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(30924, 433, '2016-09-22 06:00:11', '2016-09-22 10:00:11', 'Have you ever felt lost under the sea of career <strong>advice</strong> thrown at you? It is easy to get confused with words of wisdom coming your way from a million different directions but it is also equally important to remember that some of the business fundamentals have remained unchanged over the years. Here is a compilation of the <strong>tips</strong> and tricks of the trade that are guaranteed to take you to the top.\n\nThe first thing you need to do is to find your passion and distinguish it from your hobby. Everybody has ideas that they would like to turn into business ventures. But if your conceptual ideas or dreams are unable to fetch you money, then you won\'t be able to convert them into businesses. Before starting off, ask yourself if your passion will generate revenue.\n\nDo not give in to fear while starting your own business. You will probably never feel fully prepared to launch your own business but the hack is to over-prepare. Prepare as much as you can for failures and successes alike and always have a plan B.\n\nDevelop the habit of documenting every step of your career path. You will be able to see how your business is evolving, learn from your past mistakes and gauge future successes. This will help you map your progress and assess your impact. Aim for creating value for yourself.\n\nSet descriptive, achievable and time constrained business goals. Descriptive goals can help you visualise your target better and the focus on time will help you achieve your targets faster. Additionally, rely on strong, clear reasons for setting these particular goals. These reasons will motivate you towards achieving your business goals in your career path.\n\nWhile trying to advance your career in business, it is imperative to create milestones as stepping stones towards your business goals. Further, you need the aid of a robust action plan or a road map to reach your business goals. These steps will help you to analyse and monitor your business and be methodical about your  approach to career advancement.\n\nIn order to take yourself to the top of the career ladder, one of the personality traits that you must rely upon is flexibility. In an ever evolving industry, it is an absolute necessity to constantly upgrade and adjust your business plan when required.\n\nYou simply cannot ignore networking. Tap into all your contacts, past as well as present, and forge lasting relationships. It is common to want to be independent in wanting to create your own success. But learning everything on your own might not be such a good idea. Instead try to surround yourself with brilliant and talented as well as creative individuals who can share knowledge and help you prosper.\n\nPerseverance is one of the fundamental qualities that determines the success of your business and fuels your career in a positive direction. Do not be afraid to work hard and don’t let failures deter you. Resilience in the face of adversity will give you a competitive edge. Working smart, however, is more important than working hard when you’re trying to climb the corporate ladder.\n\nCommitment towards your work will go a long way in ensuring that you gain visibility and success in your career. Without certain sacrifices and an unyielding dedication towards your business, you will not be able to catapult your career to the corporate forefront.\n\nPerhaps the best<strong> hack</strong> to a successful career in business is self-confidence and conviction. Never doubt yourself. Understand that every career path is unique in itself and go take the world by storm.', 'Business Hacks to Get Your Career Soaring', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'business-hacks-to-get-your-career-soaring', '', '', '2016-09-22 06:00:11', '2016-09-22 10:00:11', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=30924', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(30936, 251, '2016-08-11 06:00:09', '2016-08-11 10:00:09', 'What practice makes for being an effective leader?\n\nNot avoiding actions that make you uncomfortable.\n\nTo be a productive and persuasive leader, you have to do that which makes you uncomfortable. Then you do it again and again until you feel comfortable doing it. You may never come to like giving negative performance feedback or making staff reductions, but you still do it with tact and grace. You develop a comfort level with your discomfort. Capable, inspirational leaders repeat the getting-comfortable-with-discomfort process with every item on their personal and professional development list.\n<blockquote>“If you’re not uncomfortable in your work as a leader, it’s almost certain you’re not reaching your potential as a leader.” ~Seth Godin, author</blockquote>\nA friend says he always knows when someone in his work department has messed up—everyone receives an email from the boss reminding them to start, stop or continue doing a particular thing. Their boss is notorious for not dealing with performance issues head-on. He indulges his comfort zone and short-changes developing his employees.\n<blockquote>“The comfort zone is a behavioral state within which a person operates in an anxiety-neutral condition, using a limited set of behaviors to deliver a steady level of performance, usually without a sense of risk.” ~ Alasdair A.K. White, management theorist</blockquote>\nBeing stuck in that “steady level of performance” has its benefits and disadvantages. On the plus side, there’s consistency and safety. On the minus side, there’s lack of growth, no improvement, and probably a few incorrect assumptions. Boredom, too.\n<h3>Finding the intersection of comfort and growth</h3>\nBack in 1908, research from Harvard psychologists <a href=\"http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Yerkes/Law/\">Robert Yerkes and John Dillingham Dodson</a> demonstrated a “Goldilocks too much, too little, just right” correlation between performance and mental or physiological arousal. Effective leadership requires finding an ever-flexing optimal level of anxiety. Too much leads to danger or chaos. Too little yields being safely stuck in complacency and the status quo.\n\nA just-right amount of short-term stress helps us learn, grow, and make <a href=\"/nypost.com/2016/03/13/dont-bother-with-zen-stress-helps-you-perform-better/\">better choices</a>. “Working right around the edge really helps you learn and progress,” notes Erik Dane, a professor at Rice University. If your goal is to lead others, you have to first lead yourself, and doing that requires embracing a measure of discomfort. Comfort and conformity are augmented with discomfort and differences.\n<blockquote>“The heights charm us, but the steps do not; with the mountains in our view we love to walk the plains.” ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, writer and statesman</blockquote>\n<h3>5 uncomfortable questions to ask yourself</h3>\nIf you feel that you’ve became a bit too comfortable in your current leadership practices, reflect on your answers to these five questions. Better yet, share them with a colleague and listen with your head and heart to what he or she has to say.\n<ul>\n 	<li>Do I accept what is offered or do I ask for more?</li>\n 	<li>Do I accept conformity because it’s the easy way out or do I push boundaries and challenge assumptions to make the playing field level for all?</li>\n 	<li>Do I use the words “or, but, and no” frequently or do I use “and, let’s give it a try, and yes” regularly?</li>\n 	<li>Do I focus only on my strengths or do I invite others to help me see my blind spots so I can be better?</li>\n 	<li>Do I believe my positions and answers are always the right ones or do I welcome diversity of thought, opinion, and perspective?</li>\n</ul>\nRisk exists in identifying comfort zone weaknesses, habits, biases, and instincts, but so do rewards.\n\nHow have you learned to find the leadership magic that sits outside your comfort zone?', 'If You’re Not Uncomfortable, You’re Not Leading', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'if-youre-not-uncomfortable-youre-not-leading', '', '', '2016-08-11 06:00:09', '2016-08-11 10:00:09', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=30936', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(30952, 329, '2016-08-18 06:00:13', '2016-08-18 10:00:13', 'We can thank Hapeville, GA native Jeff Foxworthy for giving rednecks their due. Jeff did not invent the word; the label has been around for a long time—at least 150 years. It has been a pejorative term used to characterize poor, white, ignorant, rural, bigoted folks who were usually missing teeth and lived largely south of the Mason Dixie line.\n\nIt has also been a term of pride. Just ask most any Hank Williams loving, gun-toting, pick-up truck driving, I’d-rather-fish-than-play-golf person you know. “If heaven ain’t a lot like Dixie, I don’t want to go,” sang Hank Jr., vividly capturing redneck regional pride.  Most true rednecks would not miss an episode of Duck Dynasty any more than their parents missed Hee-Haw.\n\nIf you grew up in a rural geography, even if you do not consider yourself a redneck, you very likely knew someone who was. So, Jeff’s non-stop one-liners were funny: “You might be a redneck…if there are more than five McDonald\'s bags in your car…if the Home Shