mention any emotion. Anger, sadness, and despair - these are emotions. You can often see emotion in their body language as they describe the problem. If they meander from your question, bring them back: “I see. How does that make you feel?”\n\nOnce you see the problem and their emotion, the third step is to relate at an emotional level by sharing a story you experienced. If the person feels sad after a divorce, you don’t need to be divorced to emotionally relate then validate their experience. Look for an experience where you lost something valuable, ideally a relationship, then felt sad. It could be a non-marriage breakup, death of a loved one, an old friend leaving overseas forever, or a pet dying.\n\nThe point here is the emotion you felt needs to reflect their emotion and be close to its intensity. If the intensity isn’t there, you can preface your story with, “This isn’t as intense as what you’re going through…”\n\nWhat you have done in these three steps is \"relate.\" You have built the relate-ionship. You have validated someone’s experience. You have provided a nurturing context for development, change, and growth. Therapist Virginia Satir said, \"We can learn something new anytime we believe we can.\" That is the essence of leadership.', 'One Social Skill to Be a Great Leader', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'one-social-skill-to-be-a-great-leader', '', '', '2014-02-27 06:10:28', '2014-02-27 12:10:28', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13617', 0, 'post', '', 5);
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(13630, 307, '2014-02-19 06:12:44', '2014-02-19 12:12:44', 'Do You Know This Person?</h2>\nHave you ever met an aspiring leader who says, “I want to be a horrible boss.”\n\nNo?\n\nMe neither.\n\nI’m not saying there isn’t a random psychopath or two out there, but for the most part, if you have a lousy leader in your life:\n<blockquote>Your bad boss didn’t intend to be bad.</blockquote>\nThink about that for a moment.\n\nLet it sink in; it’s important.\n\nThey might have taken the position for many reasons, but their goal was never to be a jerk, to fail, or to make life miserable for their team.\n\nIf you’ve ever had a bad boss, those awful outcomes are byproducts, never goals.\n<h2>Why It Matters</h2>\n“So what,” you might say. “That doesn’t excuse their behavior.”\n\nNo, it certainly doesn’t.\n\nBut it should serve as a warning.\n\nIf you’re an aspiring leader or in a leadership role now, you certainly don’t intend to be a bad boss.\n\nNeither did they!\n\nHow is it that so many managers, leaders, and supervisors get it so wrong?\n\nThe answer to this question is crucial to your leadership success. That’s why it matters.\n<h2>Where We Go Wrong</h2>\nI’ve spent thousands of hours coaching leaders as well as learning from my own mistakes. These are the things I’ve observed that most frequently trip up leaders:\n<h4>1) Misaligned Motivations</h4>\nWhy do you want to lead?\n\nThe most common reasons are the five “P”s:\n<ul>\n	<li>Power - you want the ability to tell people what to do</li>\n	<li>Prestige - you gain a sense of well-being or pleasure from the title</li>\n	<li>Purse - you want the increased pay that often comes along with the role</li>\n	<li>People - you want to serve the team or organization</li>\n	<li>Purpose - you want to achieve a specific mission</li>\n</ul>\nMany leaders who turn into bad bosses take their roles for one of the first three reasons (or a combination of them).\n\nThe problem is that these motivations are misaligned with what it takes to succeed.\n\nLeaders accomplish results with a team.\n\nRelationships and results: those are the critical motivators for successful leadership.\n\nI don’t mean to suggest that the first three won’t or shouldn’t ever exist, but if they are your primary motivations, you’re going to struggle.\n<h4>2) Biology</h4>\nOur brains are built with sophisticated mechanisms to keep us alive. Specifically, when it comes to self-preservation, our fight, flight, and freeze responses work quite well.\n\nHowever, when you want to lead a team, those hard-wired tendencies can easily sabotage your credibility and influence with your people.\n\nWhen you are stressed (as you certainly will be), you simply can’t rely on your hard-wired emotional reactions. They may keep you alive, but often at the cost of the very relationships you need to succeed.\n<h4>3) Sociology</h4>\nWe all learn less effective leadership strategies from our parents, from teachers, and from our own managers or supervisors.\n\nIt is easy to continue doing what we’ve learned from people we respected. It takes significant emotional effort to do something else.\n<h4>4) Missing Tools</h4>\nLeadership includes stress. Results matter. People are counting on you.\n\nWhen the pressure is on, do you have tools that help you work with your team, that build your credibility, that increase your influence and the team’s performance?\n\nOr do you fall back to the trusted (but self-sabotaging tools) of your biology and sociology?\n<h2>No Excuses</h2>\nThere are many reasons your bad boss turned out the way they did.\n\nYour bad boss didn’t intend to be bad.\n\nI’m not excusing their behavior…just asking you not to use it as an excuse for your behavior.\n\nThe answer to a lack of leadership is leadership.\n\nNow that you know the issues that can derail you, take responsibility and begin doing the things you wish your boss would do.\n<ul>\n	<li>Want encouragement? Start encouraging.</li>\n	<li>Want vision? Start asking everyone (your boss included) what they believe is possible.</li>\n	<li>Want more training? Seek it out - if not from your supervisor, from other mentors, coaches, or people outside the organization.</li>\n</ul>\nYou can change the culture…maybe not immediately, and maybe not for the entire organization, but you certainly can do it for your team.\n\nAt best, you will change your team, the organization, and be recognized for your leadership…\n\nAt worst, you’ve changed yourself, increased your influence, and gained skills that will serve you in the future while also making life better for the people around you.\n\nSo no excuses:\n<blockquote>Be the leader you want your boss to be!</blockquote>\n<h2>Your Turn</h2>\nLeave a comment and share with us:\n\n<strong>What strategies do you use to ensure you don’t get tripped up by misaligned motivations, biology, sociology, or missing leadership tools?</strong>\n\nTake care,\n\nDavid Dye\n\nCreative Commons Photo Credit: <a href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/tambako/6647578395/sizes/m/\" target=\"_blank\">Tambako the Jaguar</a>', 'Your Bad Boss Didn&#039;t Intend to Be Bad (and How You Can Avoid the Same Fate)', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'your-bad-boss-didnt-intend-to-be-bad-and-how-you-can-avoid-the-same-fate', '', '', '2014-02-19 06:12:44', '2014-02-19 12:12:44', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13630', 0, 'post', '', 12),
(13635, 339, '2014-02-24 06:02:19', '2014-02-24 12:02:19', 'Everyone wants to be the best in their field, but it’s not easy to achieve when there are hundreds of companies battling for the same position. Who doesn’t want to be number 1? When you’re on top, you set yourself apart, putting a demarcation line between the best and the rest. It simply means that all the hard work and effort you exerted have paid off, and others will be looking at you, aiming to emulate the path you have taken to reach the summit.</p>\nThere are plenty of ways to climb the ladder. However, everyone is doing the same thing. You then have to apply the right strategies to go beyond reaching the highest peak, and further into staying up there for a long time.\n\nHere are seven ways to get your company to settle for nothing but the best:\n\n<b>1.      </b><b>Set goals\n</b>Goals mold the frame of your company. It is the reason why you exist and continue on existing. Goals motivate everyone to keep doing their best, so it is necessary to have S.M.A.R.T objectives—specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time-bound.\n\nIt helps you find the direction you are going to take and be ready to face whatever challenges that may become an obstacle. Challenges will not become a hindrance once you have a clear, solid goal because it won’t let you ruin your plans for the company.\n\n<b>2.      </b><b>Achieve your goals\n</b>Now that you have established your goals, remember that there is no one way of getting to your destination. There may be different roads to choose from and the best path may not be the easiest one. Be ready to adjust and experiment.\n\nThere will always be unforeseen and unfortunate events that will happen to your company, not only once or twice but multiple times. It is only wise to be ready for these kinds of situations by creating a plan A, B, C, until Z.\n\nIf a client suddenly leaves while your staff is still working on the project, you should have a plan as to how you are going to revive the manpower you’ve invested. It could be that some of the unfinished deliverables can be tweaked to fit other clients so it won’t be a waste. You should never run out of contingency plans because business is a world of trial and error. Sometimes everything is all right, sometimes nothing is right.\n\n<b>3.      </b><b>Take care of your employees\n</b>Always take care of those working for you. From top management down to the maintenance staff, make sure that they are well-appreciated for the time they devote and effort they exert. Employees must feel that they are part of the company rather than just being mere machines working 9 to 5, five days a week.\n\nConstantly remind them that they are valued. You don’t have to talk to every single employee especially if you are a big company, but holding regular meetings to voice out your gratitude is already a huge matter for them.\n\nIf you can’t give them monetary rewards, compensate it with incentives such as a small token of appreciation or even a certificate. <a href=\"http://www.piton-global.com/call-center-essentials-part-1-profiling-the-qualities-of-a-team-leader.html\">As a leader, let them know if they are doing something good to motivate them to do better each day</a>.\n\n<b>4.      </b><b>Go easy on spending\n</b>You can never take away money from the business perspective. Everything you do is anchored on revenue. Appropriate your budget well so that you won’t be short when it comes to salary, bills payment, operational cost, and other things you need to spend on.\n\nDo not use company money to pay for petty items your business does not need. Know your priorities and use your resources wisely on important matters such as replacement of old, dilapidated equipment instead of investing in office renovation just to improve the aesthetic aspect.\n\n<b>5.      </b><b>Be constantly updated with trends\n</b>As the head of your company, you both have the privilege and burden of having all the knowledge presented in front of you. It is a privilege because you get to experience information firsthand and be the one to cascade it to those under your wing. However, it is also a burden because you have to filter knowledge, making sure that everything passed below is accurate.\n\nYou have to be updated with the latest trends in your field. Study industry reports and always be on the lookout on how to improve your industry and product knowledge. This way, you can keep up with competitors and the ever changing business environment. One strategy may work today, but it may not be applied tomorrow.\n\n<b>6.      </b><b>Train your talents\n</b>Again, your employees are important in the business. They are connected to each other and everything they do affects everyone, which ultimately affects the company. It is necessary to train and keep efficient workers, as they will help the company grow and develop into a competent institution.\n\nProvide trainings and coaching to your employees. Some of them may have the potential to be an expert in their field or to be a leader; they only need the proper coaching to push them to be a notch higher than the rest.\n\n<b>7.      </b><b>Think like a customer\n</b>The adage “the customer is always right” exists for a reason. They may not always be right but you should always consider what they want and need. Clients run the business side by side with you and your employees. If you fail to give them what they expect, they will leave and go to another corporation who can provide better services.\n\nYou should think from the customer’s point of view. Be mindful of their needs and wants and not your own. Clients are vital in every business venture, so it is a must to keep them interested in your company by giving them exceptional service.\n\nNobody wants to become number two and everyone claims that they’re number one. If you want to prove that you’re number one, make sure you have the competencies to becoming the best. What are your strategies to reach and stay on top? Share them with us!', '7 Ways to Get Your Company to the Top (And Stay There)', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', '7-ways-to-get-your-company-to-the-top-and-stay-there', '', '', '2014-02-24 06:02:19', '2014-02-24 12:02:19', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13635', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(13644, 243, '2014-02-19 14:12:26', '2014-02-19 20:12:26', 'On February 19-21 2010, the Lead Change Group came to life. Real life.\n\nPrior to that time, we were just some friends on Twitter and a LinkedIn group. Most of us had never met face to face. On those days in 2010, we launched our own little corner of a global movement. Fifteen people drove a stake in the ground by meeting in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to talk about leadership, social media and community impact. We came from 3 nations. We shared tons of ideas. We became friends. We dared to believe we could instigate a leadership revolution. We realized we share a commitment to an idea about leadership, even a hope, that leadership comes from who we are and not our power or position. Together we embraced the idea of character-based leadership, instigating a revolution and making a positive difference. Leadership is a choice and a responsibility. A leader is someone who sacrifices and who invests in others. Good leadership makes the world better. We embraced those ideas before we came, but now we knew we weren’t alone. We would carry those ideas with us.\n\nI’m forever grateful to the 13 people who joined Vicky and me at Leaderpalooza in 2010. They took an amazing chance and made a tremendous difference in my life. They are my friends. Their names and links to their social media profiles are shown below. These are some of the greatest leaders in the world.\n<ol>\n	<li>Deb Costello (<a title=\"Deb\'s Twitter Profile\" href=\"http://twitter.com/costelloland\">@costelloland</a>, LinkedIn, <a title=\"Deb\'s Blog\" href=\"http://swim-bike-run-repeat.blogspot.com/\">Web</a>)</li>\n	<li>Sonia Di Maulo (<a title=\"Sonia\'s Twitter Profile\" href=\"http://twitter.com/soniadima\" target=\"_blank\">@soniadima</a>, LinkedIn, <a title=\"Sonia\'s Web Site\" href=\"http://www.harvestperformance.ca/\" target=\"_blank\">Web</a>)</li>\n	<li>Monica Diaz (<a title=\"Monica\'s Twitter Profile\" href=\"http://twitter.com/monedays\" target=\"_blank\">@monedays</a>, LinkedIn, <a title=\"Monica\'s blog\" href=\"http://www.e-quidam.com/theblog/\" target=\"_blank\">Web</a>)</li>\n	<li>Fanny Korman (<a title=\"Fanny\'s Twitter Profile\" href=\"http://twitter.com/innerwonder\">@innerwonder</a>, LinkedIn, <a href=\"http://www.fzksolutions.com/\">Web</a>)</li>\n	<li><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-5108\" alt=\"LeaderPalooza-2010-200x74-1024x3781.jpg\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/LeaderPalooza-2010-200x74-1024x3781-300x110.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"110\" />Jim Holland (<a href=\"http://twitter.com/jim_holland\">@Jim_Holland</a>, LinkedIn, <a title=\"Jim\'s Blog\" href=\"http://pmtribe.wordpress.com/\">Web</a>)</li>\n	<li>Steve Keating (<a title=\"Steve\'s Twitter Profile\" href=\"http://twitter.com/leadtoday\">@LeadToday</a>, LinkedIn, <a title=\"Steve\'s Blog\" href=\"http://stevekeating.me/\">Web</a>)</li>\n	<li>Susan Mazza (<a title=\"Susan\'s Twitter Profile\" href=\"http://twitter.com/susanmazza\">@SusanMazza</a>, LinkedIn, <a title=\"Susan\'s Blog\" href=\"http://www.randomactsofleadership.com/\">Web</a>)</li>\n	<li>Mark Oakes (<a title=\"Mark\'s Twitter Profile\" href=\"http://twitter.com/markooakes\">@MarkOOakes</a>, LinkedIn, <a title=\"Mark\'s Company website\" href=\"http://www.concentricsecurity.com/\">Web</a>)</li>\n	<li>Jane Perdue (<a title=\"Jane\'s Twitter Profile\" href=\"http://twitter.com/thehrgoddess\">@thehrgoddess</a>, LinkedIn, <a title=\"Jane\'s website\" href=\"http://braithwaiteinnovationgroup.com/\">Web</a>)</li>\n	<li>Erin Schreyer (<a title=\"Erin\'s Twitter Profile\" href=\"http://twitter.com/erinschreyer\">@ErinSchreyer</a>, LinkedIn, <a title=\"Erin\'s website\" href=\"http://www.erinschreyer.com\">Web</a>)</li>\n	<li>Don Shapiro (<a title=\"Don\'s Twitter Profile\" href=\"http://twitter.com/donshapiro1\">@DonShapiro1</a>, LinkedIn, <a title=\"Don\'s Website\" href=\"http://donshapiro.com\">Web</a>)</li>\n	<li>David Wachs (<a title=\"David\'s Twitter Profile\" href=\"http://twitter.com/DavidWachs\">@DavidWachs</a>, LinkedIn, <a title=\"Concentric Security website\" href=\"http://www.concentricsecurity.com/\">Web</a>)</li>\n	<li>Chris Zaucha (<a title=\"Chris\' Twitter Profile\" href=\"http://twitter.com/czaucha\">@czaucha</a>, LinkedIn)</li>\n</ol>\nBecause of the actions of these people, my world will never be the same. Because you’re reading this, their actions may have made an impact on your world too. As a result of their actions we’ve connected hundreds of people, started 4 local communities, funded a national community blog that has enabled over a hundred people to share leadership content, and written a book. More is coming too.\n\nHave you done anything that significant in the last 4 years? Will you take the kind of risk necessary to make that kind of impact in 2014? These people took a huge risk and made a dent in the universe. What will you do this year? One idea... Check out the <a title=\"Revolutionary Impact Boot Camp\" href=\"/revolutionary-impact-boot-camp/\">Revolutionary Impact Boot Camp</a>.  Another, simply comment below. How can the members of this group help you make a greater impact in 2014 than you\'ve ever made before?\n\nLinks:\n<ul>\n	<li><a title=\"What is LeaderPalooza Anyway?\" href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/what-is-leaderpalooza-anyway/\">What is LeaderPalooza Anyway?</a></li>\n	<li><a title=\"Leadership Un-Conference\" href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/leadership-un-conference-leaderpalooza/\">Leadership Un-Conference</a></li>\n	<li><a title=\"Revolutionary Impact Boot Camp\" href=\"/revolutionary-impact-boot-camp/\">Revolutionary Impact Boot Camp</a></li>\n</ul>', '3 Nations, 4 Years, 15 People', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', '3-nations-4-years-15-people', '', '', '2014-02-19 14:12:26', '2014-02-19 20:12:26', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13644', 0, 'post', '', 4),
(13658, 343, '2014-03-03 06:12:26', '2014-03-03 12:12:26', '<a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/paul-larue.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-13819\" alt=\"paul larue\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/paul-larue.jpg\" width=\"244\" height=\"152\" /></a><strong style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">\"Mr. Gorbachev, Tear down this wall!\"</strong>\nA number of years ago I was fortunate to be on the opening team of a new theme park in California. I was one of the first brought on in my department, and in those initial months as the park was being built it was a thrill to watch the teamwork and vision take root. As we brought more people on board and got closer to opening day, that momentum continued and the teamwork and excitement flourished.\n\nThen came the Grand Opening.\n\nIn an seeming instant, that teamwork and mutual respect across each department came to a halt. No one was willing to help out anymore. It seemed as though everyone was immersed in \"survival mode\" and were just trying to manage their way through each day.\n\nIt didn\'t get better for quite some time. Infighting started to occur on some levels. Territory wars ensued. The pecking order of which department was more important than the other appeared center stage. Stress started to skyrocket. No one thought this fun place to work was much fun anymore.\n\nBut thankfully, it didn\'t last. It wasn\'t until almost a year later when a few of the department heads realized what was going on and made a concerted effort to bridge those gaps and draw the entire team together again. In large part they were successful, but a few solid walls remained for quite a while.\n\nThis is just one example of the walls that individuals or teams put up within organizations. These actions and behaviors end up becoming barriers to communication and effective teamwork. What results from their presence is animosity, communication breakdown, lessened morale, and ineffectiveness .\n\nWhen teams put up walls, it makes it difficult for other departments to have the synergy and leverage of the organization\'s resources. When individuals put up walls, it will lead to people choosing sides with certain others, and this fractures the team even further.\n\n<strong><span><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\"> Why would anyone erect walls within an </span>organization<span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">? Here are some reasons why that happens:</span></span></strong>\n\n<strong>Power struggle</strong>. Individuals and departments that put up walls state to everyone else in a sense to leave them alone, they\'re far to important to deal with the non-essential departments. They want things done their way, without any input or interference from others. They feel that if they can squelch other input they can control the entire course of events.\n\n<strong>Survival Mode</strong>. As was the case in my example. This was precisely the prevailing attitude that took over the park. Everyone was completely overwhelmed and couldn\'t see the proverbial forest through the trees. They were caught in the heat of battle, and wouldn\'t stop to get a bird\'s eye view of the front.\n\n<strong>Lack of Team Buy-In</strong>. Groups that aren\'t part of the overall company mission will have little to offer the rest of the organization. They don\'t help because they don\'t see the good it will do.\n\n<strong>Team Pride - \"We\'re Better Than You.\"</strong> While slightly similar to a power struggle, these are the people or teams that claim they can do no wrong. They will not take any criticism lightly, if at all. They are resistant to change, and look down at others even if those others outperform them.\n\n<strong>False perceptions.</strong> There are a good many times where other teams or individuals develop a false notion of what is truly going on. They put up walls because of a perceived infraction, or because they didn\'t get the outcome they desired. Many times they may not have the complete facts of a given situation and react to an incorrect conclusion.\n\n<span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\"><strong>Poor communication.</strong> This barrier can even be an unintended wall. Lack of good communication can send mixed messages or aloofness, complacency, and unwillingness that others will fell alienated and not bother to interact with those parties. They may even avoid them altogether.</span>\n\n<strong>Great leaders don\'t like walls.</strong>\n\n<span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">Great leaders know how to overcome these obstacles. They cross the aisle, and bridge the gap that separates factions. They know that any walls are drag factors that will slow down progress and possibly sabotage the mission. So the walls must be struck down in order to move forward.</span>\n\n<strong>How to Break Down Organizational Walls</strong>\n\n<strong>Be the Initiator.</strong> It starts with yourself. Be the one to muster the courage to instigate a change. Set aside any bias. Reach out to others and meet with them. Get your team to understand those other teams of people without bias as well..\n\n<strong>Open Up Communications.</strong> As a natural extension for being the initiator, start the conversation by acknowledging that you feel there are walls between both parties. If need be, acknowledge you and/or your team\'s mistakes and take steps to correct if necessary. Then address the issues at hand. Talk things over. It may take a number of meetings, but this gets the ball rolling in the right direction.\n\n<strong>Seek to Understand Their Views.</strong> Yes, <a href=\"http://www.franklincovey.com/tc/solutions/the-7-habits-solutions/the-7-habits-of-highly-effective-people-signature-program\">the fifth habit from Steven Covey</a>, and an essential one. Ask the other party their viewpoint, and how they see things. Maybe they don\'t see walls at all. Maybe they feel they are necessary for them to do their job. Pose open-ended question to get them to express their views. You may realize there is more to the walls than your own viewpoint.\n\n<strong>Let Them Know their Value.</strong> Acknowledge what they do well, and why you admire them as part of the organization. Remind them, and yourself, what they bring to the table in the company. Find something to sincerely build them up on, and lay a foundation for mutual respect and cooperation.\n\n<strong>State Common Vision within the Company.</strong> It\'s always good to bring the organization\'s goals into the picture. This reminds everyone that there is a bigger mission than either team or individual, and it put\'s everyone\'s agendas into overall perspective. It may just be the one thing to make the other party realize that we\'re all on the same team.\n\n<strong>Be Persistent</strong>. As I mentioned earlier, walls may take some time to come crumbling down. Keep swinging. Don\'t give up. You may not only remove the barriers altogether, but you may inherit a staunch ally in someone who trusts you to cooperate and communicate open and honestly with them.\n\nWhat walls can you see that need tearing down? Are there any you\'ve put up that need removing? Keep kicking down those walls, and watch people and teams open up.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n(image courtesy of www.takepart.com via Reuters Pictures)', 'Breaking Down Those Organizational Walls', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'breaking-down-those-organizational-walls', '', '', '2014-03-03 06:12:26', '2014-03-03 12:12:26', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13658', 0, 'post', '', 4),
(13664, 333, '2014-02-26 06:25:16', '2014-02-26 12:25:16', 'Leading both a company and those involved with the company can be a stressful task, but this problem is made worse when you’re trying to lead others through difficult times. However, as an executive it’s your job not only to lead, but to ensure that those you are leading remain comfortable and confident in your ability. If you’re not confident that you are that individual, here are some tips on how to overcome troubled times and tricky situations.\n\n<strong>The Benefits of Problems</strong>\nBelieve it or not, there are actually several benefits to be had by an executive encountering problems. We do not often glimpse our true strengths and weaknesses during good times; it’s only when leading becomes difficult and times are tough that we discover how strong we truly are. Perceive bad times as a test rather than a torment – a positive outlook is the first step in the right direction.\n\n<strong>Step One: Confidence</strong>\nThe first step to being an excellent leader is to be confident in your decisions and the direction that you are taking. If you are not confident in yourself, the plan that you have formed or the actions that you are taking – how can you expect others to be confident in your ability?\n\nAt the very least we ask that you appear calm, collected and confident at all times as causing others to panic on top of the situation you are already in will simply cause more stress and will burden you further.\n\n<strong>Step Two: Formulate a Plan</strong>\nThe second step is for you to create a realistic plan of how you are going to either weather or change the situation that you, your company or your employees are in. If you cannot change the circumstances you should instead plan for how you are going to survive the worst of it and what you are going to do if the worst scenario occurs.\n\nYou need to spend a large amount of time thinking over this plan and if possible talk to those around you that are more experienced or perhaps have a different viewpoint to you. You need to ensure that you’ve covered every angle and that there are no flaws in what you have planned.\n\n<strong>Step Three: Discussion</strong>\nThe next step is for you to discuss aspects of the problem at hand with your employees and those that may be affected by the problem. It’s essential that you reassure those around you whilst being realistic; do not promise a fix to the problem but do explain how you plan to go about changing the circumstances and improving conditions for others.\n\nAlthough you may not have yet put your plan in to action, discussing what you are going to do and what you hope to achieve will ease the worries of others for a short period of time. On the other hand, once you’ve told your employees or colleagues of what you intend to do you can not take too long before beginning the process of amending the situation.\n\n<strong>Step Four: Make a Move</strong>\nThe final step is for you to take action to ensure that you can continue to lead your company and your employees through these difficult times; you need to analyse the plan that you have made and evaluate whether or not it still applies. If it’s still applicable you should stick to the plan and adapt it if you need to do so. As an executive and a leader you should listen to the needs of those that rely on you but do not feel obliged to change your plan on their behalf; their suggestions are unlikely to be based on years of experience within a managerial role and so the advice they give may not be suitable or appropriate.\n\n<strong>Step Five: Step Back</strong>\nOnce you have begun to carry out your plan we recommend that you take a step back and assess the efficiency of your plan and whether there is anything you can do to improve upon your current performance. This is a crucial aspect of task management and should be taken seriously at all times; if you can’t recognise problems as they arise it may be time for you to appoint another individual to lead the company and the employees.\n\nThis is the best way in which you can become a bridge over troubled water and lead both your company and your employees to a brighter future.\n\nPhoto credit: Fotolia', 'How To Be a Bridge Over Troubled Water', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'how-to-be-a-bridge-over-troubled-water', '', '', '2014-02-26 06:25:16', '2014-02-26 12:25:16', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13664', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(13670, 316, '2014-02-20 18:31:33', '2014-02-21 00:31:33', '<p><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-5438\" alt=\"Smartblog Logo\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Screen-Shot-2011-09-06-at-1.56.00-PM.png\" width=\"232\" height=\"96\" />“When we don’t give our people the space and freedom to take calculated risks, learn, apply, and iterate, we are risk our future.  While there is a risk to improvising and spontaneity, there is a greater, more insidious risk to control.” When I wrote a version of this in a <a href=\"http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/11/control-is-for-beginners/\">recent Harvard Business Review post</a>, it prompted a <a href=\"http://switchandshift.com/control-is-for-beginners\">great deal of discussion</a>.</p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"http://smartblogs.com/leadership/2014/02/20/the-efficient-ineffectiveness-of-control/\">here...</a></p>\n', 'The efficient ineffectiveness of control', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'the-efficient-ineffectiveness-of-control', '', '', '2014-02-20 18:31:33', '2014-02-21 00:31:33', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13670', 0, 'post', '', 1),
(13681, 244, '2014-03-19 12:31:03', '2014-03-19 17:31:03', 'In some professions and organizational cultures there is a disdain for the positional leader.  In some circles, rising up the hierarchy means selling out on your craft.  Others observe the behavior of positional leaders and don\'t like what they see in terms of personality or behavior.\n\nTo become \"that kind of leader\" would be akin to selling out, at best, and selling your soul, at worst.\n\nThis is one big reason why there are those who would rather not be a leader, or labeled as one, despite their ability to lead.  <a href=\"http://wp.me/p339ZO-1Vy\">Read more.</a>', 'Be Your Own Brand of Leader', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'be-your-own-brand-of-leader', '', '', '2014-03-19 12:31:03', '2014-03-19 17:31:03', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13681', 0, 'post', '', 1),
(13693, 290, '2014-02-25 06:12:13', '2014-02-25 12:12:13', 'In our <a title=\"Lead Change - Google+\" href=\"https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/101604474820777716727\" target=\"_blank\">Lead Change Google+ Community</a>, we posed a question:\n<blockquote><strong>How do you deal with mistakes that happen within your teams and organization?</strong></blockquote>\n<h2>Mistakes Will Happen</h2>\n<img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-5315\" alt=\"1500-mistakes\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/1500-mistakes-300x168.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" />A certainty in life and work is we all will make mistakes at various points in time. When we do, the goals will be to limit the consequences, take corrective actions, and learn the most from them. Sounds simple, right? However, in both leadership and culture terms, we seem to complicate these goals.\n\nWhat happens is some may:\n<ul>\n	<li>Scold individuals</li>\n	<li>View mistakes as a true failing or, worse, intentional (most are not)</li>\n	<li>Dominate in telling what should have been done</li>\n</ul>\nThe message is one of failure of one or more individuals and the self-righteousness of another.\n\nA better message and actions to take are:\n<ul>\n	<li>Celebrate mistakes as mutual learning opportunities</li>\n	<li>Understand mistakes can strengthen organizations and cultures</li>\n	<li>Encourage the right mix of letting people get out of their comfort zones, innovate, and learn in successes and mistakes</li>\n</ul>\nTaking these actions is not being soft or too risky; <a title=\"Which Is a Better Leader? A Conversation on Results and Respect.\" href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/which-is-a-better-leader-a-conversation-on-results-and-respect/\">accountability</a> needs to be present. Within accountability, there should be an encouragement of letting individuals be responsible and having the opportunity and freedom to undertake projects with creativity. When this happens, leadership strength is gained along with a strength in organizational culture. We embrace learning, growth, and a focus on how to enhance processes and skillsets.\n\nThis is the difference between a <a title=\"5 Practices to Enhance Your Problem-solving Mindset\" href=\"http://www.thindifference.com/2013/03/20/five-practices-to-enhance-your-problem-solving-mindset/\" target=\"_blank\">growth and fixed mindset</a> for a leader and a culture.\n<h2>Community Thoughts on Mistakes</h2>\nHighlighted below is an engaged community’s insights on the question of mistakes.\n\n<a title=\"Brian Rensing - Google+\" href=\"https://plus.google.com/u/0/103729205481596314438\" target=\"_blank\">Brian Rensing</a>:  We work to resolve quickly, removing the heat from the person(s) who made the mistake. I\'ll take the heat on their behalf. After, we do a postmortem to figure out what went wrong, covering the human, infrastructure, and environmental factors (<a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haddon_Matrix\">Haddon Matrix</a>). The challenge I see is cementing and extending the learnings to avoid the same and similar mistakes. I wish I knew the magic here….\n\n<a title=\"Terri Klass - Google+\" href=\"https://plus.google.com/u/0/109331687062367407422\" target=\"_blank\">Terri Klass</a>:  I look at mistakes as an opportunity to learn and refocus. I experienced this recently in one of my presentations where my power point had a typo. I am usually good at catching them but stuff happens. At first when one of the participants pointed it out, I was embarrassed but later I just thanked him for being so helpful.\n\n<a title=\"Joy Guthrie - Google+\" href=\"https://plus.google.com/u/0/115313563929463595030\" target=\"_blank\">Joy Guthrie</a>:  My current organization is small. We do, though, utilize the <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_action_review\">AAR process</a> (After Action Review) to learn from every engagement. We literally do an AAR whether things go well or whether there is a mistake. If you\'re not familiar with AARs, you identify 1) what was supposed to happen 2) what actually happened 3) what accounts for the difference; and 4) what can we learn from that.\n\n<a title=\"Eric Silverstein - Google+\" href=\"https://plus.google.com/u/0/113111020262342160253\" target=\"_blank\">Eric Silverstein</a>:  One thing you can be assured in life is that there will always be changes, so mistakes will happen. The key is how you react, engage, resolve and learn. This should involve the entire team and organization. To offer the best customer experience requires an entire organization to operate as one, therefore communicate early and as often as possible!\n\n<a title=\"Paul LaRue - Google+\" href=\"https://plus.google.com/u/0/102101450845600405644\" target=\"_blank\">Paul LaRue</a>:  We work hard to be upfront to minimize any anxiety and lack of confidence our partners or customers may have. We work to resolve the core issue first, then fix the process or indiscretion secondly. In addition, I do check nightly for myself – what positives (+) did I achieve, and what takeaways ( )? Just a quick simple reflection on the day to catapult forward tomorrow.\n\n<a title=\"Kate Nasser - Google+\" href=\"https://plus.google.com/u/0/110736151092414539538\" target=\"_blank\">Kate Nasser</a>:  I echo the importance of using something like AAR ... on a regular basis.  Make it a natural part of everyday work culture so that it doesn\'t feel painful but rather feels like an invigorating boost to reaching excellence.\n\n<a title=\"Elizabeth Stincelli - Google+\" href=\"https://plus.google.com/u/0/106499758391504811101\" target=\"_blank\">Elizabeth Stincelli</a>:  While many use mistakes as an excuse to point fingers, mistakes actually offer great teaching moments. Once we have made a mistake we are standing in a different position with a new perspective. I hope we can learn to support the process of making a mistake, reevaluating our position, and quickly moving in a successful direction.\n\n<a title=\"Jon Mertz - Google+\" href=\"https://plus.google.com/u/0/110796905687354361126\" target=\"_blank\">Jon Mertz</a>:  I really try to understand the cause of it and then ask questions to determine how it can be prevented in the future. I try to ask a lot of questions to get myself and others thinking about the situation and what to do next. Accountability is in the mix and try to make it a self-accountability moment if at all possible.\n\n<a title=\"Mike Henry Sr - Google+\" href=\"https://plus.google.com/u/0/111988678152304378767\" target=\"_blank\">Mike Henry Sr.</a>:  My preference is to separate the consequences from the intent. We have to deal quickly with the consequences. We want to get all hands on deck and restore whatever impact the mistake caused. Then we\'re free to consider the cause and the intent. I try to remember most people don\'t plan to make mistakes so we need to figure out what process or paradigm contributed to the choices that were made and work on the root cause.  Finally, we examine if this is a repeat mistake. Repeat mistakes mean we messed up examining the root cause the last time. There must be a different root cause if we addressed the believed root cause the first time. Repeat mistakes are the worst. First time mistakes are the price of admission.\n<h2>Mistakes:  Leading Engaged</h2>\nWhat I love about the insights above is:\n<ul>\n	<li><b>Several new practices are highlighted:</b>  Haddon Matrix, AAR, and Positives / Takeaways</li>\n	<li><b>The understanding of the human element:</b>  Stretching, Understanding, Resolving, Encouraging</li>\n</ul>\nWithin each, there is a keen understanding of culture and how to encourage and strengthen leaders. This is the value we gain from mistakes. What we learn, correct, and do in renewed ways will always make us better leaders and a stronger community.\n\n<b><i> So, join in. How do you deal with mistakes that happen within your teams and organization?</i></b><b><i> What type of leadership skills are you developing for yourself and others?</i></b>', 'Leading Through Mistakes', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'leading-through-mistakes', '', '', '2014-02-25 06:12:13', '2014-02-25 12:12:13', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13693', 0, 'post', '', 6),
(13707, 288, '2014-02-28 06:21:20', '2014-02-28 12:21:20', 'In the past I have discussed how important it is to make a positive first impression. While making a good first impression is critical, it is crucial that you continue to have a positive impression on everyone you interact with. Your clients, employer and employees will appreciate your pleasant and positive demeanor the first time they meet you, but it should not stop there. It is essential that they continue to trust and respect you. When someone thinks about you, what characteristics do you want them to recall?  Here are a few tips to help you leave a remarkable, ever-lasting impression.\n\n<b>Smile</b>\n\nA smile is a universally understood gesture that can truly make a big difference when communicating with people. Dale Carnegie, the author of “<a href=\"http://www.dalecarnegie.com/events/how-to-win-friends-and-influence-people/\">How to Win Friends and Influence People</a>,”  believed that smiling makes people more enjoyable to work with because, “When we smile, we are letting people know we are happy to be with them, happy to meet them, and happy to be interacting with them.” Always have a smile on your face when you first meet someone. Sincere smiles make you look confident and approachable. They can be contagious, make other people feel at ease, and help you back up your feelings with genuineness. A simple smile goes a long way.\n\n<b>Listen More </b>\n\nWe all know how frustrating it can be when someone doesn’t listen, but we often don’t realize when we are guilty of being bad listeners ourselves. Listening is one of the most important <a href=\"http://www.dalecarnegie.com/events/how_to_communicate_with_diplomacy_and_tact/\">communication skills</a> because it helps you learn how a person feels. It also shows that you are engaged and care about what the person is saying. \"Listening\'s power, like that of smiling, is strong. When you listen well you not only make an instant impression, you also build a solid bridge for lasting connections. Who can resist being around a person who suspends his thoughts in order to value yours?\" asks Carnegie.\n\n<b>Make Eye Contact</b>\n\nIt has long been said that the eyes are the window to the soul. It is for that very reason eye contact is important. Eye contact shows respect, confidence and understanding. Maintaining comfortable eye contact creates a unique connection between people. Be remembered for your confidence and not your nervousness by keeping your eyes focused on the person with whom you are conversing.\n\n<b>Show Genuine Interest</b>\n\nIn today’s society, people are busier and busier every day, industries are more competitive, technology is more advanced and often more distracting, and people are taking less time to genuinely take interest in others. With that said, those that become genuinely interested in others will be remembered for their positive actions. People will be grateful that someone took the time to learn about their passions and concerns, and they will return the favor.\n\nMake more than just a positive impression in the moment; make an unforgettable positive impression that will stand out in the minds of others for forever. What tips and strategies do you have for making a lasting positive impression? Please share your thoughts, comments and tips below!', 'How to Make a Positive Lasting Impression', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'how-to-make-a-positive-lasting-impression', '', '', '2014-02-28 06:21:20', '2014-02-28 12:21:20', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13707', 0, 'post', '', 1),
(13711, 280, '2014-02-24 16:41:14', '2014-02-24 22:41:14', '“Don’t try to invent a tribe. Show up to lead one that exists.”\n–Seth Godin\nToday’s hyper-connected digital world has opened the door to a whole new era in brand development.\nEmployers, HR professionals and job hunters, alike, are rapidly embracing digital channels to elevate their market presence and amplify their share of voice.\nWith proactive players setting a torrid pace, no one can afford to stay on the social media sidelines. But social networking doesn’t guarantee influence — and activity without strategy can put a brand at risk.\nJoin the Experts\nSo how do you create a digital brand roadmap that makes the most sense', 'Social Influence and Your Brand: Connecting the Dots [Webinar]', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'social-influence-and-your-brand-connecting-the-dots-webinar', '', '', '2014-02-24 16:41:14', '2014-02-24 22:41:14', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/social-influence-and-your-brand-connecting-the-dots-webinar/', 0, 'post', '', 0);
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(13734, 306, '2014-03-04 06:12:58', '2014-03-04 12:12:58', '<img class=\"alignright  wp-image-13737\" alt=\"chicken and egg\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/chicken-and-egg-300x210.jpg\" width=\"276\" height=\"193\" />In preparation for an upcoming executive education session, I conducted a quick pulse survey earlier this month. I wanted to understand whether the leaders attending my training believe that there is a difference in the importance of career development to their employees based upon their current level of performance. And they do.\n\n<b>A Picture of Perceptions</b>\n\nThe leaders polled perceive that career development is a pressing priority for their top performers. Nearly 75% indicate that it’s ‘very important’ to these exceptional employees and more than 20% rate it ‘somewhat important.’ They experience a high level of interest, attention, and motivation to grow on the part of their top-tier performers.\n\n<img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13735\" alt=\"chart1\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/chart1.jpg\" width=\"468\" height=\"304\" />\n\nBut, what about average performers? How do leaders experience them? Very differently! The leaders polled believe that average performers are considerably more ambivalent about career development. They report that less than 20% of those toward the center of the bell curve find career development ‘very important’, with the vast majority (60%) falling into the ‘somewhat important’ range.\n\n<img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13736\" alt=\"chart2\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/chart2.jpg\" width=\"468\" height=\"304\" /><b></b>\n\n<b>Belief Drives Behavior</b>\n\nThese two charts have dramatic implications for employees and leaders everywhere. You’ve likely heard of (or experienced) the Pygmalion effect whereby greater expectations lead to greater performance. It comes down to a self-fulfilling prophecy - held by the employee and/or the leader - that drives positive outcomes.  But you may not be as familiar with the Golem effect. It’s Pygmalion\'s negative (and research-based) corollary whereby lower expectations lead to poorer performance.\n\nBeliefs drive expectations and behavior. So, when leaders believe that career development is less important to an employee, they may be inclined to:\n<ul>\n	<li>Focus exclusively on the work product or deliverable</li>\n	<li>De-emphasize growth</li>\n	<li>Spend less time coaching and providing feedback</li>\n	<li>Withhold learning</li>\n	<li>Miss opportunities to connect the individual’s work to the bigger organizational picture</li>\n</ul>\nAnd it makes sense, right? With limited time and energy, leaders should focus this effort on those for whom development is a top priority. Right? Maybe not.\n\n<b>Which Comes First?</b>\n\nPerformance and the importance of career development just might be today’s leaders’ ‘chicken or egg’ conundrum.\n<ul>\n	<li>Does performance affect interest in career development?</li>\n	<li>Does interest in career development affect performance?</li>\n</ul>\nMore research is required to offer a definitive answer to these questions. But, I’d speculate (and you’ve likely experienced) that the two work synergistically to create an upward spiral for both. When employees perform better, they may see a brighter, more opportunity-filled future to fuel their career interests. And when career development is important to an employee, he or she may also place greater importance on the quality of their work.\n\nEffective leaders won’t concern themselves with which comes first but rather how they can contribute to this upward spiral that serves the individual and the organization. While coaching for performance, they’ll also begin feeding the fires of career development interest.\n\nThis doesn’t mean promising promotions you can’t give or titles that aren’t available. It’s about infusing opportunities to grow right into the workflow by:\n<ul>\n	<li>Dialoguing with others about what’s important to them and what their definitions of success are.</li>\n	<li>Helping others see the meaning in their work and how it contributes to the team, organization, and customers.</li>\n	<li>Focusing on strengths as well as areas to improve.</li>\n	<li>Offering opportunities to grow, develop new skills, and stretch capabilities.</li>\n	<li>Allowing others to take risks.</li>\n	<li>Guiding others to extract learning from their experiences.</li>\n</ul>\nWhen leaders engage with others like this, they leave Golem in the dust and cultivate Pygmalion. They help those around them focus on and elevate the importance of their growth. And they fuel that upward performance/development spiral that delivers very real individual and organizational results.\n\n<strong>What about you?</strong> <em>What do you do to grow performance and career development interest concurrently?</em>\n\nImage: www.freedigitalphotos.net', 'Which Comes First?', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'which-comes-first', '', '', '2014-03-04 06:12:58', '2014-03-04 12:12:58', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13734', 0, 'post', '', 1),
(13752, 348, '2014-03-07 06:13:07', '2014-03-07 12:13:07', '<a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/bill-b.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-13782\" alt=\"bill b\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/bill-b-258x300.jpg\" width=\"258\" height=\"300\" /></a>March 7 is National Employee Appreciation Day.\n\nDo you feel appreciated for the work you do?\n\nIf you are not feeling the love at work, you’re not alone.\n\nAccording to a recent GloboForce study of 653 survey respondents, 36% of employees reported they do not feel appreciated for the work they do.\n\nThis is more than one-third of the workforce.\n\nIn my coaching practice, a feeling for lack of appreciation has been the driving topic with many of my clients.\n\nI get it.  It’s not a warm, cozy feeling when you work day in and day out and not feel appreciated for the work you do.\n\nClients often feel like they’re in a rut.  Many talk about leaving, but when financial obligations exist, or you have a number of years invested with the organization, the choices are not always clear-cut.\n\nSo what are your options if you’re not feeling appreciated?   There are several:\n<h2>Do Nothing</h2>\nThis is by far the easiest choice.  There is no moving outside the comfort zone.  However, keep in mind doing nothing is often more costly than making a change.\n\nFor example, consider how doing nothing may be affecting your health, your relationships, even your happiness at home.\n<h2>Quit Your Job</h2>\nUnless you have something else lined up, this is not a good short-term solution.  Besides, there is still a 64% chance you will end up in the same situation.\n\nWorking with difficult bosses is a critical skill to master, but career success is built upon how one manages difficult situations.\n<h2>Change your Perception</h2>\nYou may not be able to change the situation at work, but you can certainly change your perception of the situation.\n\nNever lose sight that you are more than your job.\n\nFor example, if you were to write a 150-word bio, would it start as, “I am (fill in position) for a mid-size organization.  I live in…..  I am married with….\n\nOr, would you start by writing, “I am married with three…and finish with your position at work?\n\nAlways remember you are more than just the work you do.\n<h2>Become Self-Motivated</h2>\nDoes the thought of Monday morning demotivate you?  Although a boss can be a big de-motivator, he probably is not a good motivator.  Intrinsic motivation comes from within.\n\nAsk yourself, what is it that your job is allowing you to do after work?  Consider what are the fruits of your labor.\n<h2>Learn to be Present</h2>\nAre you spending your work hours worrying about something in the past or fretting about the future?\n\nWhen we learn to be present, we move from reacting automatically to having more choices about how we respond.\n\nYoga, meditation, mindful walking, and body scans are all exercises that can help us learn to stay in the present.\n<h2>Master Time Management</h2>\nThere is a direct correlation between stress and time management. By using time management skills effectively, you become more in control of your time.\n\nBy being more productive, you are also ensuring time to relax outside work.\n<h2>Create a Calming Workspace</h2>\nGive your eyes something pleasant to look at other than your phone and computer.  If possible, add some photos, posters or a plant in your area.\n\nMake sure to keep your area organized so you feel more in control.   More control, less stress.  You will begin to appreciate yourself more.\n<h2>Turn off at the end of the day</h2>\nJust like a diamond, you’re multifaceted.  Work is just one side of the life you live.  If you’ve given your best at work, give yourself a pat on the back and then turn yourself off at the end of the day.\n<h2>Influence the culture</h2>\nFinally, take the lead and start appreciating others, even your boss.  You will be amazed how others will catch on and begin reciprocating compliments. Good intentions are contagious.\n\nAlthough your boss may not recognize March 7 as National Employee Appreciation Day, if you are giving the best you have, there is no reason not to find a way to reward yourself.\n\nYou deserve it!', 'Employee Appreciation Day', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'employee-appreciation-day', '', '', '2014-03-07 06:13:07', '2014-03-07 12:13:07', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13752', 0, 'post', '', 2),
(13759, 309, '2014-03-11 06:12:30', '2014-03-11 11:12:30', '<a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Hand-with-Money.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-13764 alignleft\" alt=\"Hand with Money\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Hand-with-Money-184x300.jpg\" width=\"184\" height=\"300\" /></a>On a coaching call this past December with one of my clients, we were discussing his 2014 goals for his business. He is a successful business owner and leader, very much a Type A personality, works long and hard, and loves his family. Our coaching session was fairly straight forward until he mentioned one of his 2014 goals. He told me that he wanted to be home by 6:30pm each night. He went on to say, jokingly, that if he got home at 6:30pm that night, his family would not recognize him. <i>A red flag went up in my mind.</i> I asked when he typically got home. His answer – somewhere between 8 and 9 at night. He worked 12 to 14 hour days, five to six days a week. He had been doing this for the last 8 years.\n\nHis type of personality is marked by drive, achievement, hard work, getting up at ungodly hours to do things like exercising or planning, and the like. In fact, Type A personalities <i>thrive</i> on this kind of work. It is a bit of an adrenaline rush. I get that. However, I reminded him that everything has a cost.\n\nWhen you work 12 to 14 hours a day, there is a cost you pay. If you have a family or close friendships, they pay a cost, namely, your absence. Up to this point, my client had been willing to pay this cost – whether he thought about it or not.\n\nI asked if he was willing to pay the cost the other way. If he paid the cost to reach the level of success he wanted in terms of hours worked, was he willing to pay the cost of not working as many hours? The cost in this case is not being as successful as he may think he should be (or what our culture tells us success should be). The cost may be slower growth. The cost may be taking three to five years to achieve his goals instead one to two years to achieve those same goals. The cost may be driving a Lexus instead of a BMW.\n\nIn our role as a leader, long hours can sometimes be part of the job. Personally, I don’t believe to be an effective leader you must work 12 to 14 hour days. If we lead our teams well, delegate where we should, and empower our teams, there is no reason why we can’t work productively at 45 to 50 hours a week. This also promotes focus, productivity, and trust in you as a leader. Think about it from the perspective of verbal expectations and non-verbal expectations. You tell your team how important it is to have work/life balance and to make time for their family. Yet, at the same time, they see your work/life balance completely out of whack, and you spending more time behind your desk than at home. You say one thing, but your actions speak to something else. Which do you think your team will follow? Have you ever worked in a place that had “unspoken” rules that were contradictory to the values statement hanging in the company lobby? Those unspoken rules come from the leader. The life the leader lives and the pace at which they work, sets the expectation. Everything has a cost. What is the cost to you or your team for the way you work and lead?\n\nIn January, I had a follow up call with my client who wanted to be home at a certain time of day. He sent me his 2014 business plan in advance of our call. Interestingly, in his plan he included the goal of getting home at 6:30pm. His motivator was his 13 year old daughter. As he put it, his daughter would not be in the house much longer and he wanted to be there for her. He adjusted his growth goals for his business as well as adjusting his mindset regarding success and achievement. He was willing to pay the cost for this new goal.\n\n<em><strong>You have paid a cost for where you are in your business and professional career. Has it been worth it? Do you need to reassess your goals? Are you willing to pay the cost on the opposite side of the “success” spectrum to achieve a new goal?</strong></em>', 'Everything Has A Cost', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'everything-has-a-cost', '', '', '2014-03-11 06:12:30', '2014-03-11 11:12:30', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13759', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(13762, 316, '2014-03-13 12:24:04', '2014-03-13 17:24:04', '<img class=\"alignleft\" alt=\"\" src=\"http://mills-scofield.com/storage/TORRE-DE-PISA-1.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1393376332631\" width=\"138\" height=\"206\" />I don’t lean in, lean out, lean sideways, lean back…I stand up straight.  As a kid, my parents kept telling me to stand up straight and strong.  It created an aura of confidence, self-assurance, and supposedly, it was better for your back.  In fact, we now know that standing strong can actually <a href=\"http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/03/want-to-lean-in-try-a-power-po-2/\" target=\"_blank\">change your mood and confidence</a>. Perhaps because I’m short (5’ 1” on my driver’s license), I’ve always stood straight, because I had to.  And I became tall – not in the physical sense, but intellectually, emotionally and professionally.  Throughout my <a href=\"http://blogs.hbr.org/2012/09/four-lessons-from-the-best-bo/\" target=\"_blank\">career</a>, I never felt discriminated against because of my gender.  Even after I had children, I never felt the need to do anything but stand up straight. <a href=\"http://mills-scofield.com/blog/2014/2/25/im-standing-up-not-leaning.html#.Uw8xBfldV24\" target=\"_blank\">Read more</a>...', 'I&#039;m Standing Up, Not Leaning!', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'im-standing-up-not-leaning', '', '', '2014-03-13 12:24:04', '2014-03-13 17:24:04', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13762', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(13790, 263, '2014-05-30 06:15:50', '2014-05-30 11:15:50', 'Great leaders feel most energized when they can add massive value to the community they are working with or the world at large. And isn\'t it wonderful when you have been instrumental in inspiring others to do the same? It takes real character to ask yourself, every day:\n<blockquote>How am I adding value today?</blockquote>\nIt boils down to what your unique contribution is to the world. What is it you can add today that will open new possibilities, point to better ways of doing things, immediately improve processes or results? In the continuous answering of this question lie the decisions you make as a leader. How you use your time and relationships, what you focus on will be impacted by your vision of what your own contribution is. Wouldn\'t you like your collaborators to ask the same of themselves?\n\nIn today\'s workplace and scenario, isn\'t the poorest form of exchange time-for-money? It is no wonder so many people feel devoid of purpose when they view their contribution as dedicating paid time to their organisation or project. Inadvertently, we all fall back on this interpretation of work from time to time. Even with new, offline and flexitime working environments we wonder if that person is slacking off when they did not answer our iMessage immediately or get on that Skype call on the double! Time has become a measure of commitment. Yet it is not a good measure any more. In the era of ideas, there are far greater ways to add value than simply punching in the time.\n\nLet\'s lead beyond that. Have those enriching conversations with people around you. What is it you contribute in value and what are you getting in return?\n\nAs a leader, these questions should spark your creativity on the subject:\n\n<strong>Am I leading in a way that talented people want to contribute more?</strong>\n\nWhen the exchange of value is positive, and people feel like they get value from adding value, contribution beyond the call of duty is the norm. People will not only spend time on the project but make time for it. It is a thing of beauty that many of us have experienced in our best teams. Thinking about it in this way, allows the leader to see the exchange in a different light and maybe gain the perspective of understanding not only how people work for you but why they do.\n\n<strong>How do I understand the value each of my team members or followers want from associating with me and our vision?</strong>\n\nMany times, your team members haven\'t even asked themselves that. But it is simple enough to explore once you get at it. It\'s what drew them to you in the first place. Something they mean to learn, something that enriches their lives, that gives them meaning or challenges them in just the right way, something that allows them to give significantly what they have in excess. I believe if a leader stays attuned to what others are getting from the experience of working with them, they can hone it to perfection, make sure the perfect perks are there for the ideal talent to keep the ball rolling and growing.\n\n<strong>Why do people contribute to our common cause? Am I adding to their drivers with my leadership?</strong>\n\nOnce you know what\'s keeping them going and why they are here, is it not your privilege as a leader to add to those drivers so that everyone gets great value from your collaboration? Imagine you working on adding value to them and them working on adding value to your common goals. The point is to create a virtuous, growing cycle that will escalate, enhancing your ability to deliver!\n\n<strong>How do we become more and more valuable together?</strong>\n\nValue is added not only to the project and extracted from the very work, but also from the relationships and bonds formed. There are many ways that working with this person in this way will increase the value both can contribute. It ignites a spark. I know I love to partner with people in a way that makes us wow our customers with the synergy between us. We pack a punch together and the value is greatly enhanced. Don\'t you love to be on those teams? So how can you create opportunities for this to happen within your team and externally?\n\nIts an in-out-and-around approach to adding value that will help you explore the impact of this exchange between talent and organisation. When the exchange is balanced, the output is incredible!\n<blockquote>Are you leading with all these aspects of value in mind? Where might it lead you?</blockquote>', 'Are You Leading with Value in Mind?', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'are-you-leading-with-value-in-mind', '', '', '2014-05-30 06:15:50', '2014-05-30 11:15:50', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13790', 0, 'post', '', 4),
(13796, 349, '2014-03-13 06:21:46', '2014-03-13 11:21:46', '<a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/3961883_s.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-13798\" alt=\"Raving fan\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/3961883_s-300x246.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"246\" /></a>This last Christmas, my wife and I ordered some Baylor University fan gear from <a title=\"Fanatics\" href=\"http://www.fanatics.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Fanatics</a>. My experience wasn\'t bad, although I do remember thinking the shipping seemed unusually slow.  I chalked it up to the holidays and really didn\'t think much about it.  The sweatshirt, cap, and other things I bought were good quality and, overall, I was pleased with my order.\n\nHowever, I recently received this email from Fanatics:\n<div style=\"padding-left: 30px; font-style: italic;\">\n\nDear William,\n\nYou\'re receiving this email because we shipped your holiday order later than we should have. This is unacceptable.\n\nWe know you have many options for your holiday shopping. We also know that the holiday season can be stressful and fast-paced, and that a hassle-free shopping experience is imperative. You deserve dependable service, and our job is to ensure that the gifts you are eagerly anticipating arrive as promised.\n\nIn addition to offering our sincerest apologies, I want to personally assure you on behalf of the entire team here at Fanatics that we are committed to addressing any and all issues that we can control. We will get to the root causes of all problems experienced. In the meantime, we remain committed every day to measuring up to your standards.\n\nIn hopes that you will return to Fanatics and give us another chance to provide you the hassle-free shopping and speedy delivery you expect and deserve, I\'m offering you $15 in merchandise credit plus free 3-day shipping on a future purchase anytime in 2014.\n\nAll of us at Fanatics appreciate your business and will do everything we can to ensure you always receive the best possible online shopping experience.   We look forward to serving you again.\n\nWarm Regards,\n\nAlan Trager, CEO\n\n</div>\n&nbsp;\n\nMy response?  Wow!  I hadn\'t sent an email or called regarding my order.  They noticed all by themselves what happened and not only sent me an email acknowledging this, but also gave me credit for more merchandise!\n\nSmart.  Very, very smart.\n\nWhy would they do this?  After all, I didn\'t complain and, likely, would have ordered from them again.  They have some of the best prices on the internet for college apparel.  Here are three reasons why they sent this email.\n<h2>The best marketing is customer referrals.</h2>\nYou can spend a lot of money on advertising, but all the money in the world won\'t replace <a title=\"Best and Worst Customer Service Stories\" href=\"http://www.dailyfinance.com/photos/best-and-worst-customer-service/\" target=\"_blank\">a bad experience</a>.  The only thing that can overcome that is building a good relationship with your clients.  That\'s what they did here.  They built a relationship with me in one email.\n<h2>Customer service is driven from the top down.</h2>\nThe CEO of Fanatics obviously knows how to treat customers.  In my experience, <a title=\"10 Customer Service Stories That Will Restore Your Faith In Humanity\" href=\"http://blog.bufferapp.com/great-customer-service-legendary\" target=\"_blank\">this kind of customer service</a> is rare, and it takes moves like this to set yourself apart from the crowd.\n<h2>Authenticity builds customer rapport.</h2>\nThis company was willing to admit a mistake and do what they could to rectify the situation.  Was I an angry customer?  No.  Would I have purchased from them again?  More than likely.  What was the outcome of this email?\n\nI\'m a fan now.  A huge fan.  And what do fans do?  They talk to others about their experience.  Just like I am.  Now, you might become a fan too.  All because of one email, a willingness to admit a mistake, and going the extra mile to take care of it.\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>Customer service isn\'t about telling people how awesome you are, it’s about creating stories that do the talking for you. [Quote from the <a title=\"Shankman\'s Customer Service quote\" href=\"http://blog.bufferapp.com/great-customer-service-legendary\" target=\"_blank\">Buffer blog</a>.]</em></p>\n</blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">How many times <strong>do we lose customers (or influence) because we are too proud</strong> to admit that we\'re wrong?</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">How many times do <strong>we miss opportunities to turn customers (or followers) into raving fans</strong> because they haven\'t complained or seem to be doing \"just fine\"?</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">What can we learn from a company like this that is willing to go above and beyond to reach out to their customers and turn them into raving fans?</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">What will you do to increase your fan base?  Spend more money on advertising? Or use some of those advertising dollars to turn ordinary clients into lifelong enthusiasts?</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em><strong>How creative can you get?  Let me know your plans to turn customers into raving fans in the comments below.</strong></em></p>\nImage credit: <a href=\"http://www.123rf.com/photo_3961883_enthusiastic-sports-fan-with-foam-finger-raises-his-arms-in-the-number-one-gesture--isolated-on-whit.html\">lisafx / 123RF Stock Photo</a>', 'How to Turn Customers into Raving Fans with One Email', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'how-to-turn-customers-into-raving-fans-with-one-email', '', '', '2014-03-13 06:21:46', '2014-03-13 11:21:46', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13796', 0, 'post', '', 6),
(13803, 244, '2014-03-31 12:32:28', '2014-03-31 17:32:28', '\"Your mind is like a garden:\nWhatever you plant will grow.\nYour thoughts are seeds you’re planting.\nThey produce, each after its kind.\nAnd you, just like a gardener,\nCan choose which seeds you’ll plant.\nAnd by the choice of seeds you sow,\nYou choose the harvest you will reap.\"\n- from <a href=\"http://thedoorway.org/c-p-gardenofyourmind.html\" target=\"_blank\">The Garden of Your Mind</a> by Charles David Heineke\n\n<strong>Sustained success requires that you learn to tend the garden of your mind lovingly and wisely. </strong>While there are countless tools and techniques available, there are 3 things you can do every day to sow the seeds of an abundant harvest and keep the weeds at bay. <a href=\"http://wp.me/p339ZO-1VU\">Read more.</a>', 'Tending the Garden of Your Mind', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'tending-the-garden-of-your-mind', '', '', '2014-03-31 12:32:28', '2014-03-31 17:32:28', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13803', 0, 'post', '', 1),
(13808, 280, '2014-03-08 09:01:02', '2014-03-08 15:01:02', '<img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-13153\" alt=\"TalentCulture_badge_green\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/TalentCulture_badge_green.png\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" />(Editor’s Note: Last week at #TChat Events, the TalentCulture community explored best practices in candidate screening with Chris Mursau, Vice President at <a title=\"Topgrading Website\" href=\"http://topgrading.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Topgrading</a>, and Jean Lynn, VP of HR at Home Instead Senior Care. Afterward, some of our participants expressed interest in learning more about how the Topgrading method works. In response, Chris shared <a title=\"How to Pick an A Player - TalentCulture Blog\" href=\"http://www.talentculture.com/leadership/hiring-or-promoting-how-to-pick-an-a-player/\" target=\"_blank\">this post</a>.)\n\nDo you have difficulty determining if a job candidate (or existing employee) is an A, B, or C Player? If so, you’re not alone — only companies with highly sophisticated HR methods have perfected that process. However, this article helps by providing an explanation of...\n\nRead the rest of <a title=\"How to Pick an A Player - TalentCulture Blog\" href=\"http://www.talentculture.com/leadership/hiring-or-promoting-how-to-pick-an-a-player/\" target=\"_blank\">the post at TalentCulture</a>.', 'Hiring? Promoting? How to Pick an A Player', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'hiring-promoting-how-to-pick-an-a-player', '', '', '2014-03-08 09:01:02', '2014-03-08 15:01:02', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13808', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(13826, 243, '2014-03-04 12:18:10', '2014-03-04 18:18:10', '<a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/leadership_carnival-logo-300x134.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8664\" alt=\"leadership_carnival-logo-300x134\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/leadership_carnival-logo-300x134.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"134\" /></a>The Ides of March – corresponding to March 15 – is known as the date that Julius Caesar was killed in 44 BC. Although Caesar had been warned of his fate and counseled not to attend the Senate meeting where he’d be assassinated, he didn’t listen. If Caesar were reincarnated to lead the masses today, I’m sure he would: a) listen better and b) learn his lesson and decide to read these great leadership posts (thus being a much better leader and living a longer life the second time around). Why not learn from Caesar and <a href=\"http://www.aspire-cs.com/the-leadership-development-carnival-ides-of-march-edition\">start reading now</a>?\n\n&nbsp;', 'March Leadership Development Carnival', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'march-leadership-development-carnival', '', '', '2014-03-04 12:18:10', '2014-03-04 18:18:10', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13826', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(13836, 280, '2014-03-06 14:02:34', '2014-03-06 20:02:34', '<img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-13153\" alt=\"TalentCulture_badge_green\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/TalentCulture_badge_green.png\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" />Ted Coine shared <a title=\"8 Leadership Lessons from Billionaires on TalentCulture\" href=\"http://www.talentculture.com/leadership/billionaire-leadership-lessons/\" target=\"_blank\">8 Leadership Lessons from Billionaires</a> over on the Talent Culture blog.  Check it out!\n\nBeing rich doesn’t mean you’re wise, and it doesn’t mean you’re good. All it means for sure is that you’re rich.\n\nWith that caveat firmly in place, let me share some of my favorite leadership tidbits. I’ve gathered these nuggets of wisdom from some of our most famous business leaders with the notion that you can learn something from anyone. Often, all you need is one truly useful lesson, not the person’s entire worldview. Some people on this list fall into that category.\n\nLesson 1: Titles don’t mean squat.\nJohn Rockefeller never owned controlling interest in Standard Oil, and his official job title was vice president.\n\n<a title=\"8 Leadership Lessons from Billionaires on TalentCulture\" href=\"http://www.talentculture.com/leadership/billionaire-leadership-lessons/\">Continue reading...</a>', '8 Leadership Lessons from Billionaires', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', '8-leadership-lessons-from-billionaires', '', '', '2014-03-06 14:02:34', '2014-03-06 20:02:34', '', 0, 'https://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13836', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(13840, 329, '2014-03-05 06:12:03', '2014-03-05 12:12:03', '<a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Fotolia_59059956_XS.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft  wp-image-13847\" alt=\"Risk Uncertainty\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Fotolia_59059956_XS-288x300.jpg\" width=\"230\" height=\"240\" /></a>Joseph O’Shea was my boss in my first “permanent” job after college. Joe had been a crusty ex-union buster in the textile mills of South Carolina. He had a reputation for kicking butts and taking names, as he liked to say. Many a fellow employee lost his breakfast worrying about an upcoming meeting with Mr. O’Shea.\n\nJoe called a meeting to announce the company was shifting to a participative management philosophy. The idea of Joe being participative was about as likely as Attila the Hun being kindhearted. But, Joe was a good soldier. If the company wanted managers to be more participative, he’d give it his best shot. We were reassured the world as we knew it was not about to come crashing down, when Joe ended the meeting with “Our division WILL have participative management. And, you’ll participate, by God, or I’ll fire your a_ _!”\n\nWe have seen a major transformation in the concept of what it means to be “the leader.” The Joe O’Shea model of leader as stern, corporate parent has been altered to one of leader as supporter, enabler, even partner. As workers have increasingly demonstrated the maturity and competence to operate effectively with limited supervision in a brain-based economy, leaders unable to let go of the reins of coercive power have been replaced by leaders who view their relationship with associates as one of liberator, barrier remover, facilitator and mentor.\n\nThe byproduct of this kinder leader has resulted in a lower fear level in organizations giving rise to greater creativity and improved quality. Employee inclusion has produced more employee commitment. A focus on diversity, customer service, coaching, and accountability have helped leaders better understand the power of empowerment and the promise of balancing employee confidence with unit performance. Yet, even as leaders “let go” there remains a dearth of leaders willing to also “stand up.”\n\nThe new leader has also been inundated with the many ways they can violate employee rights and infringe on the sanctity of good public relations. As they have been instructed in act like a leader, they have been informed to think like a lawyer. Many have learned to surrender to unrealistic demands (“under the banner of some cause”) when their consciences scream for “acting on principle.”\n\nToo many leaders would rather lose sleep than lose face. Such timidity has bred a caution of controversy that has spread beyond complex employee relations issues.  The dearth of value-based decisions has left too many organizations with a “character deficit.”\n\nJohn Ellis in his article “Strategy” in the October, 2002, issue of <em>Fast Company</em> tells well:\n\n“Here’s what real business leaders do. They go out and rally the troops, plant the flag, and make a stand. They confront hostile audiences and the deal with the press. If the issue is confidence, they conduct themselves confidently. If the issue is trust, they make their company’s business transparent. If the issue is character, they tell the truth. They do not shirk responsibility; they assume command. Because a fundamental ingredient of business success is leadership.\n\nAnd the granular stuff of leadership is courage, conviction, and character.”\n\nThe word “character” in the Greek language means “engraved.”  It is the other end of the continuum from “situational ethics” and it is the antithesis of the “morality for the moment.”  Enrons aren’t created by greedy leaders. They are created by spineless leaders reluctant to stand up for character rather than sit still for consent. Sure there was greed. But, there had to have been a lot more acquiescence than avarice.\n\nToday’s leaders have come a long way from the autocratic, compassionless O’Shea’s of yesteryear. But too many leaders have miles to go to demonstrate the courage needed for today’s complex times.', 'Today’s Leaders: Compassion Without Courage', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'todays-leaders-compassion-without-courage', '', '', '2014-03-05 06:12:03', '2014-03-05 12:12:03', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13840', 0, 'post', '', 3),
(13850, 251, '2014-03-10 06:10:48', '2014-03-10 11:10:48', '<a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/choose-being-kind.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-13851\" style=\"margin: 10px;\" alt=\"choose being kind\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/choose-being-kind-243x300.jpg\" width=\"243\" height=\"300\" /></a>The three of us were chatting in the break room, catching up and munching  croissants from the bakery on the corner.\n\n“Sounds like last night’s event was terrific,” sighed Fran. “I wish I’d been invited.”\n\n“Me, too,” I replied.\n\n“Both of you <i>were</i> invited,” Penny asserted vigorously. “I sent you an email invitation but neither of you responded.”\n\n“Strange, I don’t recall receiving that email…”\n\nFran jumped in over me, “If I had received it, I would have signed up immediately, Penny. You must have omitted my name from the distribution list.”\n\n“Look, <i>I sent it</i>. If you two didn’t read it, Then. That’s. <i>Your.</i> Problem.” Penny said with a dismissive toss of her head.\n\nOoh.\n\nHave you ever been in Penny’s spot—absolutely certain you’ve done your part and equally certain it’s the other guy who dropped the ball? I know I sure have.\n\nFortunately a couple major blunders where I clearly owned the hot seat of screw-up responsibility taught me to pause and check. Business rewards leaders who have the right answer; however there’s a big difference between being confidently right and arrogantly, self-righteously right when you’re obviously wrong.\n<blockquote>Like pesky wasps buzzing circles around us, people who act as if they were the sole expert on a subject put us on edge. In halls of learning where we least expect to find it, in governments, in religious temples, in businesses, in marriages and families, dogmatism is the arrogant voice of certainty that closes the mind, damages relationships, and threatens peaceful coexistence on this planet.  ~ Dr. Judy J. Johnson</blockquote>\nStepping back from needing to be right is something you have to want to correct. Many times the need to be right is based on the fear of being wrong. Courage, character, humility, and wisdom all play a role in overcoming that fear.\n\nThere’s liberation to be had in giving up always being right. Summon the courage and character to admit uncertainty.\n\nThere’s joy to be had in saying <i>I’m not sure but I’ll find out</i>. Embrace the humility and vulnerability that makes you strong enough to say that.\n\nThere’s personal growth to be had in saying <i>let’s find out together</i>. Have the wisdom to make it so.', 'Pesky wasps and being right', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'pesky-wasps-and-being-right', '', '', '2014-03-10 06:10:48', '2014-03-10 11:10:48', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13850', 0, 'post', '', 2),
(13858, 252, '2014-03-12 06:03:31', '2014-03-12 11:03:31', '<p style=\"text-align: center; padding-left: 90px; padding-right: 90px;\"><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">“people ask me why it’s so hard to trust people, and i ask them why is it so hard to keep a promise?”</span></p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">~ QTangel, boardofwisdom.com</p>\n<a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-13859\"><img class=\"alignright  wp-image-13859\" alt=\"Risk management concept, arrow hitting an apple on a businessman\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/bigstock-Risk-management-concept-arrow-53325625-300x200.jpg\" width=\"270\" height=\"180\" /></a>My buddy, George, told me the other day about the new manager where he works, a nation-wide retail store chain. There are dozens of employees at his location.  The new store manager called an all-hands meeting and proceeded to tell them that they should consider themselves on notice that she was not above firing any one of them for any reason, any time.  That was part a significant part of her introductory address to her new constituents.\n\nGeorge went on to say that lots of people thought about looking for new jobs.  That happened a few months ago.  Since then, a few employees reported her for how she talked down to them or humiliated them.  Apparently even a customer complained.\n\nNow the manager has turned over a new leaf.  She is being nicer.  She is not talking down to the employees.  George’s words were, “She talks to us more on our level.”  He also added, “I have no idea what she would have to do for me to trust her now though.”\n<h2>When trust has been betrayed, can it be recovered?</h2>\nI’ve been asking people this question.  What I hear is it would take some humongous proof before trust could be restored.  How?  How does one provide that proof?  George said this about his store manager, “She can act nice all she wants, but how do I know it’s sincere?”  Yeah.  I hear you.\n\nOff the top of my head I know I would need to see consistency in the demonstration of humility and respect.  I also think I would need to see some version of a “debt paid.”  I would have to see or receive something from you that I know means something to you —something that takes vulnerability or sacrifice for you to admit or give.  But again, how do I gauge the sincerity?\n\n<span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">I know I could consult studies, books, and the wisdom of the ages, but today I don’t want to.  </span><strong style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">I want to know what the wisdom-holders of this community think</strong><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">.</span>\n\n<i>What are your thoughts?  When trust has been betrayed, can it be recovered and if so, how?</i>', 'Can you rebuild broken trust?', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'can-you-rebuild-broken-trust', '', '', '2014-03-12 06:03:31', '2014-03-12 11:03:31', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13858', 0, 'post', '', 29),
(13890, 268, '2014-03-06 11:42:21', '2014-03-06 17:42:21', '<a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Screen-Shot-2011-09-06-at-1.56.00-PM.png\"><img class=\"alignleft  wp-image-5438\" alt=\"Smartblog Logo\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Screen-Shot-2011-09-06-at-1.56.00-PM.png\" width=\"209\" height=\"86\" /></a>The average person tells four lies a day, or 1,460 a year; a total of 87,600 by the age of 60. And the most common lie is ‘I’m fine.’” This quote appeared in a friend’s recent blog post and got me thinking.* Does the average manager tell four lies a day?\n\nRead more <a href=\"http://smartblogs.com/leadership/2014/03/06/5-reasons-to-re-examine-how-leaders-communicate/\">here..</a>..\n\n&nbsp;', '5 reasons to re-examine how leaders communicate', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', '5-reasons-to-re-examine-how-leaders-communicate', '', '', '2014-03-06 11:42:21', '2014-03-06 17:42:21', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13890', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(13899, 244, '2014-04-08 12:12:52', '2014-04-08 17:12:52', '<em><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-13900\" alt=\"InfectiousbyAchimNowak\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/InfectiousbyAschimNowak.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" />Following is a guest article from <a href=\"http://twitter.com/achimnowak\" target=\"_blank\">Achim Nowak</a>.  Achim has a distinctive ability to connect deeply and authentically with others in a way that ignites their passion and energy. It is my pleasure to share some of his wisdom with you here.</em>\n\nBy the time I get hired to coach a senior executive, he’s been subjected to a battery of psychometric assessments.\n\nShe can usually rattle off her MBTI or DISC assessment profile at the drop of a dime. An entire sense of self has been packaged into a tidy psychological box.\n<h3><strong>Is this helpful? </strong><a style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5em;\" href=\"http://wp.me/p339ZO-1Xh\">Read more...</a></h3>', '4 Ways to Unleash Leadership Energy', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', '4-ways-to-unleash-leadership-energy', '', '', '2014-04-08 12:12:52', '2014-04-08 17:12:52', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13899', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(13907, 290, '2014-03-20 06:12:30', '2014-03-20 11:12:30', '<strong><strong>Guest Pos<strong>t by Jess Millis</strong></strong><a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Jim-Collins-leadership1-300x225-200x1501.jpg\">\n</a></strong>\n<div> <span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">There are quite a few rules and tips that </span><a style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\" title=\"Jim Collins\" href=\"http://www.jimcollins.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Jim Collins</a><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\"><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\"> has churned out in his time, and where there may be students essay writing on them all right now, here is a short article on just a few of them.</span></span>\n<p style=\"display: inline !important;\" align=\"left\"> <strong>1 – Work on no more than ten things</strong></p>\n\n</div>\n<div>\n<p align=\"left\">Jim says you should work on no more than ten things at a time and that you may add new goals to your list as you go, but that you may only add them to your top ten list if they are important enough to supplant one that is in your top ten.</p>\n<span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\"> Read more </span><a style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\" href=\"http://www.thindifference.com/2014/03/08/seven-elements-leadership-style-jim-collins/\">here....</a>\n\n</div>\n&nbsp;', 'Seven Elements of Leadership Style by Jim Collins', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'seven-elements-of-leadership-style-by-jim-collins', '', '', '2014-03-20 06:12:30', '2014-03-20 11:12:30', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13907', 0, 'post', '', 1);
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(13912, 333, '2014-03-14 06:12:10', '2014-03-14 11:12:10', '<a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/sacrifice.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-13914\" alt=\"sacrifice\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/sacrifice-300x225.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>In this modern world there are not many who make the choice to become excellent leaders; there are many great politicians, executives and managers out there but very few choose to be excellent. Some of the greatest leaders only become this way due to sacrifices that they have made for others; this is something that all leaders should take into account when trying to improve their own leadership skills. Sometimes being a great leader means that you have to make great sacrifices for the company, for your employees and for the goal that your company is working towards.\n\n<strong>What You Can’t Take Back</strong>\nMany leaders follow the foolish belief that if they sacrifice their money for the company they will be seen as a better leader. In the majority of cases this is not correct, it’s very simple to earn money back and if you possess a large sum of money already, it would be a very small sacrifice if you were to spend a little of this money on your employees or the company.\n\nThe best type of sacrifice is one that you cannot take back or earn back, such as your time and your energy. Putting in extra hours to take some of the workload from employees that are struggling, even if it means that you are pushed to your limit, are the best sacrifices you can make as they are personal sacrifices; you gain nothing from these sacrifices but those around you stand to win so much.\n\n<strong>Shared Responsibility, Power and Progression</strong>\nThere are more sacrifices than just those of your time and energy; some sacrifices include dividing power between your colleagues and employees. Poor leaders aim to hoard power, even if this damages the company and does not aid the progression or development of those around them or the business itself.\n\nA great leader will sacrifice some of their power and distribute it amongst those that they trust. With more members of the company holding authority, more people can adjust, amend or change plans for the future of the company. Also, the more people that are given authority to make changes the wider the variety of ideas that will be flowing and more people will be inspired into sacrificing their time and energy to see that you reach your goal and that the company thrives.\n\n<strong>Stay Strong and True</strong>\nThere are far too many people in the world that have taken leadership roles and are not strong enough to stay true to what they believe, what is best for the company and those working within it. Many people crumble under a moderate amount of pressure and will give in to the wants and desires of the employees, even if their desires will not benefit the business, the employees or the leader.\n\nIt’s important that whilst you listen to the ideas of your employees and communicate effectively with them you do not let others push you into poor decisions. However, if one of your employees makes a good suggestion, don’t be afraid to praise them for their idea; recognising talent in others is an excellent method of gaining respect.\n\n<strong>Your Employees or Your Shareholders</strong>\nVery rarely are shareholders interested in the long term future of the company as they could simply choose to leave if they found a better investment opportunity. Their primary focus is short term profits and this is where a true business leader must stand up and protect the most important resource a company has – their employees.\n\nWhen business is strong, you have to remember to share the wealth with all those involved in creating it through bonuses and reward schemes. This won’t always sit right with your shareholders as it takes money out of their pocket but sometimes you must sacrifice your reputation with investors to reward the people who made the success possible.\n\nAlthough, it’s important that you follow these steps on your way to becoming an excellent leader, you should also keep in mind that those who trust and respect you are sure to follow suit. Occasions will arise where sacrifices must be made and that is where you must proceed with the action that represents the greater good for your company.', 'The Importance of Sacrifice for Leaders', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'the-importance-of-sacrifice-for-leaders', '', '', '2014-03-14 06:12:10', '2014-03-14 11:12:10', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13912', 0, 'post', '', 3),
(13926, 290, '2014-03-30 14:03:11', '2014-03-30 19:03:11', 'Check out this guest post by Ryan Currie over on Jon Mertz\' Thin Difference blog!\n\nWorking with millennials can be a challenge but you’re just making things harder on yourself by missing valuable opportunities in your interactions. Millennials aren’t as selfish, as tuned-out, or as idealistic as they’re pegged to be and they actually provide a lot of valuable tools you can use to grow your business.\n\nWhether you’re the boss, a manager, or even just a colleague, here are seven ways you’re missing opportunities with your millennials.\n\n<a title=\"7 Ways You\'re Missing Opportunities with Millennials\" href=\"http://www.thindifference.com/2014/03/12/7-ways-youre-missing-opportunities-millennials/\" target=\"_blank\">Continue reading...</a>\n\n&nbsp;', '7 Ways You’re Missing Opportunities with Millennials', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', '7-ways-youre-missing-opportunities-with-millennials', '', '', '2014-03-30 14:03:11', '2014-03-30 19:03:11', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13926', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(13933, 244, '2014-03-30 08:21:47', '2014-03-30 13:21:47', 'Boldness that characterizes extraordinary leaders comes in many shapes and sizes, as well as forms.\n\nIt’s not a matter of size, race, status, or any number of things that can place the boldest of people in a neat category.  In fact, those who are recognized for their boldness are often recognized because their words or actions fall outside of the “box” of what others expect from them given those things.\n\nIt’s not a matter of a particular type of expression either.  Bold can look like yelling, or it could look like sitting in silent protest.  It could look like jumping out of a plane, or look like giving someone a hug. <a href=\"http://wp.me/p339ZO-1XG\">Read more.</a>', 'What&#039;s Your Brand of Bold?', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'whats-your-brand-of-bold', '', '', '2014-03-30 08:21:47', '2014-03-30 13:21:47', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13933', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(13937, 280, '2014-03-20 14:05:20', '2014-03-20 19:05:20', '<strong>Guest post by Kevin W. Grossman</strong>\n\n<span style=\"font-size: 1.17em; line-height: 1.5em;\"><a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Meghan-Kevin-3-13-14-300x225.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-13938\" alt=\"Meghan-Kevin-3-13-14-300x225\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Meghan-Kevin-3-13-14-300x225.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>Experience outcomes.</span>\n\nWe laughed as we said it, sitting together in the mothership executive conference room at <a href=\"http://www.peoplefluent.com/\">Peoplefluent</a> planning our global domination strategy.\n\nWe’d been meeting all week, meeting after meeting, a gaggle of senior leadership and marketing team leads, workshopping and brainstorming and collaborating over all that we’ve been, where we are and where we need to be.\n\nRead more <a href=\"http://www.talentculture.com/leadership/why-aspirational-hr-drives-business/\">here....</a>', 'Why Aspirational HR Drives Business', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'why-aspirational-hr-drives-business', '', '', '2014-03-20 14:05:20', '2014-03-20 19:05:20', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13937', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(13946, 243, '2014-03-17 06:04:04', '2014-03-17 11:04:04', '<img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-13947\" alt=\"CHANGE ICON\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Fotolia_43583849_XS-300x300.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" />I saw an interesting phrase the other day that I felt I needed to address: <em><strong>selling change</strong></em>.\n\nWondering through several facets of the analogy presented by the idea of selling change, my mind began to chase a series of questions. See if any of these strike you. And at the end, please offer your own suggestions and ideas.\n<h2>Macro-economic forces in the supply and demand for change</h2>\nAre you a change supplier or a change consumer? What is the supply for change and the demand for change where you live and work? Do you find yourself trying to grow the market for change or do you find yourself being pulled into it?\n\nIs change a commodity or is it a custom-delivered product? Can you purchase it like a box of corn flakes or a barrel of oil, or is it more like buying a car or a house?\n<h2>Micro-economic forces affecting your market for change</h2>\nHow is the sales process for the change you propose? Is it long and drawn out? Must you work through layers of the organization to get the buy-in needed to make even small changes? Do individuals in your prospect organizations understand their purchase authority when it comes to buying change? Does your change require a significant purchase authority forcing you to market your change to the highest levels of your prospect organization? To what level do individuals in your organization have purchase authority? Is that even clearly known?\n<h2>Organizational forces affecting the sale of change</h2>\nWhat does your sales pipeline look like? Do you have a number of people who are buying the change you’re selling? Do you have repeat customers? Or is your proposed change a one-time purchase?\n<h2>Miscellaneous questions</h2>\nDo you have a business plan for selling change? What about a marketing plan? How do you identify the customers of this change? Or are you the potential customer and you need to get purchase approval? Have you considered the ROI on the change? Is it possible you’re waiting for purchase authority and you already have it?\n\nWhen you think about the idea of selling change, what questions come to your mind? I’m always in the market for change. You might say I’m a broker. Some change I buy and some I sell depending on market conditions.\n\nWhere are you in the change market? What other questions might you suggest that could help people find their ideal market position for buying or selling change?\n<span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\">Photo © allapen - Fotolia.com</span>', '20 Questions on Selling Change', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', '20-questions-selling-change', '', '', '2014-03-17 06:04:04', '2014-03-17 11:04:04', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13946', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(13951, 243, '2014-03-19 06:08:08', '2014-03-19 11:08:08', 'Great opportunities lie on the other side of the status quo.\n\nWe\'ve all heard lines like, \"We\'ve never done it that way;\" or \"We tried that back in 1975...\" or \"That won\'t work.\"\n\nSomething inside you <em>knows</em> a process, product, or result can be improved. You\'re sure if they\'d only listen, commit to a new idea, things would be better. Life wouldn\'t be so, so, SAME!\n\nHow do you inspire change when no one seems inspired?  How can you create energy when the inertia and the desire don\'t exist?\n\nProgress through 4 different phases to influence change through resistance. Follow this plan and make progress changing things in spite of resistance.\n<h2>Prioritize</h2>\nYou\'ve heard it said that the person who chases 2 rabbits catches none. Figure out what one thing is most important to you. What is your great overarching goal?  Often, to find this top priority, I have to force rank things. I have to consider every objective and decide which of the 2 is most important or which is the highest priority. There can be no ties. Everything gets its own position. So if I rank something #1 and along comes something more important or higher priority, I have to move everything else down.  Finding your greatest goal is the absolute key because everything else is based on it. Your greatest goal will inspire, and require, your best effort.\n<h2>Plan</h2>\nHave you ever considered how important things get done?  Often, the most well thought out plan wins. Think. What would you do?  What would you do if you couldn\'t do that? What will you do if it fails? What will you do if you get a break? Think again.\n\nAnd write. Plans aren\'t plans until they\'re written. I forget more ideas every day than some people have. If I can write them down and record them someplace, I have a chance of recalling them again when I can incorporate them into a written plan. I am a big <a title=\"Eveernote\" href=\"http://www.evernote.com\" target=\"_blank\">Evernote</a> user but use whatever works.\n\nAnd adapt.  You work for someone. It may be a boss or customers or your family. What would they want? Put yourself in their shoes. Don\'t stay married to the first plan.  Remain faithful to the objective. Think. THINK! The best thought-out plan will have the best chance of success.\n\nAlso, favor doable options. Some of your plan will be impossible or very unlikely. Keep as many doable, highly probably steps near the top of your list. You\'ve heard it said that sometimes the key to winning is just showing up. Almost always, I would rather spend my time doing what I could instead of worrying about things over which I have no control.\n<h2>Pursue</h2>\nYour top priority is a destination, with more than one path. Do the next thing. Whatever it is, do the next thing. Knowing your priorities and the things that must happen for you to reach your objective, you are free to do what you can. You\'ve completed step 1, but you can\'t do step 2. Well do step 3.  Or try step 4. Every choice creates new opportunities and new distractions. Pursue your destination. Maintain your focus and resist the temptation to pursue something else until you reach this destination. Often in <a title=\"The Dip by Seth Godin\" href=\"http://ht.ly/uCI9A \" target=\"_blank\">the dip</a>, the low places where everything is difficult, it\'s tempting to re-prioritize. Don\'t go back. pursue. Remain faithful to your original prioritization.\n<h2>Persist</h2>\nNever give up. Never give up. Never give up. You can always do something else. Let everything you\'ve already invested push you. Let the hope of your dream pull you.  Great objectives, produce great reward, but they require great effort. It will take more than you think. It will demand more than you expect.\n\nChoose a great goal. Develop and birth and nurture a great plan. Chase it with all you are and never give up. That\'s all there is to it. Your greatest changes, your best dreams will require that you Prioritize, Plan, Pursue and Persist.\n\nThere is certainly much to add. No great effort can be inspired simply by a blog post either. What specific practices would you add?  Please take a moment and comment below.\n\n<span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\">Photo © forcdan - Fotolia.com</span>', '4 Steps to Influence Change Through Resistance', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', '4-steps-influence-change-through-resistance', '', '', '2014-03-19 06:08:08', '2014-03-19 11:08:08', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13951', 0, 'post', '', 1),
(13954, 290, '2014-03-21 06:04:12', '2014-03-21 11:04:12', 'Guest Post by Sandra Mills\n\nWhether you’re a business leader already or looking to become one, you need to be on lookout for ways to improve your leadership skills. Not only will this translate into you doing your job better, but it will relieve much of the stress associated with your job.\n\nAccording to a report released by Brightspark Edu-Travel, more than 90 percent of business leaders in America testify that their travel experiences helped them master the skills it takes to be an effective leader. Let’s take a quick look at the skills they are talking about. After doing so, you’ll be well on your way to gaining a competitive edge through your travel experiences.\n\nRead more <a href=\"http://www.thindifference.com/2014/03/15/5-ways-traveling-can-make-better-leader/\">here...</a>\n\n&nbsp;', '5 Ways Traveling Can Make You a Better Leader', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', '5-ways-traveling-can-make-you-a-better-leader', '', '', '2014-03-21 06:04:12', '2014-03-21 11:04:12', '', 0, 'https://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13954', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(13960, 280, '2014-03-21 13:06:43', '2014-03-21 18:06:43', '<em>This is a guest post from Viveka von Rosen is the author of LinkedIn Marketing: An Hour a Day, contributing “expert” to LinkedIn’s official “Sophisticated Marketer’s Guide” and is known internationally as the “LinkedIn Expert.”</em>\n\nEven though LinkedIn has long been known as a recruiter and job seeker social media site, it is extremely under-utilized as a recruitment search AND marketing source. I think most recruiters still just think of it as a place to source and research candidates. And candidates barely know how to use it, not realizing they can be actively marketing themselves to the recruiters and businesses interested in hiring them.\n\nWith the Recruiter Lite membership abolishing messaging to group members, I think it’s more important than even for recruiters, hiring manager and others in Talent Acquisition to make use of LinkedIn free (or cheap) features.\n\nRead more <a href=\"http://www.talentculture.com/leadership/social-recruiting-trends-linkedin-2/\">here.</a>...\n\n&nbsp;', 'Social Recruiting Trends And LinkedIn', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'social-recruiting-trends-and-linkedin', '', '', '2014-03-21 13:06:43', '2014-03-21 18:06:43', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13960', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(13962, 243, '2014-03-18 06:03:52', '2014-03-18 11:03:52', '<i>Each month in our newsletter, we feature an interview with one of our Instigators. Recently we featured an interview  with Paul LaRue, m<em>anagement and sales executive making it a point to be an example of leadership for others to follow.  Looking to make a difference in this and the next generation of leaders. Creator of <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=88e3df55615dff895482011dc&amp;id=8fb9ce95cb&amp;e=6e18075e0a\" target=\"_self\">The UPwards Leader blog site</a>. <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/paul-larue1.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft  wp-image-13966\" alt=\"paul larue\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/paul-larue1-300x300.jpg\" width=\"240\" height=\"240\" /></a>Connect with Paul on Twitter (</em><a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=88e3df55615dff895482011dc&amp;id=c4a3932b37&amp;e=6e18075e0a\">@paul_larue</a>)<em> or LinkedIn.]</em></i>\n\n<strong>What is your background in leadership?</strong>\nI have over 25 years in hospitality leadership, working up the ranks to senior leadership. I have worked with many diverse teams on both coasts, and have been privileged to work with many diverse people from around the world.\n\n<strong>What do you do to engage in leadership? </strong>\nMy favorite aspect of leadership is working with others to develop their abilities. There is nothing else more satisfactory than building others up. Hitting quotas and breaking sales records all pale in comparison.\n\n<strong>Do you have a book or person that particularly influenced you? </strong>\nBook - When Jim Collins\' \"Built To Last\" came out in the mid-90\'s, it resonated everything that I believed in - just 5 years after graduating college. It gave me the impetus to learn and grow and put into play what I knew to be true.\n\nPerson - Jeff Sweetman, my former Director of Operations for Subway Development in Los Angeles. He could motivate, buffer, make hard decisions, teach and keep it all flowing and positive in what seemed to be the same motion. He continues to impact others and I never will forget the trust he places in his people.\n\n<strong>What would you like to get out of your membership with the Lead Change Group?</strong>\nI would love to work with my new colleagues to influence the next generation of leaders to lead with integrity and hope.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nIf you’re registered on this site and you don’t get this newsletter each month, please click here to subscribe to the newsletter.\n\n&nbsp;', 'Meet Instigator Paul LaRue', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'meet-instigator-paul-larue', '', '', '2014-03-18 06:03:52', '2014-03-18 11:03:52', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=13962', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(14009, 251, '2014-03-20 11:36:30', '2014-03-20 16:36:30', 'Forty-four years ago, economist Milton Friedman changed the way corporations did business with <a href=\"http://www.colorado.edu/studentgroups/libertarians/issues/friedman-soc-resp-business.html\">his declaration</a> that “there is one and only one social responsibility of business — to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game.”\n\nPower-suited corporate executives turned their attention to increasing stock prices, upping dividend payments and boosting earnings, all as part of maximizing shareholder value.\n\nRead more <a href=\"http://smartblogs.com/leadership/2014/03/20/should-executives-take-an-oath-of-office/\">here.</a>...', 'Should executives take an oath of office?', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'should-executives-take-an-oath-of-office', '', '', '2014-03-20 11:36:30', '2014-03-20 16:36:30', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14009', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(14013, 343, '2014-03-27 06:06:13', '2014-03-27 11:06:13', 'A couple of weeks ago I was catching up with a former colleague of mine. She had just started with a company in a newly created position and was telling me what her on-boarding process was like. She compared the training to another company we were both associated with that let one fend for themselves.</span>\n\n\"I don\'t know why these large companies don\'t spend the time or money on better training, Paul,\" she confided. Now Kathy is quite a determined woman, and has already started to pull resources together to get things aligned properly. Of all people, she will make success out of a vacuum.\n\nBut what about the non-Kathy\'s out there are are left to their own devices to accomplish the job? Or, how about the people who are put in positions and responsibilities that aren\'t ready for it? Are we truly setting them up to win? The sad reality is, that they are largely set up to fail. Even sadder, is that this epidemic is widespread.\n\nThere was a restaurant company about 15 years ago that started to rise fast. They were expanding and opening new locations with increased frequency. Their food and service style were getting rave reviews, and over the next 5 years they started obtaining a huge buzz in three metropolitan areas. Things seemed to be going great for this new foodservice superstar. But a closer look of their internal parts revealed they were a hollow shell.\n\nWhenever the company opened another location, the new store management were never allowed in until the day before. This caused wasted production in trying to find where things were. The company never trained cashiers; they just hired them on the first couple of opening days as they filled out applications, and were trained on the fly. Cooks were hired and trained in other stores and brought in on opening day. No direction on systems, fundamentals, or even HR policies were ever given to the management team. No pre-opening team meetings or getting to know one another. Yet this company boasted that it spent more on training than any other restaurant in the industry. Needless to say, much of it came crashing down within seven years, and the company is largely defunct.</span>\n\nLeadership by its <a href=\"https://www.google.com/search?q=leadership+definition&amp;oq=leadership+de&amp;aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l2j69i60l3.9341j0&amp;sourceid=chrome&amp;ie=UTF-8\">main definition</a> is \"the action of leading a group of people or an organization.\" Based on the stories above, how are these people being led? Any organization is successful when there is revenue, growth, and profit. But there is always a more deeper and sustainable success that comes from setting your people up to win.\n\nWhy should you invest in building up your team for success? If you were a baseball manager, you would do whatever was needed to get your team ready for every situation: relieving a tired pitcher, batting against a lefty, telling your pitcher he\'s still in control after giving up a home run, fielders being drilled on fundamentals.\n\nIn her blog <a href=\"http://letsgrowleaders.com/\">Let\'s Grow Leaders</a>, Karin Hurt wrote about <a href=\"http://letsgrowleaders.com/2014/02/12/focus_on_the_fundamentals/\">focusing on the fundamentals</a> and how essential this is for teams to succeed. Tanveer Naseer in his <a href=\"http://www.tanveernaseer.com/how-leaders-influence-employee-behaviours-and-perceptions/\">blog post on this subject</a> wrote that leaders need to play an integral part in fostering employee\'s behaviors in order for company\'s to succeed in today\'s rapid-paced climate. They both strike a chord that being involved in the development of your team needs to be addressed at large.\n\nA post by Holly Green shared some of Tanveer\'s thinking on setting teams up to be engaged and successful. Holly\'s thoughts can be seen in this spring\'s <a href=\"http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2014/02/16/annual-baseball-manager-rankings/nwYVVO2DQWon0Dog8mYUPI/story.html\">Boston Globe ranking of the 30 MLB managers</a>. A look at the top dozen managers shows a tendency to clearly communicate, keep players happy and respected, develop them through focused training, and provide feedback through recognition. They are successful because they give their teams the needed resources and environment to win.\n\nLeaders that fail to set their people up for the win build a culture of disengagement, frustration, inefficiency, and distrust that bog down the entire organization\'s efforts to move forward. Remember the Bad News Bears and Might Ducks movies, how dejected these teams were because of all the dysfunction of their leaders? It wasn\'t until those coaches started to make changes in how they prepared their teams that positive results started to happen.\n\nSo how can we set \'em up to win? Here a a few key actions:\n\n<strong>Training on the fundamentals.</strong> As was mentioned above, Karin Hurt wrote a great post on this. Fundamentals are the essential foundation for success. Without a foundation, the building will crumble.\n\n<strong>Increase their leadership influence.</strong> Give your people increased responsibility. Play to their strengths and those talents that are needed to develop. Show them everything they need to do to accomplish it, then be by their side. They may surpise you how quickly they learn and can ride the bike without the training wheels.\n\n<strong>Build confidence and trust in them.</strong> This goes somewhat hand-in-hand with increasing their influence. By giving them extra responsibility, you actually say to them, \"I trust you, I know you can do this.\" Know when they need assistance, but give them the space in which they can feel that you trust them do to their job.\n\n<strong>Give them all the resources, support, and encouragement they will ever need.</strong> When any of my leaders have come to me with an employee issue, I almost always default to answer \"Have you given them everything they need to do the job?\" They will most likely answer \"Yes,\" to which I reply, \"So they know how to do the job as well as you?\" After a few questions, the leader realizes that there is always more they can do to make this person successful. This has resulted in avoiding many employee work issues, and has built more solid teams because the leaders start to understand that their job is to build everyone up to master their job. Don\'t let people fail due to a lack of support on your part.\n\nWhat are other ways you can set your people up to win? Without fail, every winning team succeeds on the development of its people. Build others up every day!!\n\n&nbsp;\n\n(image via Paul LaRue)\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;', 'Set Them Up To Win', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'set-them-up-to-win', '', '', '2014-03-27 06:06:13', '2014-03-27 11:06:13', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14013', 0, 'post', '', 3),
(14028, 270, '2014-03-31 17:06:00', '2014-03-31 22:06:00', 'Our good friend and long time Instigator, Chery Gegelman posted this over on her <a title=\"Leadership 101 - Consistent, Fair, Explainable | Simply Understanding Blog\" href=\"http://consultgiana.com/leadership-101-consistent-fair-explainable/\" target=\"_blank\">Simply Understanding</a> blog\n\nSeveral years ago a mentor shared his business plan with me.  In part of it he wrote something he called a STAND.  When I asked what that was, he said it was knowing what you stand for before you are faced with a situation and have to make a choice.\n\nI’ve shared part of his leadership wisdom and how it impacted me in this previous Smart Blog Post:  Why Leaders Need To Practice Compassionate Accountability\n\nFor the past several weeks I’ve been focused on another part of his STAND:  “To Be Consistent, Fair, and Explainable in all that I do”.\n\nCheck out the <a title=\"Leadership 101 - Consistent, Fair, Explainable | Simply Understanding Blog\" href=\"http://consultgiana.com/leadership-101-consistent-fair-explainable/\" target=\"_blank\">full post here</a>...', 'Leadership 101:  Consistent, Fair, Explainable', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'leadership-101-consistent-fair-explainable-2', '', '', '2014-03-31 17:06:00', '2014-03-31 22:06:00', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14028', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(14030, 270, '2014-04-18 14:06:03', '2014-04-18 19:06:03', '<a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Kevin-Kennemer1.jpeg\"><img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-14033\" alt=\"Kevin-Kennemer1\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Kevin-Kennemer1.jpeg\" width=\"79\" height=\"97\" /></a>This is the third post in our series:  What does HR Really Stand For:  Human Resources or Human Remains?\n\nAs I thought through this series, I reached out <strong>Kevin Kennemer</strong> because I knew that he had both the passion and the data to make the case that Great Workplaces enjoy a significant competitive advantage over their competition.  Kevin is<b> </b>a Great Workplace Advocate, and the founder of <a href=\"http://www.thepeoplegroup.com/\">The People Group</a>, a firm dedicated to transforming companies into winning workplaces. He works with CEO’s of small and medium sized businesses to create work environments built on trust, respect and dignity.  Kevin holds a Master’s Degree in Organizational Management.  <em>\n</em>\n\nRead more <a href=\"http://consultgiana.com/putting-the-human-back-in-human-resources/\">here</a>....', 'Putting the HUMAN back in Human Resources', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'putting-the-human-back-in-human-resources-2', '', '', '2014-04-18 14:06:03', '2014-04-18 19:06:03', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14030', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(14044, 310, '2014-03-24 06:12:44', '2014-03-24 11:12:44', '<p align=\"center\"><b style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\"><i>“This country can ill afford to continue to function using less than half of its human resources, brain power, and kinetic energy.”\n\nTeams connect.\n</i><i>            C</i><i>ommunit</i><i>ies share.\n</i><i>            The tribe protects.\n</i><i>            F</i><i>amily</i><i> takes care.\n</i><i>            </i><i>The village</i><i> collects.\n</i><i>            A</i><i> congregation</i><i> gathers.\n</i><i>            Leaders get results.</i>\n\nWhat do these phrases represent? Individuals coming together to support each other to survive: feeding the collective body, recognizing strengths, imparting values, developing norms and honoring boundaries. Being resourceful— a trait or action essential to effective leadership</span>\n\nWe need other people; belonging and sharing anchor us. We are each other’s resources in many ways as we tap into our mutual brain power. Generations and cultures thrive on what has passed through and down, joining their gifts in the quest for survival. Communicating with the beat of the drum, voice of the knowledgeable, or the smoke of the fire, a powerful message resonates in this relay of information. And resources are identified, measured and utilized—human, financial, nutritional, or operational.\n\nSo what do we do now as we live in the age of warp-speed knowledge and change? Is there a continuance of these time-tested norms for leaders and various entities?\n\nToday followers, likes, and fans show up on our social maps as resources to tap into. How many we have determines our presence, both online and in the global sphere.\n\nThe right tools and the strongest support are needed to keep focused in the midst of these innovations. Our balance and perspective in a world of shifts depends on stocking our personal lists so they’re on hand as tools to support our leadership success. Below are three ways to address this reality.\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"> <b>1. The Network: Personal Connections as Supply</b></p>\nTapping into the brain power of those we encounter professionally or personally serves as a useful strategy for achieving our goals. Gleaned from casual conversations, meetings, or online exchanges, there’s authoritative wealth in sharing resources. Social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter create technological connections, allowing us to virtually supply to and receive help from others. Truly, networking rules the way today! This approach is part of the action of the ages: ‘reaching out to touch someone’, as the old telephone ads used to put it.\n\nAnd keep in mind that networking is a giving and sharing process. In our encounters, we should also look to gather helpful data that could benefit friends, colleagues, or others. Even inside organizations, hunting for the go-to person to get the inside scoop on goings-on and resources is a must. Remember, it’s not just who you know, but who they know, and who they know, and so on. This is the concept of “six degrees of separation,” which states that in this small world after all, we’re probably only six people removed from anyone we need to meet in the world.<b>           </b>\n<p align=\"center\"><b>2. The Strength of Questioning: Informational Interviewing</b></p>\n            If you ask the right question, invariably, you’ll get a useful answer. Such is what happens in informational interviewing. It is just what the title implies: an interview to gather information about career fields, organizations, or positions that may be of interest. When I started my training business, informational interviewing was the process that guided me in speaking with several consultants about the ins and outs of being a sole proprietor. How to find clients, the best places to get updates on the training industry, and other administrative matters were also critical questions in. these exchanges and these contacts were very open to share. Another human dynamic is that we really do like to be asked questions and seen as experts in something.\n<p align=\"center\"><b>3. Life and Leadership Matters: Hook-Ups that Help</b></p>\nWe can’t know it all or do it all. The key is people, people, people! Others’ assets, connections, and expertise are needed to help us on this leadership journey in work, community or home. As you think about these concepts of resource building, recognize that some may require you to get outside of your sphere of comfort.\n\nRight approaches and interpersonal principles can pay off in engaging others for support. As leaders it’s important to gauge which of these concepts will stretch you to a more beneficial zone. These options also increase the strength of our resource territory. Be seen! Go forth! Learn anew! Move!\n\nThen lead strong and prosper from it!\n\n&nbsp;\n\nParts excerpted from my book, For People of Strength, Soul and Spirit: 7 Guidelines for Life &amp; Career Success, on Amazon in print and Kindle eBook\n\n<a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AJJKY2G\" target=\"_blank\">http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AJJKY2G</a>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;', 'Becoming A Resourceful Leader: The Strong Do Survive', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'becoming-a-resourceful-leader-the-strong-do-survive', '', '', '2014-03-24 06:12:44', '2014-03-24 11:12:44', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14044', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(14055, 343, '2014-06-16 06:12:41', '2014-06-16 11:12:41', 'If you browse the titles of some of the most searched and rated leadership books on the web, you will find a variety of themes and trends.\n\nThere is 5-D Leadership. Results-Based Leadership. Leadership for the 21<sup>st</sup> Century (amassed from over 580 books). Leadership for different races, genders, and also for people groups and disciplines. There are books written for non-profit, educational, and political focuses. There is data-enhanced leadership. And lessons from such historical people such as Alexander the Great.\n\nIf you want to build a particular flavor of leadership, it\'s probably been developed.\n\nSo with all the choices out there, which does one choose?\n\nMay I suggest a book that hasn\'t yet been written. A flavor that gets overlooked but is always there. <em><strong>Plain Vanilla Leadership.</strong></em>\n\nIn comparison to the trendy thinking and marketing mentioned above, plain vanilla leadership may sound bland. But just like it\'s ice cream counterpart, it\'s a flavor that never goes out of style.\n\nPlain vanilla leadership is transparent. It\'s authentic and not artificial. It is not overblown. It doesn\'t clash with any other flavors or people. It goes with virtually anything.\n\nMuch of the books and thinking out there today is focused on leadership \"self\", promoting our flavor and what you bring to the table. But what plain vanilla does is it gives a solid and unassuming foundation for your people to stand out. Like the toppings on a sundae, it\'s the people that should be visible, their talents and tastes rising above everything else. Your people should stand out and not be overpowered by a style of leadership that undermines them.\n\nPlain vanilla leadership is solid and consistent. It claims nothing for itself but adds so much underneath to everything else it comes in contact with. Plain vanilla is the quiet character that lets others get the credit and feel the victory but regales in the collaboration that got them there.\n\nWhile there is nothing inherently wrong with many of the trends of leadership, we probably don\'t need as many of them. But what we always need more of is plain vanilla.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n(image courtesy of macrobusiness.com)', 'Plain Vanilla Leadership', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'plain-vanilla-leadership', '', '', '2014-06-16 06:12:41', '2014-06-16 11:12:41', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14055', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(14071, 243, '2014-03-25 06:23:10', '2014-03-25 11:23:10', '<i>Each month in our newsletter, we feature an interview with one of our Instigators. Recently we featured an interview  with Leigh Steere, </i><em style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">Co-founder, Managing People Better, LLC—a management research firm/think tank. Professional kettle-stirrer. Writer. Curriculum developer. Connect with Leigh on her LeadChange profile, <a href=\"http://www.managingpeoplebetter.com/\">website</a>, or <a href=\"http://twitter.com/Manage_Better\">Twitter</a> and check out the Managing People Better assessment where you can get some feedback on your management style and help with a research project.</em><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">]  </span>\n\n<strong style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\"><a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/leigh-steere.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-14074\" alt=\"leigh steere\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/leigh-steere.jpg\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" /></a>What is your background in leadership?</strong>\n\nI am a researcher and product developer in the people management field. Over the years, I’ve held various management and leadership roles, gaining a firsthand glimpse of the challenges leaders face. These experiences piqued my interest in creating leadership development tools. As I listen to workplace stories and witness manager-employee interactions, I note differences between strong leaders and struggling ones, inspiring leaders and ones who cause employees to shut down. It’s been fun to share these observations at LeadChangeGroup.com.\n\n<strong>What do you do to engage in leadership? </strong>\n\nPeter Friedes and I created a free online tool, <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=88e3df55615dff895482011dc&amp;id=1cd0921592&amp;e=6e18075e0a\">www.ManagingPeopleBetter.com</a>, which allows managers to look at the strengths and weaknesses of their management style. We also offer fee-based tools and content to help managers and leaders with self-reflection and managerial skill-building.\nI have an insatiable drive to read, observe and create. So even if I’m reading a science fiction novel or touring a historical site, I’m constantly on the lookout for new management and leadership insights.\n\n<strong>Do you have a book or person that particularly influenced you? </strong>\nMany people and books have influenced me over the years, so it’s hard to pick just one. I consciously started thinking about leadership in second grade after an experience at Neiman Marcus. That year, the retailer hosted an Australian Fortnight. They decorated the store with a Down Under theme and imported Australian merchandise of all sorts. I fell in love with a toy koala bear and decided it was all I wanted for my birthday that year. However, when we went back to buy it, there were none left.\n\nStanley Marcus was a hands-on manager. He walked the floors and talked with customers and happened to wander by as I was trying to hide my tears. He knelt down and asked me what was wrong. I explained about the koala bear, and he replied, “You’re in luck. I am flying to Australia next week and will bring one back for you. You’ll need to wait a bit, because I’m going to be there for several days.” But he indeed brought one back in his suitcase. He showed how customers and promises matter and how one impression can last a lifetime.\n\n<strong>What would you like to get out of your membership with the Lead Change Group?</strong>\nI was toying with the idea of setting up a blog and researching the best way to do that when I found <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=88e3df55615dff895482011dc&amp;id=3dcd8df37c&amp;e=6e18075e0a\" target=\"_self\">LeadChangeGroup.com</a>. The idea of being part of a group of bloggers resonated with me. I like the different perspectives we each bring to the table and feel that we as a group help readers explore leadership issues more fully than any one of us could alone. And in the process, we bloggers are also learning from each other.\n\nIf you’re registered on this site and you don’t get this newsletter each month, please click here to subscribe to the newsletter.', 'Meet Instigator Leigh Steere', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'meet-instigator-leigh-steere', '', '', '2014-03-25 06:23:10', '2014-03-25 11:23:10', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14071', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(14079, 288, '2014-03-26 06:12:43', '2014-03-26 11:12:43', 'There are lots of self-help books available today, although you may not be familiar with many of them. But you probably have heard of the granddaddy of these books, and every other self-help book published in living memory, for that matter: Dale Carnegie’s 1936 self-help classic “<a href=\"http://www.dalecarnegie.com/events/how-to-win-friends-and-influence-people/\">How to Win Friends and Influence People</a>.”\n\nThe first best-selling book of its kind, “How to Win Friends and Influence People” has entered the public consciousness for good reason. The precepts Carnegie shared in his 14-week leadership training and sales training courses, then later set down in his book, work just as surely now as they did for the generation of Americans who lived through the Great Depression. Why else would David Letterman reference the book in his popular jokes or billionaire Warren Buffet keep his own diploma from Carnegie’s course on his office wall?\n\nBut, just in case you don’t believe how powerful Carnegie’s advice was and still is, check out the following list of tips, pulled straight from his book. As Carnegie suggests in his introduction, practice them in your daily life and see if you don’t see an amazing difference in your interpersonal relationships.\n\n<b> Tip No. 1: Don’t Criticize, Condemn or Complain</b>\n\nIt’s said that human beings have 60,000 thoughts per day, and 50,000 of those are negative. However, in his book, Dale Carnegie advises against so much negativity. As Carnegie explains in the book, all people, even criminals, see themselves as heroes in their own stories, and consequently, they (and their egos) are apt to respond negatively toward those who view them in a negative light.\n\n<b>Tip No. 2: Give Honest and Sincere Appreciation</b>\n<b>\n</b>What Carnegie says concerning this is that we all too often only remark on others’ failings and rarely comment on their successes. Doing this, however, gets us into trouble interpersonally because, as the old saying goes, “you catch more flies with honey.” But, to completely understand this one, just think about how you react to those who criticize you versus those who commend you, and you’ll easily see why this tip will win you more friends.\n\n<b>Tip No. 3: Arouse in the Other Person an Eager Want</b>\n\nCarnegie lays this one out as keeping with humans’ most basic needs: money, love and feelings of importance. So his advice to those taking his leadership training and <a href=\"http://www.dalecarnegie.com/sales-effectiveness/\">sales training</a> course was to inspire other people to cooperate with you by showing them how that cooperation will satisfy one of these basic human needs. Perhaps you’re actually offering them something that will save them money or make the object of their affection love them more, but at the very least, you can show them how working with you will boost their own esteem.', '3 Tips on Building Good Relationships', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', '3-tips-on-building-good-relationships', '', '', '2014-03-26 06:12:43', '2014-03-26 11:12:43', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14079', 0, 'post', '', 2);
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(14085, 306, '2014-04-01 06:13:14', '2014-04-01 11:13:14', 'Given repeated rounds of downsizing, reorganizing, right sizing, and all of the other ‘zings’ that have befallen organizations, it’s easy to scan the landscape and come to the conclusion that career development options have shrunk... that they are few and far between for most employees.  After all:\n<ul>\n	<li><a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/redefine-results-by-redefining-career-development/career-development/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14087\"><img class=\"alignright  wp-image-14087\" alt=\"career development\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/career-development-300x300.jpg\" width=\"270\" height=\"270\" /></a>Delayering has left already lean organizations with fewer stops along the food chain.</li>\n	<li>Organizations continue to pursue outsourcing in the eternal quest for cost reduction.</li>\n	<li>Baby boomers are not only having the audacity to live longer... but they’re also working longer and occupying chairs that in the past would have been vacated for others.</li>\n	<li>Mergers and acquisitions continue to surface and systematically remove ‘redundancies’ (i.e. - people who were previously able to contribute their talents to the enterprise).</li>\n</ul>\nIt would be easy to declare career development DOA, an artifact of those charming days gone by, and a reality that we’ll all just have to get used to in business today. But, employees are <i>not</i> getting used to it. In fact, study after study reveals that lack of growth opportunities and career progression top the list of reasons employees (likely the ones an organization really wants to keep) quit.\n<h3><b>Painting a New Picture</b></h3>\nThe problem, however, is not with the business landscape... it’s with how we’re interpreting it and how we choose to define ‘career development.’  Clearly, gone are the days of the reliable career ladder, the system by which employees could expect that every 18 or so months they’d be invited to take yet another step upward toward their ultimate next big job. Today’s business environment demands that we replace our old definitions and pictures of career development.\n\nProgressive organizations are burying the ladder and introducing models that are more reflective of today’s reality.  Examples include: climbing walls, lattices, jungle gyms (and full playgrounds for that matter), spider webs, and a big ol’ plate of spaghetti. What do they have in common? They’re more fluid and organic. They emphasize lateral and horizontal exploration versus a myopic focus upward. And they all acknowledge the reality that interesting work, terrific contribution, and growth can happen right where one is without the need to ‘move’ anywhere.\n\nSavvy managers and leaders are figuring out how to turn existing roles into development opportunities. And this resonates with employees. A <a href=\"http://www.blessingwhite.com/content/articles/enews/March2014.asp\">recent survey</a> conducted by BlessingWhite found that 87% of employees polled agreed that “I don’t think there is anything wrong with staying in the same job if I can try new things or develop my skills.”\n<h3><b>Same Seat, New View</b></h3>\nDeveloping in place offers countless benefits... to the organization and the individual.  Engagement. Skill acquisition. Greater effectiveness. Expanded contribution. Bench strength.\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">And there are countless ways for employees to grow without changing offices, business cards, or roles. Consider any of the following:</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/redefine-results-by-redefining-career-development/words/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14086\"><img class=\"wp-image-14086 aligncenter\" alt=\"words\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/words.jpg\" width=\"618\" height=\"212\" /></a></p>\nAnd that doesn’t even scratch the surface. The options for developing in place are limited only by the commitment and creativity of the managers and employees involved.\n\nBut it’s not just about working one-on-one with employees. Development is scalable when leaders take deliberate steps to cultivate a culture that allows everyone to enjoy the kind of growth that encourages engagement, retention, and contribution by:\n<ul>\n	<li>Engaging in regular, short, frequent conversations about goals, interests, accomplishments, and needs.</li>\n	<li>Sharing big picture information about the organization, its challenges, direction, and needs.</li>\n	<li>Encouraging internal collaboration, social networks, learning circles, and peer networking.</li>\n	<li>Mining experiences for teaching value with simple questions like, ‘what did you learn from that?’</li>\n</ul>\nBut the first - and most important - task is to redefine career development. As soon as we let go of the ladder, we’ll find ourselves squarely in today’s reality, a reality that offers unlimited opportunity for everyone to grow... right where they are currently planted.\n\n<em><strong>What about you?  </strong>What’s your current definition of career development?</em>\n\nImage: www.freedigitalphotos.net', 'Redefine Results by Redefining Career Development', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'redefine-results-by-redefining-career-development', '', '', '2014-04-01 06:13:14', '2014-04-01 11:13:14', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14085', 0, 'post', '', 9),
(14122, 350, '2014-03-28 06:11:59', '2014-03-28 11:11:59', 'When I was 15 years old, I desperately wanted to leave home and see the world. Mom made it clear that to do that, I’d need some cash. So I did what any self-serving kid would do. I got a job.\n\nMy first teenage jobs were:\n<ul>\n	<li>Church camp dishwasher</li>\n	<li>Auto dealer file clerk</li>\n	<li>Guitar cord assembly line</li>\n	<li>Restaurant busser</li>\n</ul>\nThere were a few things I liked about these jobs besides the meager paycheck. I loved my friends at the church camp. The couple who ran the guitar shop loved my ability to work fast. The boys washing cars at the auto dealer were cute and lastly, so were the restaurant cooks.\n\nThese jobs were a massive toleration of boredom, long hours, schedule changes, inconsistent job descriptions, and stressed out managers.\n\nWhat did I learn? <i>Work Sucks!</i>\n\nHere are the things I hated most:\n<ul>\n	<li>Begging for raises</li>\n	<li>Not getting feedback</li>\n	<li>Getting “unfairly” judged</li>\n	<li>Being micromanaged</li>\n	<li>Not having my opinion or knowledge respected</li>\n</ul>\nAfter college and years of waiting tables and tending bar, I started selling records for a music importer. This “cool” company was no better than the rest. I decided that I would have to create something of my own.\n\nI went into business at the age of 23. I wanted to build something that didn\'t suck. I wanted people to like their jobs.\n\nBy trial and error,  I learned how to macromanage rather than micromanage. We created multiple ways to communicate openly and safely. And in an early fit of frustration when employees weren\'t sure whether or not to trust me, we opened the books.\n\nOpening the books paved the way for a deeper conversation, a team that moved together in unison, and empowerment on a scale I’d never experienced before.\n\nAs it turns out, I am not alone. There is a whole movement afoot to change the way we do business by creating collaborative models. Turns out, the research is in, it is not just about prosperity. If we don’t change, and work continues to suck out our souls, we die.\n\nIt is therefore, critical, that in whatever way we can, the most important movement of our time is still the labor movement: The quiet revolution that eliminates soul sucking jobs and replaces them with soulful jobs.\n\nIt sounds daunting because there is a confusion of methods. But don\'t be fooled, you can put the soul in your organization - <i>your way</i>. I\'ll simply provide the barest of essentials:\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><b>Shine a Light on Information: </b></p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left; padding-left: 30px;\">Most workers will tell you that they are better at their jobs and have the ability to meet their goals more reliably if  they are trusted with information. People can’t act responsibly when they are in the dark.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><b>We are Problem Solvers:</b></p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left; padding-left: 30px;\"><b> </b>People want to be trusted problem solvers and all you have to do is give them information and resources. Just like quality control, when trusted, <b>t</b>hey will do it and they will do it well.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"> <b>“Weigh in” not “Buy in:\" </b></p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left; padding-left: 30px;\">Making decisions and then asking people to “buy in” sucks. The inverse  requires a high level of communication but people know they are valued when they are implementing decisions they are responsible for making.</p>\n<b>The Whole Elephant:</b>\n<p style=\"text-align: left; padding-left: 30px;\">A meaningful team member knows what everyone does, what the customer needs, and what their challenges are. When everyone participates at an organizational level, not just at a task level, they light up. Get beyond job descriptions. Create more trust, imagination and participation but inviting everyone to manage the beast.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">There are many beautiful stories of companies that have implemented solutions of their own design that have made for loyal, responsible, happy, and successful businesses. Those leaders didn\'t need an instruction guide telling them what to do. They simply used their intuition to put the soul in their organization.</p>\nNot sure where to start? Ask people in your organization what sucks. They will tell you. And be ready to lead the biggest revolution of our time. Are you ready to eliminate soul sucking jobs forever?\n\n&nbsp;\n\nPhoto credit: <em>@Atholpady, That Sucks!</em>', 'The New Labor Movement', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'the-new-labor-movement', '', '', '2014-03-28 06:11:59', '2014-03-28 11:11:59', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14122', 0, 'post', '', 3),
(14133, 246, '2014-03-31 06:12:58', '2014-03-31 11:12:58', 'As a leader, you have three choices when a problem situation comes up between two or more members of your team:\n<ol>\n	<li>Fix the problem</li>\n	<li>Coach them to fix the problem</li>\n	<li>Ignore the problem</li>\n</ol>\nOptions 1 and 2 both require your time, energy, and focus. And sometimes you just don’t have the time for it.  This is when the problem situation gets ignored and your team members are on their own.\n\nAnd the pain will grow.\n\nHere are the three indicators that your team is in pain:\n\n<b>3. No news is good news</b>\n\nWhen you don’t hear back from anyone, you decide that as adults they fixed the problem. You are proud of them and congratulate them on working it. When you try to stop the water from spewing from a broken pipe, the water will find a different place to spew. Expect additional and often times more severe problems to surface.\n\n<b style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">Quick Tip:</b><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\"> Be proactive instead of reactive</span>\n\nEncourage a quick touch base with the individuals on your team as often as is possible. Investing small amounts of time more often (in good and not-so-good times) will keep your communication flow open and receptive.  If they have trust in your ability to support, they will come when the problem is small and easily tackled!\n\n<b style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">2. Absenteeism</b>\n\nWhen an individual disconnects from their work, they may get ill or feel unmotivated to work in the current environment.  Unmotivated individuals affect the team’s success and the ability of the organization to meet the needs of their stakeholders, customers, and employees. Absenteeism can take on many forms: not being at work physically, mentally, or emotionally.\n\n<b style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">Quick Tip:</b><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\"> Reconnect to the human</span>\n\nUse this opportunity to reconnect to the person as a human being. Take the time required to learn about their situation at work and harvest solutions to turn the environment around.  If this person feels this way, perhaps others do, too. Using your leadership to help make work life a better place will not go unnoticed.\n\n<b style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">1. No permission to communicate</b>\n\nWe have conversations with ourselves all the time, using our personal lens to analyze the world and the actions/words of our co-workers. When things are said or done that don’t match how we would like, we often battle with how to address it. And this is when the request for a meeting with management happens. It ends up on your lap. How do you coach each individual problem situation every time?\n\n<b>Quick Tip:</b> Create guiding principles as a team\n\nInstead of fixing every interaction one at a time, help your employees help themselves.  Invest in a team meeting to have <b><i>them</i></b> discover their principles for communication when things go right (how will we celebrate and help each other shine) and when things go wrong (how can we be honest with each other to make things better).  Engage them in open dialogue using their own personal principles as a starting point.\n\nIt’s time to assess the pain level of your team and help discover ways to help each member flourish, thrive and grow individually and together. Which of these will you start implementing? Which have you tried and how did they help? What should you stop doing?\n\nTo create your own set of Team Guiding Principles, <a href=\"http://eepurl.com/RtMgn\">sign-up</a> to receive a complimentary copy of my “tried and true” team activity for generating Team Guiding Principles.', 'The Three Indicators that Your Team is Still in Pain', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'the-three-indicators-that-your-team-is-still-in-pain', '', '', '2014-03-31 06:12:58', '2014-03-31 11:12:58', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14133', 0, 'post', '', 1),
(14147, 244, '2014-04-02 06:12:46', '2014-04-02 11:12:46', '<img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-14148\" alt=\"Who\'s In Your Inner Circle?\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/medium_4324300694-300x199.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" />Who are the people in your “Inner Circle” - i.e., those people who you believe have the most significant influence on your life from this point forward?\n\nThey may be your family members, your friends, the people you work with, and/or the people in the various communities to which you belong such as school or place of worship. They may be people you chose to have in your life or simply people who just seemed to show up.  They may have been there since you were born or just became a part of your life recently.\n\nYet whoever they are, however they became a part of your life, or for how long they have been in your life is NOT important. <a href=\"http://wp.me/p339ZO-1YC\">Read more.</a>', 'Who&#039;s In Your Inner Circle?', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'whos-in-your-inner-circle', '', '', '2014-04-02 06:12:46', '2014-04-02 11:12:46', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14147', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(14152, 243, '2014-03-29 10:04:30', '2014-03-29 15:04:30', 'In late March, 2009, after 4 months of thinking and planning, I decided to start a leadership consulting business named the Lead Change Group. I also decided to create a group on <a title=\"Lead Change Group on LinkedIn\" href=\"http://bit.ly/leadchange\" target=\"_blank\">LinkedIn</a> to connect with like-minded folks and potential prospects.  So on March 30, 2009, I went to the LinkedIn Groups section and clicked a button.  That click began a journey that has changed my life.\n<ol>\n	<li>Doing trumps thinking, talking, intending, pondering, meditating, challenging, organizing, managing, and a host of other “ing” words.</li>\n	<li>The first \"do\" is only meaningful if you keep doing. Let what you’ve done challenge you to take the next step. Starting is always harder than continuing.</li>\n	<li>Your vision pulls you forward. What you\'ve <em>done</em> pushes and what you <em>dream</em> pulls. Your dream can pull you to an audacious future.</li>\n	<li>Force rank your dreams. Discipline is knowing what you want. Don\'t waste time too far down the list. (<a title=\"Tweet this!\" href=\"http://ctt.ec/40eK_\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Click to Tweet</em></a>)</li>\n	<li>Dream big. Big dreams pull harder, longer. My initial dreams about a coaching business weren’t big enough to pull me through the dip.</li>\n	<li>Don’t compromise on your dream. Expand your horizon (timeline) or ask for help rather than give up. (<a title=\"Tweet this!\" href=\"http://ctt.ec/pUZk5\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Click to Tweet!</em></a>)</li>\n	<li>In fact, Never give up. Shortages of money and time can’t stop you unless you let them. Every time you do something you might not otherwise have done, we both win.</li>\n	<li>Do something every day. If you get done early, do something else.</li>\n	<li>Don’t complain about what didn’t work. Learn and move on.</li>\n	<li>The most ubiquitous mistake is doing nothing. Screw up in gear. (<a title=\"Click to tweet!\" href=\"http://ctt.ec/s59cz\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Click to tweet!</em></a>)</li>\n	<li>Learn for something. Share, teach. You can complain about the pothole or tell someone about it. Don’t just fix your own flat tire and keep going.</li>\n	<li>Don’t compete. Waste no energy in a scarcity-based mindset. Your only competition is our own tendency toward passivity and mediocrity. Steven Pressfield called that tendency the Resistance.</li>\n	<li>The world needs all the character-based leaders it can get. Take responsibility for your sphere of influence, starting with yourself. Make yourself and your world the best it can be and you will inspire others.</li>\n	<li>You don’t need permission. You have permission. Find a way to make your world better.</li>\n</ol>\nAnd a final note, number 15: Anyone can lead <em>same</em>. Our world needs you to lead <em>change</em>.[Tweet \"Anyone can lead same. Our world needs you to #LeadChange.\"]\n\nI\'m grateful for the lessons I\'ve learned and the people I\'ve met. Thank you. We can make our world better. There are millions of good people who just need some exposure and some inspiration.\n\nYou\'ve read to here because you\'re already one of those people; ready to share and inspire.  Please add your voice. What would you tell someone who just found this post from Google?  What have you learned about leadership in the last 5 years?  All of us are smarter than any one of us. Please share your thoughts and ideas below.  Thanks for being part of the revolution!\n\nAnd if you\'re new here, check out The Origins of the Lead Change Group, get a <a title=\"The Character Based Leader website\" href=\"http://characterbasedleader.com\" target=\"_blank\">copy of our book</a>, get our monthly newsletter, or become an Instigator. We can help you expand your impact and lead change too.\n<span style=\"font-size:xx-small;\">Photo © ia_64 istockphoto</span>', '15 Lessons from 5 Years of Lead Change Group', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', '15-lessons-5-years-lead-change-group', '', '', '2014-03-29 10:04:30', '2014-03-29 15:04:30', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14152', 0, 'post', '', 6),
(14173, 338, '2014-04-03 06:12:27', '2014-04-03 11:12:27', '<a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Carrot-and-Stick.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-14177 alignright\" alt=\"Carrot and Stick\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Carrot-and-Stick.jpg\" width=\"259\" height=\"194\" /></a>\n\nIf you’ve been in a leadership position for very long, you’ve probably struggled with the challenge of motivating your people.\n\nPerhaps you’ve tried various techniques like the carrot and stick, the inspirational speech, or annual bonuses.\n\nMaybe you’ve even read books on motivation like Dan Pink’s Drive or perused some of the academic literature on it.\n\nThis is all well and good, but all these efforts assume one key thing: that you can actually motivate your people.\n\nThe truth is that you can’t.\n\nBecause they are the only ones that can do that.\n\n<strong>We’re All Needy</strong>\n\nResearch by Dr. Steven Reiss, emeritus professor of psychology at The Ohio State University, says that motivation is innate. His research shows that there are 16 universal motives that impel us to action.\n\nThey are:\n\n1.    Acceptance: the need for approval\n2.    Beauty: the need for an aesthetically-appealing environment\n3.    Curiosity: the need to understand\n4.    Eating: strength of interest in food\n5.    Expedience: the desire to take practical advantage of opportunities\n6.    Family: the need to spend time with family\n7.    Idealism: the need to improve society\n8.    Interdependence, motivation to rely on others\n9.    Order: the need to be organized\n10.    Physical Activity: the need for exercise\n11.    Power: the need to lead\n12.    Saving: the need to collect\n13.    Social Contact: the need for friends\n14.    Status: the need for prestige\n15.    Tranquility: the need to play it safe\n16.    Vengeance: strength of competitive spirit\n\nEach of us carries these motivations within us to different degrees.\n\nAnd it’s up to each of us to act up them.\n\nW<strong>hat You Need to Know About Motivation</strong>\n\nReiss bases his approach to motivation on several key principles:\n\n1. Universal Motives: Certain motives are common to everyone and deeply rooted in human nature.\n\n2. Intrinsic Motivation: For each person, intrinsic motivation is the combination of the universal motives and how much we want of them. The aggregate across all 16 motives constitutes a person’s unique “motivational signature.”\n\n3. Relationship Compatibility: People are naturally motivated to assert their basic motives in relationships. People with similar motivational profiles usually get along better than those with divergent profiles. This can be summed up as “birds of a feather flock together.”\n\n4. Strong Basic Desires: Strong intrinsic motivations are satisfied in multiple ways. For instance, if you have naturally hearty appetite, you will eat many different kinds of food.\n\n5. The satisfaction of each motive produces an intrinsically valued feeling of joy. So people behave as if they are trying to maximize their experiences of their particular intrinsic motives.\n\n5. Self-Hugging: We think our values are best, not just for us, but for everyone. Therefore, we pressure others to change their motivations to our way thinking and believe they will be better off for it.\n\n6.  Motivational Set Point: individuals are motivated to aim for a particular level of motivational satisfaction. Any variation above or below this set point generates a corresponding reaction back toward that person’s “mean” or set point.\n\n<strong>Intrinsic Motivation in Practice</strong>\n\nFor most people there are a few basic desires that are stronger than the rest. These are the motivators the help explain behavior. For example, some people spend their time satisfying their desire for curiosity, others seek power, while other are out for vengeance.\n\nWhat actually propels motivation are the differences between the amount of an intrinsic motivator that is desired and the amount that was recently experienced.\n\nFor example, when a person experiences more power than he or she desires, the individual is motivated to be power-less for a period of time to balance toward the set point.\n\nConversely, when a person experiences less power than the set point, the individual is motivated to be powerful, perhaps manifested by domineering behavior for a period of time.\n\n<strong>Implications of Motivation for Leaders</strong>\n\n1. Remember that everyone has a unique set of motivators, their “motivational signature.” Everyone manifests their motives in a unique, individualistic way. Further, everyone prioritizes their motives in differing degrees.\n\n2. Get to know your people’s most important motivators. That way you can work to set the conditions so that their motivational needs are satisfied. The leader’s job is to ensure that the organization’s culture provides support for ongoing satisfaction of the members’ motives.\n\n3. Tailor your approach to take into account each person’s motivations. You can leverage the idea of motivational signatures to deliver more targeted feedback while also seeking to facilitate employee performance and job satisfaction.\n\n4. Leverage motives to build teamwork. Since “birds of a feather” flock together, an astute leader can group together people with similar motivational profiles to facilitate teamwork. Similarly, the leader can diagnose team dysfunction by analyzing motivational compatibility.\n\n5. Don’t be a self-hugger. Make sure you know your own motivational signature, so that you can better monitor the way you communicate with those around you. By doing so you can be more mindful of imposing your particular intrinsic motives on others. Similarly, by understanding the motives of others, you can be more sympathetic toward their point of view.\n\n<strong>Getting Motivated About Motivation</strong>\n\nUnderstanding what motivates your people in terms of the 16 universal motives is a powerful tool to have in your leadership tool kit.\n\nRather than trying to be the motivator for your people, instead figure out what lights their internal fire and then set the conditions for them.\n\n<!--[if gte mso 9]&gt;-->\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;\"><!--[if gte mso 9]&gt;--></p>\n&nbsp;', 'The Secret of Motivating Your People (Hint: It&#039;s Not Exactly Up to You)', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'the-secret-of-motivating-your-people-hint-its-not-exactly-up-to-you', '', '', '2014-04-03 06:12:27', '2014-04-03 11:12:27', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14173', 0, 'post', '', 13),
(14181, 270, '2014-04-02 12:38:31', '2014-04-02 17:38:31', '<a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Without-a-vision-people-and-organizations-perish.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-14182\" alt=\"Without-a-vision-people-and-organizations-perish\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Without-a-vision-people-and-organizations-perish-300x225.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>As expats we live in a secure compound with high walls, inside those walls we have grass, trees, flowers, beauty and order.\n\nMany local families live in their own high walled “compounds” with their extended families. And although I have never been behind those walls I have heard of their gardens.\n\nOutside of all of our walls is the city we all share. Most of the city is full of trash, partially developed buildings, blowing sand, broken sidewalks – if there are sidewalks at all; narrow streets and tiny parking lots that don’t accommodate all of the cars, and random unmatched street lights that don’t begin to illuminate the dark\n\nRead more <a href=\"http://consultgiana.com/chaos-or-vision-you-choose/\">here</a>....', 'Chaos or Vision: YOU Choose!', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'chaos-or-vision-you-choose', '', '', '2014-04-02 12:38:31', '2014-04-02 17:38:31', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14181', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(14195, 316, '2014-04-15 12:12:29', '2014-04-15 17:12:29', '<span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">We all know language is key to leadership.  The subtleties, nuances, intonations, and gestures have profound</span><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\"> effects on leaders’ credibility and on organizations’ success.  Yet, while we think about the customers of our products and services, many of us don\'t think as much about the ‘hearers’ (customers) of our words when it’s our own people. [...] When we make assessments sound like assertions, we lose credibility.  Our people wonder:  “Why is that so?” “How does she or he know that?” “What made him or her draw that conclusion?” </span>\n\n<a style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\" href=\"http://mills-scofield.com/blog/2014/3/31/assertions-assessments-what-comes-after-your-ass.html#.UzyCWPldU3k\" target=\"_blank\">Read more here</a><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">...</span>', 'Assertions &#038; Assessments: What Comes After Your “Ass...”?', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'assertions-assessments-what-comes-after-your-ass-2', '', '', '2014-04-15 12:12:29', '2014-04-15 17:12:29', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14195', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(14211, 307, '2014-04-03 13:24:19', '2014-04-03 18:24:19', '<a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Screen-Shot-2011-09-06-at-1.56.00-PM.png\"><img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-5438\" alt=\"Smartblog Logo\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Screen-Shot-2011-09-06-at-1.56.00-PM.png\" width=\"232\" height=\"96\" /></a>Sara leaned back, crossed her arms, and sighed.\n\n“It’s not right! My VP expects me to hit these numbers, but customers want updates, and research is focused on new products and won’t give me the time of day.”\n\nShe shook her head. “I guess I’ll go down to R&amp;D and tell them they’ve got to change their attitude or the company’s going to end up in the toilet. This just sucks!”\n\nI asked, “How do you think that will work?”\n\n“It won’t! But what else can I do? I didn’t ask for any of this!”\n\n<span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">Read more </span><a style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\" href=\"http://smartblogs.com/leadership/2014/04/03/the-question-every-great-leader-asks/\">here.</a><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">...</span>', 'The question every great leader asks', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'the-question-every-great-leader-asks', '', '', '2014-04-03 13:24:19', '2014-04-03 18:24:19', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14211', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(14216, 243, '2014-04-04 06:03:24', '2014-04-04 11:03:24', '<em><a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/john-bossong.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-14220\" alt=\"john bossong\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/john-bossong.jpg\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" /></a>We last interviewed John Bossong in the November 2012 Lead Change newsletter and wanted to get an update from him as to where he is now in his leadership journey! In his original interview, John shared his background in leadership</em>:\n\n<b>I\'ve been in leadership positions for most of my career, in the transportation industry. I believe leading in the trenches is where you develop your leadership skills and abilities. I also think self-development is important. There is so much information available now, learning if free. It\'s a matter of putting in the time and effort to grow. </b>\n\n<i>John, it\'s been almost 18 months since your last interview with Lead Change. What\'s been happening in your leadership world in the last year and a half?</i>\n\n<b>The last 18 months I\'ve been spending the majority of my leadership time at work; we opened a new location, so that\'s where I\'ve been focusing my leadership efforts, leading our team.  </b>\n\n<i>What are your goals for the next 18 months</i>?<i>  What kinds of things are you pursuing in your leadership and development?</i> <i></i>\n\n<b>I\'ll be focusing my efforts with the family and being a leader to my 3 daughters. They are at the age where my influence (leadership) is crucial. I\'ll also be finishing up a year-long certification for work in the transportation industry.  </b>\n\n<i>What do you do to engage in leadership?</i>\n\n<b>I try to read as much as possible and attend leadership events whenever possible. Interacting through social media is good; however, it can become time consuming if you let it! It\'s a great way to meet new people and learn.</b>\n\n<i>Do you have a recommendation you\'d make to a developing leader? What might you suggest to help a leader move their leadership to the next level?</i>\n\n<b>Surround yourself with great people. Read, study and learn as much as you can. Don\'t be afraid to reach out to other people. People are willing to share and help. Realize you will make mistakes and fail, but in the process you will grow.</b><i>  </i><i></i>\n\n<i>Do you have a book or person that particularly influenced you?\n</i><i>\n</i><b>I have 3 people who have influenced me. The first is my dad, the second is my oldest brother, and the third is my wife. The Bible is my favorite book, it has great leadership information. There are a lot of great books and authors so it\'s hard to single one out. I do enjoy Jim Collins\' work, Stephen Covey, John Maxwell, Bill Hybel, Ken Blanchard, Malcolm Gladwell, Seth Godin, Simon Sinek, Dave Ramsey. Those are some of my favorites.</b>\n\n&nbsp;\n\nIf you’re registered on this site and you don’t get the Lead Change newsletter each month, please click here to subscribe to the newsletter.', 'Interview with Instigator John Bossong', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'interview-with-instigator-john-bossong', '', '', '2014-04-04 06:03:24', '2014-04-04 11:03:24', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14216', 0, 'post', '', 2),
(14223, 343, '2014-04-11 06:12:05', '2014-04-11 11:12:05', '<span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">It was one of those moments that you wanted to take back right after it happened.</span>\n\nI was discussing some equipment concerns with Sid, our facilities director.  We had ten expensive transport units that were purchased a few months prior to my coming on board, and they were breaking down quickly. We had no success in getting the manufacturer to stand behind their product, and now we were desperately looking for internal solutions.\n\nWhat went from a frustrating problem for both parties turned into a heated argument with each of us justifying our position. In a split moment, I pointed my finger at Sid and raised my voice harshly. With that, he turned and walked away back to his office.\n\nI was left standing with the realization that I had just lost it. We had done everything to turn around a lackluster department and we were becoming a <a href=\"http://upwardsleader.com/2014/02/04/celebrate-your-rising-stars/\">rising star</a> and setting an example for others to follow. Now I had just undermined everything that we had worked hard to build up. And if that wasn\'t bad enough, I had done so in front of my staff and leadership team.\n\nThere is one fact that all of us as leaders have in common - none of us are perfect. With the best intentions, our passions and emotions can turn even the most careful actions into times where we lose our demeanor and our credibility. We\'re only human, and we can easily explain it away in those terms.\n\nBut there is another fact that is even more encouraging than the first one - we all have the ability to remedy our transgressions and rebuild what we\'ve lost. It takes awareness, humiltiy, and, of course, an amount of effort, but if handled in the right manner you can redeem yourself and pick up your influence where you left off. Here\'s what I did in my situation.\n\n<strong>First, I came to terms with myself</strong>. I could have walked away and hid for the remainder of the day. This was a critical juncture for me. <span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">Fortunately, Sid and I</span><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\"> not attack each other, just the problem. </span><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">I decided not to let this derail all the efforts we spent to make some positive impacts, and that I had to make things right with everyone immediately. So as soon as I recognized and resolved what to do, I acted.</span>\n\n<strong>Second, I apologized to my staff right then and there</strong>. I explained how bad I felt for what just happened, and that I strive to act more professionally at all times in order to set a good example. A few of them said \"That\'s all right, it happens\" and were pretty forgiving. I believe this step helped them see how human I was, and that it made me more of a real person in some ways to them.\n\n<span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\"><strong>Third, I went straight to the other party to apologize</strong>. I knocked on Sid\'s door and asked if I could speak with him. I apologized for my outburst and let him know that was not how I prefer to conduct myself. Sid looked up at me, puzzled at why I was apologizing. \"Why, that\'s what I expect of </span>someone<span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\"> in your position. You\'re the </span>department<span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\"> head and you should be able to speak your mind.\" \"But not in that way,\" I replied. I </span>explained<span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\"> what my goal for myself had been since I started, and that I didn\'t want my actions to tarnish an otherwise good working relationship with him. He waved his hand and said \"Hey, it\'s no </span>problem, it happens.\" (Think I heard that somewhere before). After a few minutes, I left and had a sense of peace that things were going to be just fine.\n\nDuring those moments that we fail ourselves and the people who rely on us, we must make restitution and rebuild trust and relationships. It must be genuine, and done with a spirit to repair what was torn down.\n\nDo you feel all is lost when those situations occur? The worst that can happen is to do nothing and ignore it. Go to the issue, no matter how painful it may be. Only then can everyone start to move forward as a team.\n\nI was at  that organization for 4 years and left 2 years ago. Last month at my step-son\'s basketball game, I ran into Sid and his wife whom I haven\'t seen in that time. They were so excited to see me, and told me how much they and many others missed having me there. They expressed their disappointment and confided in how things are running since I left, but they are happy for the choices I\'ve made. I encouraged them to hang in there as Sid is closing in on retirement very soon. Our conversation was as if our altercation never happened. This never would have been the case if I didn\'t <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/breaking-down-those-organizational-walls/\">break down those walls</a> I put up 6 years ago.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n(Photo credit: Courtesy of therisingmuse.com)', 'When Leaders Lose It', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'when-leaders-lose-it', '', '', '2014-04-11 06:12:05', '2014-04-11 11:12:05', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14223', 0, 'post', '', 5),
(14233, 244, '2014-04-21 12:23:12', '2014-04-21 17:23:12', '<em>Following is a guest post from Becky Robinson, Founder and CEO of <a href=\"http://weavinginfluence.com\" target=\"_blank\">Weaving Influence</a>.  </em>\n<blockquote><em>“Just as we all have unique ways of signing our names, we all create a unique sign</em><em>ature as leaders. Your signature presence is the unique suite of leadership assets that make you you.” -- </em><strong>Kathy Cramer, Lead Positive</strong></blockquote>\nOne of my favorite aspects of my job as an online influence building consultant is meeting and interacting with the authors and thought leaders we serve. Even though many of our authors write and speak about effective leadership, each one is unique — in their perspectives, approaches, desires, thoughts, and attitudes. <a href=\"http://wp.me/p339ZO-1YS\">Read more.</a>', 'How Will You Show Up Today?', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'how-will-you-show-up-today', '', '', '2014-04-21 12:23:12', '2014-04-21 17:23:12', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14233', 0, 'post', '', 1),
(14239, 290, '2014-04-09 06:12:46', '2014-04-09 11:12:46', '<img class=\"alignright  wp-image-13587\" alt=\"The Hard Truth About Trust\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Trust-Word-Cloud-300x300.jpg\" width=\"180\" height=\"180\" />There are certain core leadership principles that run deep in leading well, and one is trust. Trust doesn’t just happen. Although trust should be second nature, the reality is trust takes effort. This isn’t an effort in a time-consuming way but in a fully-engaged leading way. In fact, distrust is easier to do and may be why leaders fall into this trap. Some leaders are just lazy. The result: They build distrust.\n<h2><strong>5 ways to build distrust</strong></h2>\nHere are five ways someone builds distrust within an organization.\n<h3>1 - Send a detailed list of tasks before a project begins.</h3>\nAs we take on a new project (large or small), we receive an email detailing out all the steps we need to take as if we are some incapable fool who needs to be told what to do and not do. Some call this micro-managing. For me, it is worse. Sending detailed lists of what to do signifies unwarranted distrust. The detailed list assumes someone will be error-prone even before they take the first step forward.<b></b>\n<h3>2 - Thank someone only for insignificant things worked on.</h3>\nIn tenuous working relationships, we receive the tepid gratitude on very small things. Receiving this limited gratitude is like getting a ribbon for participation. No one wants to be thanked for just showing up and then ignored for the bigger achievements done. For the person delivering the small words of gratitude, they want to feel like they are saying \"I trust you\" yet they are really saying \"You can do the small things well but not the big things.\"\n<h3>3 - Host a brainstorming session so only your ideas can be adopted.</h3>\nA big meeting is scheduled to brainstorm new ideas on how to resolve a problem or undertake an initiative. The reality of the situation is the one calling the \"brainstorming\" session is just calling a session to validate their ideas. No real brainstorming actually occurs. These sessions are just tense re-hashing of old ideas, ones that certain leaders may be more comfortable.\n<h3>4 - Change the team\'s direction when the manager is out of the office.</h3>\nThe ultimate distrust is when another manager changes a team\'s direction or introduces a new approach when the team\'s manager is out of the office. Distrust is abound, along with undercutting the credibility of the manager. Sucking the credibility out of another leader is worse than firing them.\n<h3>5 - Talk endlessly at someone.</h3>\nConversations are two-way. For some though, conversations are an opportunity to lecture. These \"talks\" happen under the guise of a conversation but they are really just lecture time. Remember the <a title=\"Maxell speaker ad\" href=\"http://money.cnn.com/video/smallbusiness/2013/05/15/smb-waybackwednesday-maxell.cnnmoney/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">old ad of a guy sitting in front of a speaker</a> with his hair blowing from the sound of a Maxell cassette tape? This is what I mean. Distrust is built in one-way lectures promoted as a conversation.\n\n<b><i>Warning:</i></b> Please don’t do these things! The <a title=\"Can you rebuild broken trust?\" href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/can-you-rebuild-broken-trust/\">costs of leading</a> your organization will skyrocket and, ultimately, you will fail. Instead, heed the warning and:\n<ol>\n	<li>Empower people in trust as projects get underway</li>\n	<li>Exhibit gratitude in large and small achievements</li>\n	<li>Let ideas flourish from all levels</li>\n	<li>Support managers in their growth and leadership capabilities</li>\n	<li>Listen to understand</li>\n</ol>\n<h2><strong>Trust is a leadership imperative</strong></h2>\nThe message is simple.\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>Don’t be a lazy leader.</strong></p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>Be a leader centered in trust.</strong></p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>Build trust even when it is challenging to do so.</strong></p>\nAs leaders, we need to set the trust example in all we do and say. Building trust is about working within and between generations. What could be more important?\n\nJust remember. Building distrust saps the spirit out of all involved. Leading with trust sparks the spirit in all.\n\n<em><strong>How do you build and empower trust within organizations?</strong></em>', 'Five Ways to Build Distrust', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'five-ways-to-build-distrust', '', '', '2014-04-09 06:12:46', '2014-04-09 11:12:46', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14239', 0, 'post', '', 7),
(14249, 251, '2014-04-10 06:12:33', '2014-04-10 11:12:33', '<span style=\"color: #000000;\">If you knew a replacement part would add an </span><a href=\"http://blogs.wsj.com/corporate-intelligence/2014/04/01/emails-show-cost-to-gm-of-a-better-ignition-switch-90-cents/\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">extra 90¢ in costs </span></a><span style=\"color: #000000;\">and yield only a dime in warranty savings, would you authorize use of the more expensive part?</span>\n\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">Probably not. Managers would crunch the business case and find the spending increase unjustified.</span>\n\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">But suppose you knew the additional cost would prevent costly accidents and even save lives. </span>\n\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">Would your decision be different?</span>\n\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">I’m sure a character-based leader would decide to go with the more expensive part. Why? </span>\n\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">Because a character-based leader knows the business of business is business and practices that by watching the bottom line AND doing the right thing.</span>\n\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">What’s happening with GM’s ignition switch issue fills me with horror and fascination. GM folks crunched the numbers in 2005 and made the business decision not to fix the problem because it </span><a href=\"http://www.npr.org/2014/03/31/297312252/the-long-road-to-gms-ignition-switch-recall\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">“would take too long and cost too much money.”</span></a><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> GM is but the latest in a long string of companies making economic-driven decisions that ignore societal impacts. Think Toyota, Lehman Brothers, Halliburton, Exxon.</span>\n\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">There are those who passionately say the sole responsibility of business is making money. If this is so, must it mean that there’s no room for ethics, honor, and compassion? That the size of annual earnings or stock price increase is the only measure of success? That if the focus is on the numbers then values must get lost in the shuffle?</span>\n\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">Why must it be one or the other? </span>\n\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">Why can’t be it both? Both numbers and values, earnings and integrity, profits and principles.</span>\n<blockquote><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>Institutional logic holds that companies are more than instruments for generating money; they are also vehicles for accomplishing societal purposes and for providing meaningful livelihoods for those who work in them</em>. ~Rosabeth Moss Kanter</span></blockquote>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">There’s no doubt managing these dueling, tension-filled dualities is challenging work, but isn’t that what character-based leaders do? What say you?</span>\n\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\"> </span>', '3 dueling paradoxes leaders embrace', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', '3-dueling-paradoxes-leaders-embrace', '', '', '2014-04-10 06:12:33', '2014-04-10 11:12:33', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14249', 0, 'post', '', 4);
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(14258, 318, '2014-04-08 06:12:08', '2014-04-08 11:12:08', '<a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/in-search-of-the-perfect-boss/kh_imperfectboss_share1/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14259\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-14259\" alt=\"imperfect boss\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/KH_ImperfectBoss_share1-300x300.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" /></a>No one hates the \"B\" word as much as I do, so why did I chose that word for the title of my first book?  Because despite all our efforts to \"lead change\" and encourage servant leadership, most of our readers are struggling in imperfect hierarchical organizations working for an imperfect boss.\n\nAnd even as we strive to overcome our own imperfections, as we lead people, someone out there is viewing us as \"the boss.\"\n\nIt\'s important to get that conversation on the table and discuss what these relationships can be at their very best.\n<h2>In Search of the Perfect Boss</h2>\nThe perfect boss is as elusive as the ideal mate.  And yet, we\'re frustrated when our leaders fall short of our impossible expectations.\n\nWe long for leaders who will...\n<ul>\n	<li>Engage us in a compelling vision</li>\n	<li>Have the utmost integrity</li>\n	<li>Be authentic and transparent</li>\n	<li>Treat us kindly and fairly</li>\n	<li>Develop, mentor and coach us</li>\n	<li>Empower and trust us</li>\n	<li>Communicate clearly</li>\n	<li>Motivate us</li>\n	<li>Be competent and knowledgeable</li>\n	<li>Have a sense of humor</li>\n</ul>\nBosses who think they\'re great are the most frightening.  It\'s usually the strongest leaders who have the least tolerance for their bosses\' bungles.\n\nStrong leaders think, \"I\'d never treat MY team THAT way... which PROVES she\'s a jerk.\"\n\nThe truth is, she\'s just an imperfect human being doing the best she can.  Just like you.\n<h2>4 Signs of a R.E.A.L. Boss Relationship</h2>\nStarting from a place of imperfection liberates us to work on the relationship and make it more real.   How do you know when you\'re in a great relationship with your boss?  Here\'s my view.  Please add your thoughts in the comments.\n\n<strong>R</strong>- RESULTS\n\nYou’ve got great results.   Sure there are a lot of factors that influence results, but having a great relationship with your manager helps.  If you really like the guy, but you’re not winning, your relationship may be snuggly, but may need some fine-tuning to be truly effective.  Although, great results are the end-game, how you handle mistakes matters as well.   Great boss relationships survive and even thrive after well-intentioned screw-ups.\n\n<span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\"><strong>E</strong>- ENERGY</span>\n\nWorking together is exciting and fun.  You recognize and leverage each of your unique gifts.    You find ways to tap into peripheral skills that light you up.   You look forward to your interactions.   When the work get’s really stressful, you support one another versus adding to the pain.  You both recognize the need for rest and renewal and support a healthy integrated life.\n\n<span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\"><strong>A</strong>- </span><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">AUTHENTICITY</span>\n\nYou can count on one another to tell the truth and to follow-through on commitments.  You aren’t afraid to be yourself and you invest in getting to know each other as people.  You share how you’re really thinking and feeling, and can count on one another to keep confidences.\n\n<strong> L</strong>- LEARNING\n\n<span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">You’re constantly challenging one another to improve.  You proactively offer feedback and recognize success.    You feel stretched, yet scaffolded in your risks.   You support each other on your quest for continuous improvement.  Learning together feels healthy and fun.</span>\n\n<strong>Your turn.  What makes for a great boss relationship?</strong>\n\nYou can download a free sample chapter of my Overcoming an Imperfect Boss:  A Practical Guide to Building a Better Relationship with Your Boss by <a href=\"http://letsgrowleaders.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/ImperfectBoss_SampleChapter.pdf\">clicking here</a>.  Or watch <a href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BBMD6uytQ0\">the short video</a>.', 'In Search of the Perfect &#034;Boss&#034;', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'in-search-of-the-perfect-boss', '', '', '2014-04-08 06:12:08', '2014-04-08 11:12:08', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14258', 0, 'post', '', 2),
(14272, 252, '2014-04-15 08:15:34', '2014-04-15 13:15:34', '<h2><b>Your behaviors are contagious. Choose carefully.</b></h2>\n<b></b>Perhaps you are familiar with a <a href=\"http://youtu.be/L5ya8J-jyK4\">popular insurance company TV ad</a> based on the concept of “paying it forward.”\n\nA woman prevents a guy from stepping off the street corner into the path of an oncoming car.  The man who observes this from a restaurant window later helps a mother maneuver her baby carrier off the bus.  A man seeing this while waiting at the bus stop later helps a coworker lift a bowl from a high shelf.  You get the picture.  One good deed inspires another.  Just as importantly, the modeling of the good deed influences the observer.\n<h2><b>As a leader, you influence your culture more than you even realize.</b></h2>\n<b></b>Dr. Daniel Goleman and his tribe, known for their work on emotional intelligence, have also uncovered that a leader’s mood and behavior set off a powerful chain reaction among those around her or him.\n\nI am often disappointed when I hear of a “leader’s” behavior sending the wrong message to an organization and setting a tone of fear or complacency.  You could cite the recent case of the employees at a leading car company not actively surfacing safety issues.  That doesn’t happen in a vacuum.  Goleman’s research supports that a leader’s emotional intelligence is so “contagious” it can be compared to carrying electricity through the wires of the organization. (Harvard Business Review article, “Primal Leadership,” December 2001.)\n<h2><b>The value of “paying it forward” as a leader.</b></h2>\nYou could go so far as to say the level of a leader’s emotional maturity dictates the culture that develops in the organization.  I reveled in reading “Delivering Happiness” by Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com.  I was inspired hearing how his thought process developed as he realized the importance of organization culture.  As he learned and grew, he put a lot of energy into creating a corporate culture that supported his vision, his business, customers and organization members.\n\nGoleman and company’s work makes the case for what they call “emotional leadership” being a leader’s primal task to achieving business success, through others.\n\n<i style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">What choices and decisions do you deliberately make to model the behavior and culture you want from those who look to you for leadership?</i>', 'What Every Leader Should Know About Organization Culture', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'what-every-leader-should-know-about-organization-culture', '', '', '2014-04-15 08:15:34', '2014-04-15 13:15:34', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14272', 0, 'post', '', 4),
(14281, 316, '2014-04-22 12:25:09', '2014-04-22 17:25:09', 'From customers’ and suppliers’ viewpoint, Company X is fast growing, exciting, and high-energy. Inside, though, it’s a tornado. Fighting fires, arguing over who committed to what, why it didn’t happen, and noticing things that fell through the cracks in just enough time is normal.\n\nHow can this happen when they have weekly departmental meetings, keep track of action items, and post projects and timelines everywhere? Easily! There is no accountability. They don’t hold each other accountable for commitments. They’ve seen what happens when you fail, and it isn’t pretty, which undermines individual commitment. <a href=\"http://mills-scofield.com/blog/2014/4/7/when-did-accountability-become-passe.html#.U0XH3vldU3k\" target=\"_blank\">Read More</a>...', 'When Did Accountability Become Passé?', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'when-did-accountability-become-passe', '', '', '2014-04-22 12:25:09', '2014-04-22 17:25:09', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14281', 0, 'post', '', 1),
(14290, 243, '2014-04-10 11:53:24', '2014-04-10 16:53:24', 'Imagine the irony of \"<em>following\"</em> a leadership development community. Think about it. If we want to develop leaders, must we make them “<em>follow</em>” us? Have you ever considered how pervasive the idea seems to be that we must <em>be taught</em> or that we must <em>be led</em>?\n\nIn true Lead Change style, we are setting out to create a new kind of opportunity. We’re not sure this will work, but we’re going to try it for a few months and see how it works. We’re going to have a Google+ Hangout.\n\n“Not another one!” you might protest. But we’d like to suggest this is different.  This will be a dialogue, participatory sharing session. You\'re expected to participate via chat. All ideas will be welcome!\n\nYou see, we believe leadership development involves leaders taking action. We believe the people we listen to and interact with and work with influence us whether we like it or not. So we choose to bring our best “us” and connect with others who will influence us for good. We want to be people who elevate others and we want the others around us to make us better too.  Lead Change Instigators work to apply character-based leadership to make a positive difference in the world. We want to connect and share and discuss ideas with others who want to do the same thing: apply character-based leadership to make a positive difference in the world.\n\nSo, on Saturday morning, April 12 at 10 AM Eastern Time, four great Lead Change Instigators will join me for our first <a title=\"Lead Change Instigator Hangout April 2014\" href=\"https://plus.google.com/u/0/events/cp3c6qh7nhiitoa9gu4fijkss48?authkey=CNG62_DLx47sDQ\" target=\"_blank\">Lead Change Instigator Hangout</a>: an open dialogue about issues for today\'s leaders.  This first one is going to be about how to use social media to expand our influence and share our message.\n\nThe panel includes:\n<ul>\n	<li>Karin Hurt <a title=\"Karin\'s Twitter Profile\" href=\"http://twitter.com/letsgrowleaders\" target=\"_blank\">@letsgrowleaders</a>, <a title=\"Lets Grow Leaders\" href=\"http://letsgrowleaders.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Lets Grow Leaders</a>, <a title=\"Karin\'s Google+ profile\" href=\"https://plus.google.com/u/0/+KarinHurtLetsGrowLeaders/posts\" target=\"_blank\">Google+</a></li>\n	<li>Jon Mertz <a title=\"Jon\'s Twittter Profile\" href=\"http://twitter.com/ThinDifference\" target=\"_blank\">@ThinDifference</a>, <a title=\"Thin Difference Website\" href=\"http://thindifference.com\" target=\"_blank\">Thin Difference</a>, <a title=\"Jon\'s Google+ profile\" href=\"https://plus.google.com/u/0/+JonMertz/posts\" target=\"_blank\">Google+</a></li>\n	<li>Becky Robinson <a title=\"Becky\'s Twitter profile\" href=\"http://twitter.com/beckyrbnsn\" target=\"_blank\">@beckyrbnsn</a>, <a title=\"Weaving Influence website\" href=\"http://weavinginfluence.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Weaving Influence</a>, <a title=\"Becky\'s Google+ profile\" href=\"https://plus.google.com/u/0/115236676525149618850/posts\" target=\"_blank\">Google+</a></li>\n	<li>Mary Schaefer <a title=\"Mary\'s Twitter Profile\" href=\"http://twitter.com/maryschaefer\" target=\"_blank\">@MarySchaefer</a>, <a title=\"ReImagine Work Website\" href=\"http://www.reimaginework.com/\" target=\"_blank\">ReImagine Work</a>, <a title=\"Mary\'s Google+ profile\" href=\"https://plus.google.com/u/0/103470617453201516622/posts\" target=\"_blank\">Google+</a></li>\n</ul>\nWe’ll talk about the things we do, practices we follow, and the tools we use to connect and share. Maybe you’d like to participate. There will be the ability to chat live with the group and we’ll have a discussion running on the event page. Please come prepared to share any ideas you have for leadership development folks and anyone else to expand their influence and broadcast their message.\n\nJoin us.  Click <a title=\"Lead Change Instigator Hangout April 2014\" href=\"https://plus.google.com/u/0/events/cp3c6qh7nhiitoa9gu4fijkss48?authkey=CNG62_DLx47sDQ\" target=\"_blank\">here to find out more</a>.  And if you miss, that\'s OK.  We\'ll post a recording afterward.  There will be no selling. This is an opportunity to share ideas as peers. You don’t have to become a follower to develop as a leader. We promise! Be a part of the dialogue and help us all improve. We look forward to the chance to connect.', 'Instigator Hangout April 12, 2014', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'instigator-hangout-april-2014', '', '', '2014-04-10 11:53:24', '2014-04-10 16:53:24', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14290', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(14302, 351, '2014-04-25 06:12:16', '2014-04-25 11:12:16', 'What do venture funding, employee reviews, project planning and vendor selection have in common? Let\'s put it simply - they call for negotiation and persuasion. Most business meetings are not seen as a negotiation, but they still involve communication and bargaining. The parties involved must reach an agreement and for that to happen they have to resolve their differences. <a href=\"http://www.forbes.com/sites/keldjensen/2012/12/11/flourish-as-an-influential-leader-think-like-a-negotiator/\">Leaders who want to attain success need the mindset of a skilled negotiator</a>. Whether we\'re talking about CEOs, entry-level managers or entrepreneurial leaders, to get to the top you must be ready to ask for what you deserve.\n\n<b>Negotiations are complex - in business, they\'re vital</b>\n\nLeaders should possess strong negotiation skills. Bargaining is not just a matter of buying and selling, it\'s more about doing everything that needs to be done for your company to thrive. Sometimes, you can only achieve your goals if you\'re ready to sit down and negotiate. Internal meetings for example, are common situations wherein leaders must use their negotiation skills. You will have to discuss about technical specifications, timetables, staff management, and financial incentives.\n\nWhenever you\'re settling for terms, fixing a problem or dividing tasks, you are negotiating. These are common situations that happen anywhere; leaders are used to dealing with people - whether we\'re talking about employees, vendors, investors, HR - so they shouldn\'t hesitate to speak their mind in an email, on the phone, or during a formal meeting.\n\n<b>Leaders should master the art of negotiation</b>\n\n<a href=\"http://www.thegappartnership.com/\">To master the art of negotiation</a> you have to be good at influencing people. Leaders can do that, however it\'s equally important to sway perception while maintaining positive relationships and outcomes with employees, customers, partners, vendors, and investors.  Believe it or not, it\'s easy to make people like you. All you have to do is make them trust you first. Cater for the needs of your people, understand their desires and fix small issues before they turn into giant dilemmas.\n\nAre you ready to build rapport? Just because you should. Good relations lead to increased trust, and when people trust their leaders, they\'re more open to negotiating perks. For example: you know your top 5 employees should get a salary raise. However, sudden company issues doesn\'t allow you to offer them that raise. What do you do to convince those people that working with you is the right thing to do?\n\nIt\'s simple: you bargain. Give them something equally satisfying without having to talk about money. Better working hours, a nice office, a paid vacation sometime in the future, are perks that will convince employees that your company can offer them work satisfaction.\n\n<b>The mindset of a negotiator is authoritative </b>\n\nThere\'s nothing more powerful and compelling than the mindset of a negotiator. As a leader, you should have an authoritative attitude without taking things too far. You may be in change, but that doesn\'t mean you have to abuse that power. The mindset you convey in every possible negotiation is just as significant as the strategies, tools, and tactics you\'re planning to use in the process. Are you a leader who\'s willing to listen in order to become a master negotiator? Here are 5 traits you should possess:\n<ul>\n	<li>Flexibility - you may have to change your beliefs to reach an agreement and close a good deal</li>\n	<li>Patience - keep your cool, let others make mistakes</li>\n	<li>Resilient attitude - no matter what happens, keep your feelings under control</li>\n	<li>Emotionally proactive - control your emotions and don\'t let them interfere in the negotiation process</li>\n	<li>Listening abilities - skilled negotiators are excellent listeners because they know they can use an opponent\'s data to their advantage</li>\n</ul>\n\n<a href=\"http://www.heinz.cmu.edu/heinz-college-negotiation-academy-for-women/academy-schedule/critical-leadership-skills/index.aspx\">Are all leaders’ good negotiators</a>? No, they are not. Negotiation is an art, a skill that needs time to develop. Without this skill business people, mostly executives won\'t be able to make sensible decisions. Leaders are the extremely important for a company because their goal is to inspire, motivate, and engage employees, vendors, and investors.\n\nIf you\'re not ready to bargain for what you want, and deserve, than your whole company\'s productivity may be compromised. Always be ready to fix conflicts, listen to all complaints, and try to find a way to please everyone; while that might be hard to achieve, you can always negotiate to solve issues and make sure your company stays productive.', 'Why it is essential for a leader to use the skills and mindset of a negotiator?', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'why-it-is-essential-for-a-leader-to-use-the-skills-and-mindset-of-a-negotiator', '', '', '2014-04-25 06:12:16', '2014-04-25 11:12:16', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14302', 0, 'post', '', 3),
(14307, 244, '2014-05-06 06:20:03', '2014-05-06 11:20:03', '<img class=\"alignright wp-image-14308\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/overreliance-balance.jpg\" alt=\"Over-reliance and Balance\" width=\"332\" height=\"187\" />There are probably a lot of things we all just take for granted. Perhaps it\'s because we naturally assume there are just some people (or things) that will always be there.\n\nWhen suddenly they are not, we experience a wake-up call. It could be a customer that leaves unexpectedly, a friend that stops responding to our calls, or something even more earth shattering like the unexpected loss of a loved one.\n\nI\'d venture to say we have all been surprised by a sudden, unexpected loss at one time or another in our lives. Those kind of wake-up calls typically leave a lasting impression that often elevates our awareness and appreciation for the people in our lives. There are also thousands of perhaps more mundane things we take for granted, though. <a style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\" href=\"http://wp.me/p339ZO-1ZB\">Read more.</a>', 'What Skills and Abilities Are You Over-Relying On?', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'what-skills-and-abilities-are-you-over-relying-on', '', '', '2014-05-06 06:20:03', '2014-05-06 11:20:03', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14307', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(14314, 334, '2014-04-16 06:15:59', '2014-04-16 11:15:59', 'Oh, those feelings of embarrassment! You feel your body start to sweat, your face turning red, and it feels as if every person in sight is staring at you while you make a buffoon of yourself.\n\nThose embarrassing moments you experience may actually help build trust with others. A <a href=\"http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2011/09/28/easily-embarrassed/\" target=\"_blank\">study</a> by researchers at U.C. Berkeley suggests the display of embarrassment may increase others\' perceptions of you as a trustworthy individual. Participants in this research watched videos of people describing their embarrassing moments and reported that they perceived those individuals as more generous and trustworthy compared to individuals who tried to downplay the situation and pretend they weren\'t embarrassed.\n\nI can\'t say the results of this research are terribly surprising, but they do reinforce some fundamental truths about building trust.\n<ul>\n	<li><strong>Being \"real\" builds trust</strong> - We trust people when we perceive them as being authentic and down to earth. When people try to put on airs and pretend to be something or someone they aren\'t, we immediately label them as being a fake, a phony, or a poser (pick your adjective). What\'s the advice that virtually every parent gives their child who\'s nervous about attending the first day of school and making new friends? \"Just be yourself.\" Displaying emotions of embarrassment tells others that you\'re being real, that you acknowledge the awkwardness of the situation, and that you aren\'t trying to be someone you\'re not by pretending you\'re not embarrassed.</li>\n	<li><strong>Vulnerability builds trust</strong> - Being embarrassed is a moment of vulnerability when you can no longer hide behind your public persona and you\'re subject to the reactions of those around you. People who try to hide their feelings of embarrassment probably have a low-level of trust in how they will be received by others in their social circle. Because of that lack of trust and unwillingness to be vulnerable, they try to hide their embarrassment so they don\'t run the risk of being looked at as \"less than\" the people around them. Willingness to be embarrassed shows others that you are confident in your self-image and standing within the group and a few minutes of embarrassment won\'t change the dynamics of your relationship.</li>\n	<li><strong>Shared experiences build trust</strong> - Bonding occurs in a group of people when they all go through a common experience and embarrassing moments can serve as one of those community building events. This happened with my team a few years ago when I was given a surprise birthday gift during a team meeting. It was my 40th birthday and the team put together a PowerPoint presentation with embarrassing pictures from my childhood (courtesy of the covert help of my wife), one of which included a side-by-side comparison of my 9th grade high school photo with that of the movie character <a title=\"Napoleon Dynamite\" href=\"http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0374900/\" target=\"_blank\">Napoleon Dynamite</a> (there is a striking resemblance!). It was quite embarrassing and we all had a good laugh, but it brought us closer together and it lives on in the lore of our team.</li>\n</ul>\nSo the next time one of those embarrassing moments comes along, don\'t be a poser and try to pretend it didn\'t happen. Embrace the moment, acknowledge the awkwardness of the situation, and use it as an opportunity to build trust and deeper relationships with those around you.', 'Want to Build Trust? Try Embarrassing Yourself!', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'want-to-build-trust-try-embarrassing-yourself', '', '', '2014-04-16 06:15:59', '2014-04-16 11:15:59', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14314', 0, 'post', '', 5),
(14319, 334, '2014-04-21 06:14:14', '2014-04-21 11:14:14', '<strong>Acting with integrity; being honest in word and deed</strong> - 57% of more than 600 attendees in a <a title=\"Four Leadership Behaviors that Build or Destroy Trust\" href=\"http://www.webex.com/webinars/Four-Leadership-Behaviors-that-Build-or-Destroy-Trust\" target=\"_blank\">webinar</a> I conducted cited this as the most influential leadership behavior that builds trust. Making ethical decisions is a key component of being an honest and trusted leader, yet many of us don\'t have a defined process or rubric for handling ethical dilemmas.\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">A simple, yet powerful process that I\'ve relied upon is one that I learned from Ken Blanchard and Norman Vincent Peale in their book <em><a title=\"The Power of Ethical Management\" href=\"http://www.kenblanchard.com/Store/Books_Audios/Ethics_Values_and_Integrity/Power_of_Ethical_Management_The/\" target=\"_blank\">The Power of Ethical Management</a></em>. Blanchard and Peale suggest that leaders ask the following three questions when making a decision about an ethical problem:</p>\n\n<ol>\n	<li><strong>Is it legal?</strong> The purpose of this question is to get you to look at existing standards. The legality of the decision should be examined not just from the civil law perspective, but also in regards to company policies or standards. If the answer to this first question is \"no,\" there isn\'t much need to ask the following two. If your organization doesn\'t have an ethics policy or company values that outline the behaviors desired by team members, check out <a title=\"Shine the Light on Poor Ethical Practices\" href=\"http://drivingresultsthroughculture.com/?p=1932\" target=\"_blank\">this article </a>from my friend and colleague, Chris Edmonds, that will help you get started.</li>\n	<li><strong>Is it balanced?</strong> The purpose of this question is to activate your sense of fairness and rationality. Will the decision be fair or will it heavily favor one party over another, in the both the short and long-term? Decisions that produce big winners, at the expense of making others big losers, often come back to haunt individuals and organizations. It\'s not always possible to make decisions where everybody wins, but leaders should strive to avoid major imbalances over the course of their relationships.</li>\n	<li><strong>How will it make me feel about myself?</strong> This last question gets you to focus on your own emotions, standards, and sense of morality. How would you feel if what you were considering doing was published on the front page of your local newspaper or CNN.com? Would it make you and your family proud or embarrassed? If you\'re losing sleep over the situation, it\'s probably an indication that your conscience is wrestling with the decision and its alignment with your personal values. As John Wooden, the famous UCLA basketball coach said, \"There is no pillow as soft as a clear conscience.\"</li>\n</ol>\nConstant use of these three questions as an \'ethics check\' can help guide you into a pattern of \'right\' behavior that can become habit-forming and put you on the path to being an ethical and trusted leader.\n\nI\'m interested in hearing about your experiences in handling ethical dilemmas. Have you used this \'ethics check\' process? Please leave a comment below.', 'When Faced with Ethical Dilemmas, Ask Yourself These 3 Questions', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'when-faced-with-ethical-dilemmas-ask-yourself-these-3-questions', '', '', '2014-04-21 06:14:14', '2014-04-21 11:14:14', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14319', 0, 'post', '', 1),
(14327, 329, '2014-04-14 06:12:28', '2014-04-14 11:12:28', 'She was the COO of a large company and this was the leadership conference for the company. I was there as a keynote speaker and her “message to the troops” came right before my closing remarks. She had been going through chemotherapy for breast cancer and was completely bald…no wig and no hat. And, she was incredibly compelling.\n\nI asked the meeting planner what she was like as a leader! “Awesome and inspiring,” she told me. “She is so courageous and jarringly authentic. Everyone things she is an amazing leader.” As I listened to her powerful message, I thought about how great service needs to be totally real before it is attractively adorned; jarringly authentic, not just attractively decorated.\n\nNow, before you think I have no sense of fashion you should know that I have no issues or qualms with wigs, toupees or hair transplants. But, great service fundamentals is bottom line about meeting a core need, a basic requirement and a fundamental purpose. I like my bank teller to be fast, friendly and competent. But, I care deeply about the signals that she cares about the security of my funds. I expect my doctor to have a warm bedside manner and to show compassion for my aches, pains and foibles. But, when he dons a rubber glove or picks up a scalpel or syringe, I want confident, unadorned baldheaded service.\n\nBaldheaded service is making sure the bathrooms are as sparkly as the waitress is friendly. It is ensuring the waiting area of the hospital is as squeaky clean as the hands of the brain surgeon. It requires quality-controlling the essentials and “spell-checking” every customer touch point to guarantee every detail that impacts customer confidence is perfect. And, it includes customer contact employees telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth.\n\nBaldheaded service is genuine and trust building. Baldheaded service is courageous and transparent. Baldheaded service is not the flashy, sparkly stuff that creates a customer story or promotes advocacy. But, when we boldly remove the cover-up of clever presentation, smile-generating politeness and aesthetic prettiness, baldheaded service is the reliable, basic bond that makes customers come back.', 'Baldheaded Service', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'baldheaded-service', '', '', '2014-04-14 06:12:28', '2014-04-14 11:12:28', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14327', 0, 'post', '', 3),
(14354, 307, '2014-04-17 06:08:23', '2014-04-17 11:08:23', '<h2>I Don\'t Care</h2>\nI\'m sure it\'s happened to you.\n\nIt happens to all of us...you hear the words coming out of your mouth and before you finish the sentence, you realize you\'re saying something an adult told you when you were a child. Something you haven\'t uttered in decades.\n\nWhen I was eight-years-old, I joined a youth soccer team. When the coach asked me what position I wanted to play, I said, \"Goalie.\"\n\nMy reasoning was that the goal-keeper didn\'t have to run. It\'s probably not a surprise that I didn\'t last very long in that position.\n\nThe next year, Coach Tom moved me to defender. I had to anticipate where the ball was going and run to cut off the next pass or shot.\n\nAfter a game where I failed to get myself in position, Coach Tom pulled me aside.\n\n\"David, you need to see where the ball is going and -\"\n\n\"I know, Coach!\" I interrupted, \"You gotta see the angle and block it off.\"\n\nCoach Tom looked at me, took a deep breath, and said, \"David, I don\'t care what you know. I care what you do with what you know.\"\n<blockquote><em>I don\'t care what you know. I care what you do with what you know</em>. -Coach Tom</blockquote>\nMany years later, I was an assistant coach for my daughter\'s basketball team and it was my job to help the girls with their layups.\n\nI pulled aside my daughter\'s friend after she continued to struggle with her off-hand.\n\n\"When you go up with your left hand, you -\"\n\n\"I know, I know!\" she said.\n\nI took a deep breath, smiled at my daughters friend, and before I knew what was happening, Coach Tom\'s words tumbled from my mouth.\n<h2>What Do You Know?</h2>\nIf you\'re reading this post, congratulations!\n\nUnlike many leaders, you\'re taking time to invest in your own growth.\n\nYou live at an amazing time in history. You have access to more leadership wisdom than anyone who\'s ever been alive before you!\n\nAnd yet...\n\nDepending on the research you read, employees are still disengaged, people continue to struggle with each other rather than their mission, and hardly a day goes by where you don\'t hear a report on the consequences of poor leadership in politics, business, or even faith communities.\n\nClearly, there is a great need for leaders, not just to know more, but to do what they know.\n<h2>Tiny Revolutions</h2>\nA quick glance at the last ten posts on the Lead Change Group will give you plenty of ideas for inspired action.\n\nImagine what would happen for your credibility and influence if you took just one of those ideas and mastered it over the next six months? Over the coming year?\n\nNow, what if you committed to one specific inspired leadership action each month for ten years? What would you and your team accomplish together?\n<blockquote><em>Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years</em>. -Bill Gates</blockquote>\nI bet you would amaze yourself!\n\nThis is more difficult than it might seem at first glance. After all, I teach leadership and employee engagement, but just last week I dropped the ball. I didn\'t set clear expectations and the results were predictable. Confusion and disappointment.\n\nWe get distracted.\n\nWe forget.\n\nSometimes our frustrations get the better of us.\n\nBut we don\'t stop there. We take responsibility. We make it right.\n\nWe keep going and we take someone on the journey with us.\n\nThat\'s the leadership revolution...one small step. One leadership moment. One leader at a time.\n<h2>Your Turn</h2>\nWhat will you do with what you know?\n\n<strong>Leave us a comment: What one inspired leadership action will you commit to for the next 30 days?</strong>\n\nI\'ll go first: I commit to clarity with my team and not assuming they can read my mind!\n\nHow about you?\n\nTake care,\n\nDavid\n\nCreative Commons Photo by <a href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/104251811@N02/13864357175/sizes/m/\" target=\"_blank\">Joel_47</a>', 'Calling All Leaders!', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'calling-all-leaders', '', '', '2014-04-17 06:08:23', '2014-04-17 11:08:23', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14354', 0, 'post', '', 13),
(14366, 316, '2014-04-17 18:42:08', '2014-04-17 23:42:08', 'How many times have you heard or even said, “Is that market attractive to us”? We look at the markets we’re in, the markets our competitors are in, maybe even some that are new and wonder if they are/could be good for our business. We may even think of creating or segmenting in a new way.\n\nStop and think of the hubris in that very question: “Is that market attractive to us?”\n\nRead more <a href=\"http://smartblogs.com/leadership/2014/04/17/the-fallacy-and-hubris-of-market-attractiveness/\">here</a>....', 'The fallacy and hubris of “market attractiveness”', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'the-fallacy-and-hubris-of-market-attractiveness', '', '', '2014-04-17 18:42:08', '2014-04-17 23:42:08', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14366', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(14372, 243, '2014-04-24 06:01:21', '2014-04-24 11:01:21', '<em>Author’s note: This is a story from my first management position, not my first “leadership” position. I think you’ll agree, I was a manager with a leadership problem.</em>\n\nMy first management opportunities came with very small groups of people. This story is about the time I became branch manager of a small trucking company. The headquartered in one location for 10 years and were opening a branch office in another state. The objective was to open a branch facility by moving the existing business from the HQ to a warehouse 400 miles closer to the primary customer’s distribution points.\n\nThe initial start-up was wild. We worked almost around the clock for the first few weeks to get the sorting lines setup, procedures established, and people hired. My bosses (the chief and his partner) were people I had known and worked for before. The undertaking was tremendous because we were obligated to make twice-weekly deliveries of necessary merchandise to a number of chain retail stores. No merchandise meant no sales. The customer needed merchandise to sell, so we had a tight timeline.\n\nAfter a very few weeks one of our over-the-road drivers (OTR) quit! They refused a dispatch and quit. Driver turnover is a big problem in the OTR trucking business, so I chocked it up to a bad hire. Within a few days, a 2nd driver quit. This one told me what was going on. He was told he wouldn’t have to go to New York City.\n\nOne of the great challenges in the trucking world is driving a truck into New York City proper. There are specific rules, everything takes forever, space is tight, there\'s no place to park, or be, and freight coming back isn’t as plentiful as you’d like. When drivers are paid by the mile, they make very little money for their time in NYC. Unless companies made special arrangements, a trip to NYC was a bad week for most OTR truck drivers.\n\nBecause of the busyness of setting up the warehouse, I had delegated the driver recruiting to another employee. This person was telling drivers that “we never went to NYC.” Obviously, this was a communication problem.\n\nMany leaders and coaches at this point might call this a communication problem. I didn’t communicate well. And to that point, they’d be right. This is why communication is often sighted as a key factor in a leader’s success. If leaders don’t communicate well, they won’t lead well.\n\nBut, after I approached the employee and discussed the disconnect, I learned communication wasn’t the problem. A lack of a shared vision was the true problem. My dream for the company was that we would create a work environment where everyone pulled equal weight. If someone had to go to NYC, we’d do our best to get them some gravy on the following week. Each person would chip in their best effort to make the organization successful and the organization would, in turn, share that success with the people who contributed. My vision of a successful company created this need to go to NYC. It created this need for people to take the good with the bad.\n\nThis employee’s vision was just for his job. He had been asked by the chief to recruit so he did. Getting them signed up was his job. Whether or not they stayed was my problem. The lack of a shared vision with equal individual buy in and commitment was the core problem. My lack of clear communication and delegation postponed the true identification of the real problem.\n\nThere were other issues that contributed to both the reason for this issue and the actual end-result that occurred. But rather than take you through what I did, we here at Lead Change would like to know.\n\nWhat would you do? How would you address this problem?', 'Communicate Vision - A Case Study', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'communicate-vision-a-case-study', '', '', '2014-04-24 06:01:21', '2014-04-24 11:01:21', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14372', 0, 'post', '', 5),
(14407, 343, '2014-04-23 06:12:47', '2014-04-23 11:12:47', 'I spent a little over two years of my life in jail ... as an employee.\n\nOne of the aspects of this responsibility years ago was oversight of the food production in our county correctional facility. It was a valuable experience for me and my team as we experienced a side of society that few witness. And yet there were many fundamental truths of human behavior that I would not have noticed had it not been for this environment.\n\nMy team comprised of four people who ran the daily operations of the kitchen areas. The rest of the labor was made up from the both the male and female inmate populations. We were not only tasked with having them work, but in building necessary skills for them to establish a more stable work life for themselves when they re-entered society. It was a great privilege to influence their lives for the better. But the heartache was that very few would respond to the training and belief we tried to instill in them. Yet for those few, the efforts were very much worth the toil and emotional challenges.\n\nI remember one day when the inmates were serving the lunch meal. They had staged the last unit\'s meals to be plated, and we realized that we had run out of the main entree. We discovered that one young inmate, Ms. N, had miscounted and as a result we were short one whole unit\'s meal. When Ms. N realized she made a mistake, she absolutely fell apart. You could see the fear and dejection come over her instantly.\n\nMeal service at jails are a sensitive thing. Any issues or what may be deemed unfair treatment or delays can result in individual or wide-scale behavior problems for the officers. Many meal incidents in facilities have actually lead to riots. Needless to say this was a potential issue and Ms. N fully knew that she could have triggered an incident.\n\nMy assistant and I approached her and before we said anything, she said, \"I messed up. I\'m in big trouble. I just started a riot.\" She was visibly shaking. We both tried to calm her down, and I said, \"Hey, it\'s no big deal. We have more chicken we were planning on using for tonight, and together the three of us can make this into lunch in 10 minutes.\"\n\nMs. N did not know what to do with that. Her mouth dropped open, and as we involved her in making the remainder of lunch, she started to pull herself together. Within moments, we finished the meal service and had the inmates break for lunch and clean-up.\n\nWe talked with Ms. N again and reinforced that everything was just fine. But she still did not quite believe that we were willing to forgive her and help her out. By the next day, she had started to understand that she could trust us and was willing to work harder to ensure our trust in her.\n\nI fully believe that she was an individual who was told all her life that she would never amount to anything, she was stupid, verbally beat down, or that she would end up in jail. (Various studies show that up to 90% of young people are in jail because someone in their life said that they would end up there eventually). I also feel that she was never praised for anything in her life, as evidenced by her reaction when we tried to comfort her through this incident. Ms. N just needed an opportunity to feel valued, worthwhile, and trusted.\n\nI learned some valuable lessons that day, some new, and some reinforced:\n<ul>\n	<li><strong>Always be forgiving of a person when they make a genuine mistake</strong></li>\n	<li><strong>Be willing to help the person with a solution</strong></li>\n	<li><strong>Always give a reason to praise</strong></li>\n	<li><strong>Understand the needs of the person to more effectively lead them</strong> (more on <a href=\"http://upwardsleader.com/2014/04/21/leading-the-needs/\">\"leading their needs\" here</a>)</li>\n	<li><strong>Reinforce the value each individual has</strong></li>\n	<li><strong>Make it your goal to positively influence each person\'s life that you touch - you may have a golden opportunity to help turn someone\'s life around</strong></li>\n</ul>\nI wish I could end the story happily that Ms. N changed her life around that day. Sadly, she gravitated back to her old circle of friends that held her back and is ensnared in that hard way of life. Yet for the Ms. N\'s that cannot turn it around, there were the \"Red\'\"s and Ms. S\'s that broke the pattern of their life and made positive changes that are now influencing others in their lives. And all because we taught and believed in them and gave them a chance to shine.\n\nEvery person needs someone to believe in them. Whether at work, home, or in your community, we can make a positive impact. The hard toil and emotional commitment are small sacrifices compared to the benefit is makes in one\'s life. How can we help them escape the prison of hopelessness? We would love to hear your thoughts.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;', 'What Jail Taught Me About Leadership', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'what-jail-taught-me-about-leadership', '', '', '2014-04-23 06:12:47', '2014-04-23 11:12:47', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14407', 0, 'post', '', 3),
(14423, 312, '2014-04-22 08:12:32', '2014-04-22 13:12:32', '\"<em>I do believe that leading in the now is grounded in being aware of the opportunity to mold moments into successful futures.\"</em>\n\nYou may be familiar with the phrase “the power of now.” Several years ago a book was released by Eckhart Tolle with that title. Interesting read I must say.\n\nOne of many takeaways from the book is thinking about the concept of “now.”…as opposed to earlier or later.\n\nI think for many leaders, thinking in terms of what’s coming up vs. focusing on what’s happening at the moment is a common practice. We have so much going on! Plus, that “future thinking” -- strategy and planning are essential leadership competencies.\n\nThis phenomenon could be described as partially functioning in the present while constantly anticipating the future. And because of that, the reality is for many, we are rarely if ever all in the moment.\n\nSo, if this is even remotely true, that we are rarely all in the moment, are we at our best in our moments? Can we give our best in a moment when we portioning part of ourselves out in anticipating the future? As leaders, what could we be missing (from ourselves or staff) if we’re not fully present now?\n\nWhy does the principle of “now” even matter? What’s the cost of not being fully present now?\n\nThe foundational answer speaks initially to the use of time. It matters because now is a segment of time. It’s a simple moment of time and a moment turns into minutes, which turns into weeks, months, years…future outcomes – inevitably our lives. (Ah, that’s probably where the phrase “living in the moment” comes from).\n\nAdditionally, when we really think about it, now is really all we have. The future ends up being a “now”…kind of wild when you think about.\n\nIn fact (continuing this train of thought), if we are regularly in a state of anticipating or living for the future, we could be undermining our futures, because we are not fully living out the now.\n\nI believe increasing our leadership effectiveness can be found in creating a more impactful, intentional, strategic now.\n\nSo what does being more fully in the moment look like practically? Here’s an example: Remember the last time you were working on a project and you were so “into it” that you lost track of time -- time seemed to just fly by? Yep, you were so connected and engaged in the activity it’s as if time stood still.\n\nThis is a great example that many can relate to and it also offers us insights into the benefits of being in the now:\n\nEnhanced focus\nHigher levels of satisfaction\nLess mistakes\nMore quality results\nDeeper connection\nBetter time usage\nFeeling more alive\nBe more aware\nLower levels of stress\nMotivation\nMore observant\nMore productive\n<span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">Increased happiness\n</span>Energizing\n\n…and I bet you can think of more.\n\n<span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">I consider this list the first layer of benefits, because they can lead to more. For example, being more observant could lead to capturing and addressing a problem in its infancy and in doing so save time and money.</span>\n\n<span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">Here’s another – being aware can translate into increased attentiveness to team members, which could nurture more engagement and loyalty.</span>\n\nThere are so many more…\n\nWe can see then that not only do we get to experience these benefits, but as a leader, they are fully transferable to those we lead. Imagine influencing and leading from the presence of these benefits.\n\nSo how do we as very busy leaders lead and live more from the now? Here are a few suggestions:\n\n1. Continually remind yourself of the benefits to yourself and your team.\n2. Decide it’s worth it – see the value.\n3. Consciously slow down, being more thoughtful in everything you do as you go through your day.\n4. Determine to focus on one thing at a time.\n5. Work in blocks of time. Purposely say, “I going to focus on this for (blank -- whatever time you allot).\n6. When meeting or speaking with a colleague or team member, purposely eliminate all distractions so that your full attention can be given – so much so that they feel and notice it!\n\nThis list will get us started. Once we begin the practice of being more in the now, our now - moments will be molded into much better futures!\n\n&nbsp;', 'The Power Of Now – The Key to Increasing Leadership Effectiveness', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'the-power-of-now-the-key-to-increasing-leadership-effectiveness', '', '', '2014-04-22 08:12:32', '2014-04-22 13:12:32', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14423', 0, 'post', '', 4),
(14444, 244, '2014-06-23 12:03:20', '2014-06-23 17:03:20', '<em>Following is a guest post from <a href=\"http://www.twitter.com/richlargman/\" target=\"_blank\">Rich Largman</a>.  I have collaborated with Rich for 15 years of working with clients.  He is also my personal coach and one of my dearest friends. It is my pleasure to share his insight with you here.</em>\n\n<strong>We\'ve all heard the familiar scoldings growing up such as...\n</strong>...Quit fooling around.\n...Will you please grow up.\n...When will you stop acting like a child?\n<h4>Well if it were up to me, the answer to that last question would be NEVER!</h4>\nIn an effort to eliminate the child<em>ish</em> qualities from our behavior as we race toward adulthood, our child-<em>like</em> qualities often become part of the collateral damage. And that is too bad. By losing our child-like qualities, we lose an immensely valuable resource - the ability to play. <a href=\"http://wp.me/p339ZO-20j\">Read more.</a>', 'Are You Playing Enough?', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'are-you-playing-enough', '', '', '2014-06-23 12:03:20', '2014-06-23 17:03:20', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14444', 0, 'post', '', 0);
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(14451, 333, '2014-04-29 06:05:36', '2014-04-29 11:05:36', 'As a leader it is essential that you understand what it is that your employees need and focus on their needs and desires as much as your own, if not more. To create a productive workforce you must make your workforce happy, and to do this you must listen to them, identify what it is that they need and somehow fulfil this need. If you’re looking to improve as a leader here are some basic employee needs and what you can do to help.\n\n<strong>Significance</strong>\nThe first issue that you will face is significance; each and every employee wants to feel like their job has a meaning and that their life is fulfilled with purpose. They also wish to feel that the work they do as an individual is significant to the whole.\n\nIn order for you to make your employees significant it is important that you regularly make conversation with your employees and thank them for their hard work and discuss with them the fact that the company could not progress without individuals such as them.\n\nYou should also take time out of your busy schedule to speak with individuals and thank them for the work that they have specifically completed; ask if there is any way in which they feel the task could have been made easier or if they have any ideas on how the process could be improved.\n\n<strong>Growth</strong>\nAnother of your employee’s desires includes the need to feel that they are growing.\nThere are not many ways in which you can show an employee that they are growing as a person and that they are personally improving as this is a decision that they have to make for themselves.\n\nHowever, it is possible to send your employees on training courses every now and then in order for them to learn a new skill or improve at a skill that they already have; although this may not be equivalent to personal growth the activities will keep your employees happy as they will feel that they are a step closer to improving within themselves.\n\nAnother method of ensuring growth within your employees is to give them a little push along the way and encourage some of them to take positions that hold a little more responsibility than the others. These are only small steps but the fact that members of your workforce are encouraged to grow will give the rest of your employees hope that they too can progress and earn more responsibility or authority as a result.\n\n<strong>Contribution</strong>\nIf your employees feel ignored they will become increasingly unhappy very quickly and they may begin to become less productive as a result.\nTo restore balance to your workforce you should ask your employees how they feel about the company, what improvements can be made, how they feel the company should move forward and opinions on any current projects that are underway.\n\nIf you take these thoughts, ideas and opinions into account and use some of them, your workforce will feel as if they have contributed to something of more importance, or to something greater which will restore their faith and trust in the company.\n\nEven if the changes are small such as improving facilities such as toilets and eating areas, your employees will be grateful for the change.\nHowever to truly make your employees happy you must consider some of the larger changes such as how your employees feel about the way that the company conducts business or the way a current project is progressing. Although it may be a great risk to take these ideas into consideration you could find that the productivity of your workforce increases greatly and that the work atmosphere is much more pleasant than before as the majority of your workforce will be content with their role.\n\nThese are the most important needs of your workforce that you must deal with in order to keep them happy; however it will take time for your employees to understand that you are working on their behalf and see that you are working towards ensuring their happiness within the company.\n\nDo not be surprised if a few employees misunderstand your actions in the beginning as some leaders are not so gracious.', 'Understanding The Needs of Your Employees', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'understanding-the-needs-of-your-employees', '', '', '2014-04-29 06:05:36', '2014-04-29 11:05:36', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14451', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(14456, 288, '2014-04-28 06:12:06', '2014-04-28 11:12:06', 'No one wants a boss who micromanages and is constantly looking over their shoulder.\n\nAt the same time, most people don’t want a manager who is inattentive.  It never looks good when a manager doesn’t seem to have an idea of what their employees are working on.  Additionally, if a manager isn’t acknowledging when someone is doing a great job or if people are working extended hours, this can negatively affect team morale.\n\nBecause of people’s desire for an ideal manager, engaging employees is something all managers need to know how to do, and they need to know how to do it well.\n\nFollow these tips in order to effectively engage your employees:\n\n<b>Listen to your team</b>\n\nThis is one of the most basic ways a manager can engage with their team. “Listening is one of the highest compliments we can pay anyone,” said Dale Carnegie, the author of “<a href=\"http://www.dalecarnegie.com/events/how-to-win-friends-and-influence-people/\">How to Win Friends and Influence People</a>.” Employees are almost always telling their bosses how they feel, what they want or what they are doing, but sometimes this falls on deaf ears.  Make sure you listen and hear what your employees are saying to you.  This will make you more attentive and caring as a manager, and will also help you know what your team is doing and how you can help them accomplish their goals.\n\n<b>Have a contest</b>\n\nAny sort of contest is a great way to create team interaction.  It can be something like an NCAA Tournament pool or can be based on work performance.  Regardless of the nature of the contest, this is a great way to get your employees talking to each other, as well as you, and a good way to have fun.\n\n<b>Treat others how you want to be treated</b>\n\nAs a manager, this should be something that is on your mind constantly and even more so when you are engaging with employees.  Not only will this help you make decisions regarding your employees that they will appreciate and understand, but it will also help you come up with your own original way to engage with your employees and build relationships with them.\n\n<b>Bring in donuts</b>\n\nWhile what you bring in doesn’t necessarily have to be donuts, this is still a great tactic.  A gesture like this is a great way to get your employees to relax and talk to you because it makes the environment much more casual.\n\nHaving effective and productive <a href=\"http://www.dalecarnegie.com/employee-engagement/\">employee engagement</a> is essential to maintaining a productive and enjoyable work environment.\n\nUse these tips to ensure that you have the types of relationships with your employees that will serve everyone’s best interests.', '4 Tips to Engage Your Employees', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', '4-tips-to-engage-your-employees', '', '', '2014-04-28 06:12:06', '2014-04-28 11:12:06', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14456', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(14466, 348, '2014-05-05 06:12:52', '2014-05-05 11:12:52', '<img class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-14467 alignright\" alt=\"Leadership Books\" src=\"https://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Books-125x125.jpg\" width=\"125\" height=\"125\" />\n\nHave you ever wondered what Leadership 201 is all about?\n\nI did.\n\nIn fact, this question was the driving force in my decision to pursue the study of leadership in a graduate program.\n\nAlthough I could have taken the more conventional route for an MBA, or even an MA in Management, I wanted to understand what advanced leadership was all about.\n\nWhat came after all those Leadership 101 classes and workshops I had attended over the years?\n\nI wanted to take it to the next level and wondered what Leadership 201 would teach me?\n\nHaving read the “must read” leadership books, I wanted to understand what right all those authors had to call themselves leading authorities on the subject?\n\nWhat had they learned in their studies or experience I did not know after working in management for 25 years?\n\nSo I decided to return to school.\n\nAlthough my decision was highly supported by my family, I also had my share of uncertainty.\n\nFor one, I was 50 years old.\n\nSecond, as an established vice president with 17 years in the same company, I did not need a degree to move ahead.\n\nIn fact, my manager questioned my decision.  Would my time not be better spent improving my golf game?\n\nHowever, reading about leadership and studying management had always been of interest to me.\n\nAnd the timing was perfect.   With my oldest daughter now out of college, I had the opportunity to pursue a dream.\n\nJust like the Nike slogan, I was going to Do It.\n\nI was going to discover what Leadership 201 was all about.\n\nSo I researched a number of schools and selected one based upon reviews of their leadership program, as well as my financial budget.\n\nMy first class was on Emotional Intelligence and the required reading was the book of the same name by Daniel Goleman.   It was also a book I had previously read.\n\nOur final for that class was not a written paper, but rather a slide presentation we could present to others in our business.\n\nThe second class was on Strategic Leadership and the required reading was Leading Change by John Kotter.  Once again, it was a book I had previously read.\n\nAnd once again, our final was a slide presentation.\n\nIn fact, for the majority of classes taken, I had already read the books.  And every class final was a slide presentation we could use later in business.\n\nAlthough it took 24 months and a 10-year student loan, I had finally discovered what Leadership 201 was all about.\n\nFunny thing, the answer was in front of me the entire time.\n\nEach time I picked up a leadership book, read a leadership blog, or enrolled in a leadership class, I was receiving a lesson in Leadership 201.\n\nYou see, what I discovered is that Leadership is not a destination.  Leadership is a journey.\n\nA journey where you share with others what you have learned along the way.', 'Leadership 201', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'leadership-201', '', '', '2014-05-05 06:12:52', '2014-05-05 11:12:52', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14466', 0, 'post', '', 3),
(14480, 243, '2014-04-30 06:12:50', '2014-04-30 11:12:50', '<blockquote>“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.” Ambrose Redmoon</blockquote>\nWhat are you most afraid of losing? No, I’m not talking about your life. Let’s say in your job, what are you most afraid of? Generally, for me, I’m most afraid I’m wasting my time. Since I passed the half-century mark, I wonder how much more impact I’ll have. I wonder how many more opportunities I’ll have to make a positive difference in the world.  You probably don’t wonder about things like that. You’re probably younger.\n\nA close second might be looking foolish or being wrong, or losing money. Like most people in the west, I’m not in fear of having nothing to eat or in danger from the elements or from an enemy. My fears are much more first-world fears.\n\nHowever have you ever noticed how easily we can become defensive or focus on ourselves?  I love the Ambrose Redmoon quote above because it reminds me to consider those things that are most important. For me, that has meant force-ranking my goals in life and then spending my best energy on my highest goals. None of my primary goals are self-preservation or image-management. Yet self-preservation and image-management are the things I do when I’m not doing something else. In some way, self-preservation and image-management are assumed in everything I do.  But if those are my highest goals, I don’t like me very much. I don’t want to follow the guy who looks out for himself.  The absence of a noble purpose is the greatest cause for failure.\n\nOur highest purpose is never wrong, at least not to us. Our purpose exposes our values so we defend it at all costs. We make excuses for our pursuit of it. We want others to agree with us that our highest purpose is noble. We treasure it above all.  But our highest purpose can be too low. Or it can be directed toward base or inferior goals for common or even corrupt reasons.  What do you judge to be “more important than fear?”  For what will you risk looking foolish or losing money?  And if that thing is more important than fear, how much of your life is spent pursuing it?\n\n<span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\">Photo cc <a href=\"http://www.imcreator.com/images/vigili-del-fuoco-3\">Vigili del Fuoco 3 by Roberto Taddeo</a></span>', 'Courage of Purpose', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'courage-of-purpose', '', '', '2014-04-30 06:12:50', '2014-04-30 11:12:50', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14480', 0, 'post', '', 2),
(14490, 306, '2014-05-01 06:08:24', '2014-05-01 11:08:24', 'Last month, LinkedIn published an <a href=\"http://talent.linkedin.com/blog/index.php/2014/03/internal-mobility-exit-survey\" target=\"_blank\">infographic</a> summarizing its recent research into why employees quit.  At the top of the list (and consistent with many other studies) is ‘greater opportunities for advancement.’  How many surveys and how much lost talent will it take for leaders to recognize the seriousness of this situation?\n\n<a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/how-local-attention-can-solve-the-global-retention-problem/global-local/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14496\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-14496\" alt=\"global local\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/global-local-300x199.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>Think about the time and resources dedicated to other dimensions of the business -- processes, finances, operations, etc -- none of which are possible without people.  And yet every day, we let skilled, capable workers walk out the door, taking their knowledge and talents to the competition.  If equipment disappeared at this rate, there would be swift action. If large volumes of materials just evaporated, an investigation would immediately be launched… because resources matter.  But, for some reason, human resources don’t get the same attention.\n\nRather than waiting for the organization or senior leadership to take systemic steps to turn the talent tide, perhaps it’s time for individual managers to take action themselves.   Perhaps it’s time to apply local attention to the global retention problem.  Because after all, managers are in the best possible position to take positive steps toward enhancing employee’s awareness of opportunities for advancement and driving their growth.  They have daily access, ongoing relationships, and the ability to pick up on early cues that enable them to support the career development that employees so desperately desire.\n\nManagers who want to reduce the chances that their best talent will leave can take the following steps on their own to help others grow.\n<h4><b>Get out and talk to employees.</b></h4>\nStart by simply engaging in short conversations about the passions, strengths, goals and aspirations of others.  Isn’t it odd that we demonstrate so much interest in prospective employees during the interview process before they are hired?  We spend an hour or more trying to learn everything we can about them. Then, once they’re hired, the dialogue frequently ceases.\n\nKeep the ‘interview’ going by continuing to ask questions that allow you (and the employee) to discover the ever-evolving nature of individuals.  A few starter questions might include:\n<ul>\n	<li>What have you always been good at?</li>\n	<li>What’s so embedded in your DNA that you just can’t NOT do it?</li>\n	<li>What makes you feel alive?</li>\n	<li>What does career success look like to you?</li>\n	<li>What kind of work do you want to be doing?</li>\n	<li>What do you wish to achieve?</li>\n</ul>\n<h4><b>Redefine career development.</b></h4>\nOnce you’ve started the conversation, asked the questions, and demonstrated curiosity, you’ve earned the right to offer your perspective.  And the most important perspective you can share is about the changing nature of careers and career development.\n\nIn most organizations, the traditional trajectory of predictable career progression is long gone.  Remember when employees were tapped approximately every 18 months and invited to step to the next rung of the corporate ladder… moving ever upward toward higher and higher titles?  Well, it no longer works like that.\n\nToday, career progression looks less like a ladder and more like a web, lattice, jungle gym, or rock climbing wall.  The landscape and opportunities are oriented more horizontally than vertically.  The paths are less prescribed and more organic.  Movement is still possible upward… but there are countless more opportunities over, around, and especially right in place.\n\nOnce managers and employees alike recognize growth in role as powerful career development,  the possibilities are nearly infinite… because this kind of growth is completely within their responsibility and purview. No approvals required.  Rarely does it cost anything.\n\nHelping employees redefine career development as growing in rather than moving among roles can do a lot to reset expectations, enhance satisfaction, and improve retention.\n<h4><b>Open doors to development experiences.</b></h4>\nWith an expanded understanding of the employee, his or her goals, and this new definition of career development, managers are well poised to help others take career development action. But rather than offering promotions, they can offer powerful learning experiences that promote growth, extend skills, offer variety and build capacity. Rotations, attending leadership meetings, special projects, strategic community service, and stretch assignments linked to growth goals serve both the employee and the organization. Managers will accomplish more as they skillfully match real work and real problems with the development priorities of their staffs.\n\nSo, rather than lamenting the latest retention statistics and waiting for senior leadership, human resources, or anyone else to take action to address them, managers can and should begin owning employee development on an individual  level.  Because, when managers everywhere commit to this kind of local action, the global problem will quickly fade.', 'How Local Attention Can Solve the Global Retention Problem', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'how-local-attention-can-solve-the-global-retention-problem', '', '', '2014-05-01 06:08:24', '2014-05-01 11:08:24', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14490', 0, 'post', '', 1),
(14505, 290, '2014-05-02 13:12:43', '2014-05-02 18:12:43', 'I have a confession to make: sometimes when I read articles about leadership I roll my eyes. It happens mostly when I’m faced with the assumption that everyone is (or can be) a leader. I’ve always disagreed. Not everyone is a leader, not everyone should be a leader and not everyone wants to be a leader. After all, leaders need someone to lead and that necessitates the existence of people who aren’t leaders, right? So when Millennial leader Marvin Mathew began to talk to me about the concept of leadership he almost lost me. Can I be frank? <a title=\"Redefining Leadership\" href=\"http://www.thindifference.com/2014/04/30/redefining-leadership-millennial-leader-marvin-mathew/\">Read more...</a>', 'Redefining Leadership with Millennial Leader Marvin Mathew', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'redefining-leadership-with-millennial-leader-marvin-mathew', '', '', '2014-05-02 13:12:43', '2014-05-02 18:12:43', '', 0, 'https://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14505', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(14508, 316, '2014-05-07 12:40:23', '2014-05-07 17:40:23', '<img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-14509\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/samir-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"samir\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" />I met <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Samir_Rath\" target=\"_blank\">Samir Rath</a> when he was in the 2nd cohort of the <a href=\"http://www.iebrown.com/\" target=\"_blank\">IE-Brown E-MBA</a> while simultaneously investing and starting companies all over the world, including Chile, because, doesn\'t everyone? Read Samir\'s thoughts on serendipity, luck and entrepreneurship...\n\nHow often do we hear our friends and family say “Oh! She is so lucky. She moves in the right circles.” Or “He is so lucky. He is always at the right place at the right time.” [...] Many people feel that no matter how hard they work or how capable they are, their spate of bad luck just keeps messing things up. <strong>Luck is nothing but an attitude. </strong><a href=\"http://mills-scofield.com/blog/2014/4/27/create-your-own-luck.html#.U2GHlfldUbM\" target=\"_blank\">Read More...</a>\n\n&nbsp;', 'Create Your Own Luck', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'create-your-own-luck', '', '', '2014-05-07 12:40:23', '2014-05-07 17:40:23', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14508', 0, 'post', '', 1),
(14517, 244, '2014-05-13 15:34:29', '2014-05-13 20:34:29', '<b><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-14518\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/manleapingacrosschasm-300x211.jpg\" alt=\"The Path to High Performance\" width=\"300\" height=\"211\" />If you want to get on a path to high performance, there is one thing you must first accept:</b>\n<blockquote>Whatever your current level of performance may be at this moment, if you aspire to something greater or to be better you have a performance gap.</blockquote>\nBeing honest with yourself about your gap is an important first step in closing it.\n\nAfter all, how can you close your <a href=\"http://www.ask.com/question/what-is-a-performance-gap\" target=\"_blank\">performance gap</a> until can accept you have one and are willing to honestly explore it?\n\nYet for many, that gap can be extremely hard to face.  Perhaps it\'s because in facing the gap we must confront one of our greatest fears as human beings - that we are not enough. <a href=\"http://randomactsofleadership.com/the-path-to-high-performance/\">Read more.</a>', 'The Path to High Performance', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'the-path-to-high-performance', '', '', '2014-05-13 15:34:29', '2014-05-13 20:34:29', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14517', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(14547, 252, '2014-05-02 08:19:36', '2014-05-02 13:19:36', '<p id=\"E75\"><a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Screen-Shot-2011-09-06-at-1.56.00-PM.png\"><img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-5438\" alt=\"Smartblog Logo\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Screen-Shot-2011-09-06-at-1.56.00-PM.png\" width=\"232\" height=\"96\" /></a>I’ve been talking to a budding author recently. He’s in his 20s and very likely to land a book deal here soon. He told me he started repeating in the shower every morning, “I’m an expert. I’m an expert. I’m an expert.”</p>\n<p id=\"E90\">It’s as if he’s trying to catch up mentally with his accomplishment.</p>\nRead more<a href=\"http://smartblogs.com/leadership/2014/05/01/the-unlikely-link-between-authority-and-empowerment/\"> here..</a>..', 'The unlikely link between authority and empowerment', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'the-unlikely-link-between-authority-and-empowerment', '', '', '2014-05-02 08:19:36', '2014-05-02 13:19:36', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14547', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(14556, 274, '2014-05-05 08:59:47', '2014-05-05 13:59:47', '<em style=\"font-style: italic;\"><a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/leadership_carnival-logo-300x134.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-8664\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/leadership_carnival-logo-300x134.jpg\" alt=\"leadership_carnival-logo-300x134\" width=\"300\" height=\"134\" /></a></em>Five years ago, I started blogging about leadership on a blog called LeaderTalk. Many of the bloggers on today’s list supported my early efforts. In fact, Dan McCarthy, who generously offered us the opportunity to host this month’s carnival, was <a style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; color: #7c181a;\" href=\"http://www.greatleadershipbydan.com/2009/05/leadership-lessons-from-mom.html\" target=\"_blank\">one of the first bloggers to give me a shout-out</a>. It’s not a stretch to say that I would not be where I am without the support of many of the folks included in this carnival, people who welcomed me to this leadership blogging community. Thank you! You have made my life better. I am a better leader today because of you!\n\nToday’s carnival features some seasoned leadership bloggers with some excellent post as well as some new voices in the space. I hope you’ll take the time to read settle in and learn from all these contributions and then share these posts (and the carnival) with your online communities.\n\nRead more <a href=\"http://weavinginfluence.com/leadership/may-leadership-development-carnival\">here..</a>..', 'May 2014 Leadership Development Carnival', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'may-2014-leadership-development-carnival', '', '', '2014-05-05 08:59:47', '2014-05-05 13:59:47', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14556', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(14560, 270, '2014-05-12 14:29:58', '2014-05-12 19:29:58', 'A recent conversation with friend and co-author Jennifer V. Miller about the value of leadership fables caused me to examine my love of simplicity in business, leadership and life. Does a simple message have the depth of an elaborate one? Is one easier to remember than the other?\nAre simple messages as valuable or as long lasting as elaborate ones? Personally, I love simplicity and I appreciate it when it flows out of others. <a title=\"Is Simple Thought Leadership As Valuable As Something Elaborate\" href=\"http://consultgiana.com/is-simple-thought-leadership-as-valuable-as-something-elaborate/#more-2904http://\">Read More</a>', 'Is simple thought leadership as valuable as something elaborate?', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'is-simple-thought-leadership-as-valuable-as-something-elaborate', '', '', '2014-05-12 14:29:58', '2014-05-12 19:29:58', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14560', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(14568, 274, '2014-05-06 07:00:04', '2014-05-06 12:00:04', '<img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-14575\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/running-buds1-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"running buds\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" />After months of hearing my friend Maria tell me about her running group, I finally got up early one Saturday morning to meet the group for a run.\n\nLeaving my house before six a.m., I asked myself: Who does this?\n\nWhen I pulled into the parking lot for the meet-up, several cars idled there and when I got out of my van, I stepped into a circle of six or seven women.\n\nAlthough meeting them for the first time, they seemed familiar. They looked like me: tired (maybe), determined, committed.\n\nWho does this?\n\n\"We do,\" I thought. \"We do this.\"\n\nMoments later, we took off in a steady jog through a still dark morning. As the miles passed, the sun rose, lighting the sky gradually, as dark faded to light.\n\nWe are stronger together.\n\nWhether you want to run a marathon (which I did last month, supported by my new running friends), start a business, or become a better leader, you will be more effective if you have a group of like-minded friends to support you.\n\n<strong>Being part of a group provides unshakable accountability. </strong>When you commit to others who want to live and lead the way you do, you are inviting them to help you be the person you\'re aspiring to be. Friends in a group can nudge you gently back when you fall away, just as you encourage others when they struggle.\n\n<strong>Being part of a group creates a new normal. </strong>Is getting up at 5 am to run before dawn normal? Is being a no-excuses leader normal? Is generosity normal? Joining with others community gives us a chance to create new definitions and norms. These new norms can propel us to become better versions of ourselves.\n\n<strong>Being part of a group introduces new resources and ideas. </strong>My running friends have experiences and knowledge that I don\'t, and they share their ideas and thoughts with me. I ran my marathon much more successfully because I followed their advice to pace myself carefully. I met my coach, Susan Mazza, in this group (Lead Change).\n\n<strong>Being part of a group allows us to make a bigger impact in the world. </strong>If I am trying to do something alone, I can have some effect. When I join with others, I can make a much bigger difference. When I started my business in early 2012, I was the only one working. I soon discovered I needed help. Now that I work with a team of 20+, we can get a lot more done. This group is a great example of a community you can join if you want to make a bigger difference in the world. One voice talking about the importance of character based leadership can be easily drowned out by the noise. When we raise our voices together, we will be heard.\n\nIf you ever feel like you are standing alone, you are not. When you are facing a challenge, or conquering a fear, or facing a new day with courage and integrity, though you may be physically alone, as part of this community you are not ever alone. The answer to the question \"Who does this?\" is always, resoundingly, \"We do.\"\n\nWe do this.', 'Together is Better Than Alone', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'together-is-better-than-alone', '', '', '2014-05-06 07:00:04', '2014-05-06 12:00:04', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14568', 0, 'post', '', 8),
(14578, 243, '2014-05-06 14:06:13', '2014-05-06 19:06:13', '<span style=\"color: #3a3a3a;\"><a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/KH_ImperfectBoss_share2-copy.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-14585\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/KH_ImperfectBoss_share2-copy-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"KH_ImperfectBoss_share2-copy\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" /></a></span>\n\n<em>When it comes to developing a great relationship with a boss, most of us can use all the help we can get. You have more power than you think.</em>--Karin Hurt\n<p style=\"color: #3d2314;\">This is the heart of a great new book by Lead Change instigator Karin Hurt, who recently released \"Overcoming an Imperfect Boss.\"</p>\n<p style=\"color: #3d2314;\">Drawing on a <span style=\"color: #000000;\">diverse background of executive leadership experience in sales, customer service, call centers, human resources, merger integration, training and leadership development, Karin offers practical advice for leaders who are looking to make a positive impact for their teams and for their organizations. </span></p>\nMost people leave the magic of what could be a career-changing relationship with their boss untapped. This outstanding guide provides a practical step-by-step approach to the most challenging bosses and scenarios.\n\nIn addition to her contributions on Lead Change, Karin has an <span style=\"color: #000000;\">award-winning blog, Let’s Grow Leaders, which has grown into a highly-interactive, international community. She also hosts Frontline Festival, a monthly leadership blog carnival. </span>\n\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">Recently, Karin shared more secrets to a great relationship with your boss. Read more <a href=\"http://letsgrowleaders.com/communication-listening/great_relationship_boss/\">here</a>....</span>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;', 'How do you overcome an imperfect boss?', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'how-do-you-overcome-an-imperfect-boss', '', '', '2014-05-06 14:06:13', '2014-05-06 19:06:13', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14578', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(14593, 251, '2014-05-09 06:12:23', '2014-05-09 11:12:23', '<a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/shake-the-world.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright wp-image-14594 size-medium\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/shake-the-world-227x300.jpg\" alt=\"shake the world\" width=\"227\" height=\"300\" /></a>What do you do when someone disagrees with your opinion? Do you:\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">a)  Ignore it</p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">b)  Dig in and aggressively defend your position</p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">c)  Work the difference through to respectful closure</p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">d)  Amicably agree to disagree</p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">e)  Go on the attack</p>\nI hope the majority of readers selected (c) or (d). But if you selected (e), this post is for you!\n\nA friend of mine acquiesced to a persistent friend of hers, agreeing to write a blog post about her views of leadership. She’d never written a blog post before, so this was a big deal for her. In her article, she shared several provocative viewpoints—innovative concepts worthy of broader discussion. Eight readers commented and all opted to go on the attack:\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>“What a stupid piece. I wonder how long it took this idiot to write such pointless stuff?”</em></p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>“I looked her up and found a picture. She’s fat. Just what the business world needs:  a fatty telling us how to be a better boss.”</em></p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>“Why was this garbage published?”</em></p>\nMy friend was devastated and asked that the post be removed (it was). Her taking-it-personally response is a subject for another day. What repels yet fascinates me is how free some people feel to trash those who think differently than they do, and how, instead of presenting a cogent argument for their opposing position, they resort to undisciplined and cruel personal attacks.\n\nWhat’s up with that?\n\nWouldn’t the world be a boring place if we all thought and acted alike? How would we ever grow if there weren’t new thoughts to challenge our thinking? How would anything new ever be invented? Would we still laugh? Cry? Reflect?\n<blockquote><em>The beginning of thought is in disagreement—not only with others but also with ourselves</em>. ~Eric Hoffer</blockquote>\nWhile I believe the anonymity of the internet encourages small-minded meanness, others freely bash away face-to-face. So, if I were to find a genie bottle, I would wish these three things for the opening question (e) people:\n\n<strong>To develop a profound ability to listen and appreciate with both their head and heart</strong>. The world isn’t a zero sum game. There’s plenty of room for differences—look to those differences as a vehicle for exploration and growth.\n\n<strong>To replace the excessive hubris with a measure of humility.</strong> Someone with a differing opinion isn’t wrong; just different. Respect the value diversity of thought brings in creating better outcomes.\n\n<strong>To be less afraid.</strong> Mindless stereotypes create separation and isolation. Be open to examining perceptions to understand why you’re shutting doors instead of opening them.\n<blockquote><em>I should say, love is wise, hatred is foolish. In this world, which is getting more and more closely interconnected, we have to learn to tolerate each other, we have to learn to put up with the fact that some people say things that we don’t like. We can only live together in that way — and if we are to live together and not die together, we must learn a kind of charity and a kind of tolerance, which is absolutely vital to the continuation of human life on this planet.</em> ~Bertrand Russell</blockquote>\nWhat wishes would you send?\n\nPhoto source (before quote):  <a href=\"http://www.stockfreeimages.com\" target=\"_blank\">Free Stock Image</a>', '3 genie bottle wishes for curmudgeons', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', '3-genie-bottle-wishes-for-curmudgeons', '', '', '2014-05-09 06:12:23', '2014-05-09 11:12:23', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14593', 0, 'post', '', 6),
(14602, 352, '2014-05-07 09:29:31', '2014-05-07 14:29:31', '<img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-14609\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/4688710070_7a3a613167_z-243x300.jpg\" alt=\"staring at phone\" width=\"243\" height=\"300\" />In the age of “work-life balance,” we’re trained to segment our attention, with the goal of being engaged with our professional and personal lives in equal measure.  Among the many benefits of this approach is that we learn to be fully aware of our surroundings, both at home and at the office.  But there <em>is</em> a danger to compartmentalizing our lives in such a fashion, as I recently discovered during a visit with my 79 year old mother.\n\nThough the visit had been enjoyable, my mother was frustrated with my children. She pointed out that the kids were engaging more with their iPhones than they were with human beings.\n\nShe went on to say, “These smart phones will be the ruin of this generation!”\n\n“I am willing to bet that your parents had similar observations,” I speculated.\n\n“Well, I do not know what that could possibly be,” she retorted and left it at that.\n\nLater that same day, we were relaxing in the den when she answered her own question.  The television had been on all day long and did not deviate from her favorite station.  I found it important to point out to her that while I was enjoying our visit, I would have found it much more enjoyable without the TV droning in the background.\n\nWhether or not she would agree with my point or understand it, the television, radio, and even the newspaper are just as engaging and distracting as a smart phone.  They are all means of communication which distract us from our environment and the people in it.  They all steal our attention.  Each generation has its unique share of distractions that another finds annoying, and it’s debatable how detrimental this “new device” will be to the next generation.\n\nMy question is, just how useful or damaging is this latest set of distractions to our ongoing quest to find balance in our lives?  Ipads, smart phones, Instagram, Twitter, blogs…the list is endless and each day there is a new “something” I must learn to navigate to stay current with my children and my clients.  Is it really different from my Baby Boomer generation first coming of age with computers and email?\n\nRather than trying to stick to the rigid dichotomies of the past, let’s acknowledge that our technological tools are teaching us the value of integrating a holistic approach to managing our lives, our work, and our relationships. Instead of forcing ourselves to choose between work (or school) <em>or</em> life; clients (or classmates) <em>or</em> family; technology <em>or</em> face-to-face interactions, it’s time to reprogram our minds to recognize the real issue here - the choice between control <em>or</em> change. We must be cognizant of which approach we’re embracing, and understand how that choice is impacting our effectiveness – both at home and at work.\n\nLearning to embrace change and the doors it can open is the common denominator that helps us link generational arms.  The world is becoming smaller as it is more easily accessible to each coming generation.  My 23 year old daughter has connected with our global cultures in a way that my mother has never seen, and I have barely witnessed.  We have a lot to learn from each other.\n\nLet’s embrace the different ways we engage and experience the world around us.  Let’s exchange ideas and teach each other how “new and improved” can be an opportunity to connect our generations, rather than driving them apart.  Let these distractions be the tools to connect with the world, its information, and its people.  Let it also teach us that connecting with our physical surroundings is essential to cultivating relationships and being mindful of the present.  Staying connected while staying present is a challenge every generation can attest to – millennials and boomers alike.\n\nAnd finally, let us remember not to turn off our minds when we leave the office. Rigid devotion to achieving so-called “work-life” balance can strip our lives of the very opportunities for deep learning that can move us – and our organizations - forward. It’s important to be present for our loves ones, but it’s also important to realize that sometimes the most potent lessons for leadership development occur right in our own homes.\n\nphoto credit \"The fascination of the museum\" by <a href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/hisgett/4688710070/in/photolist-89jS9N-3QZPX1-87uWSr-8SwUk7-ec7DG-859oy4-7LMLh-7LMLz-iJYKMV-6aAfWT-cwwoNj-4oucym-6gMeAi-8ATtzQ-ndnFky-jTKn7M-mXHnNv-yw77c-8ATtEQ-io4Vw1-bV9e77-fm8ER-4BNSep-9uW99w-3995Te-6bEdUj-dEuSJd-sEoPV-6Fo5C3-nKT3e-ecqtrT-8AQnHn-7deNVx-8AQr8F-4gbcZ9-5NoN7a-8ATxw1-9hVYPs-8AQqT4-eaNHfw-8ATvK7-8AQs6T-4dEqyt-6Tr9Nq-iYqDV-MJ1U7-uQxPn-8QkdeS-DnfVk-55enRv/\" target=\"_blank\">Tony Hisgett</a>', 'Work-Life Balance for a New Generation', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'work-life-balance-for-a-new-generation', '', '', '2014-05-07 09:29:31', '2014-05-07 14:29:31', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14602', 0, 'post', '', 2),
(14613, 252, '2014-05-12 06:12:35', '2014-05-12 11:12:35', '<a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/can-you-delegate-leadership/mp900439333/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14624\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-14624\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/MP900439333.jpg\" alt=\"MP900439333\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" /></a><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-14626\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/MP9004393332-212x300.jpg\" alt=\"MP900439333\" width=\"212\" height=\"300\" />I’m sitting here on my couch in my pajamas nursing a cold, wondering who is going to write this post for me. No one but me, that’s who. But it got me thinking… when you are not available to lead, who leads for you?\n\nWe’ve seen it many times: a key player — who is not even necessarily the leader in title — on a team, in an organization, or a project moves on for any number of reasons and soon standards drop, progress slows or people start to drift away.\n<h2>It’s not just about covering your responsibilities.</h2>\nI used to work at a chemical plant. When one of the key managers was planning to be completely unavailable, a “surrogate” would be assigned. There was a procedure around this that addressed what qualifications the person needed, how to bring the surrogate up to speed, criteria for when it was time to escalate a situation, etc.  I can’t say that the quality of credibility as a leader was an essential part of the equation though.\n\nYou could debate the circumstances that require this disciplined protocol. If it isn’t really necessary for you, what then?\n<h2>There’s this thing called “succession planning.”</h2>\nWhen you are looking toward the long haul, like a planned exit, whether it’s due to retirement, relocation or just being time to move on, succession planning often doesn\'t get the attention it deserves.  Identifying and preparing people to fill key positions takes time and intentional effort, not just going through the motions.\n\nDynamics are going to change when a void is created, maybe even for the better, but what is the best way to retain the stability, the vision or the heart a true leader brings?\n<h2>Succession planning is more than just identifying a successor.</h2>\nOf course there should be development involved. There are development opportunities that require the potential successor to learn to get work done through others, and to establish their own philosophy, style and vision. Yes, some qualities are inherent and just need to be given room to blossom.  Some skills can be learned through training and real-life practice.\n<h2>Do you really want success to be dependent on one person?</h2>\nThe ideal would be that you develop a culture where just about anyone could take the lead to make things happen, rally the troops, or uphold standards, even in the absence of the \"leader.\"\n\nI’d love to hear the wisdom of this community and our readers.  What do you know about developing leaders and cultivating a culture of leadership to sustain a vision and standards in the face of the inevitable gap caused by someone\'s absence?\n\n<em>What are your tips and experiences?</em>\n\n<span style=\"color: #999999;\">Image: Microsoft Clipart</span>', 'Can You Delegate Leadership?', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'can-you-delegate-leadership', '', '', '2014-05-12 06:12:35', '2014-05-12 11:12:35', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14613', 0, 'post', '', 1),
(14642, 353, '2014-05-14 06:13:00', '2014-05-14 11:13:00', '<a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Taking-Time-to-Breathe_Hero.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft wp-image-14659 size-medium\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Taking-Time-to-Breathe_Hero-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Source: iStockphoto\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" /></a>Breathing is automatic. Without breathing we cease to be. So if breathing is automatic, what on earth do I mean by this statement: Taking Time to Breathe?\n\nWell, it has to do with leaders and how so often they are in the mode of fast and quick because they are being measured on results. And, generally these measurements are financial, sales, gross margins, return on investment to name just a few. Yet what is the biggest factor that drives results? Engaged employees. These are employees who are in a position to use and develop their strengths and are in an environment that supports their further success.\n\nAnd leaders are the ones who create this culture of support. Yet if they are running at 80 miles an hour, they don’t have time to provide the necessary support employees need.\n\nI have worked with 100s of executives and this is a common challenge they have, slowing down and taking time for those they lead. The techniques that have been the most successful include building your listening and observing skills.\n\n<strong>Listening</strong>\n\nThis is probably the most misunderstood and difficult skill to master. Every one of us has experienced the time when you were talking with someone and yet you only heard the words coming out of your own mouth. The real skill is to <a href=\"http://coachingforexecutive.com/the-three-keys-to-mastering-effective-communications/\" target=\"_blank\">actively listen</a>. This requires slowing down, putting other activities on hold, being in a state of calm and not high emotions, listening for what isn’t said, and clearing your mind of personal biases.\n\nThe most important step in active listening is to clarify your understanding of what the other person just said. For example, “So Gail, what I thought I heard was that you have too many projects on your plate and the one you need to be relieved of is the development of a new credit policy. And you believe that Jon would be able to finish this project for you.”\n\nWhen you paraphrase back to the person you have been listening to, you show them that you have been actively listening AND you provide them with an opportunity to refine their message for any subtle misunderstanding.\n\n<strong>Observing</strong>\n\n<strong> </strong>This skill requires paying attention and being fully “awake” to nuances and subtle changes in normal behavior from employees. Subtle changes can lead to bigger changes in behavior that may prove to be derailers to a person. <a href=\"http://coachingforexecutive.com/become-a-better-leader-by-consciously-modeling-leadership-behaviors/\" target=\"_blank\">Two big areas that should be observed are: interactions with employees AND behavior changes.</a>\n\nWhom an employee interacts with can provide you with information that may be helpful in managing them. How they interact with others can give you hints about their emotional intelligence. How do they react with people they have conflicts with?\n\nBehaviors that have changed can also be important knowledge to a leader. If all of a sudden an outgoing employee becomes quiet, what has triggered this change? Or an employee who normally is punctual to meetings starts coming late, what is the underlying cause of this behavior change?\n\nLeaders who can master their ability to slow down by actively listening and being awake to observe changes to employees are able to gather more data than those leaders who choose not to slow down. And this type of data will help build a workforce of engaged employees who will be your raving fans.\n\n&nbsp;', 'Taking Time to Breathe', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'taking-time-to-breathe', '', '', '2014-05-14 06:13:00', '2014-05-14 11:13:00', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=14642', 0, 'post', '', 0);
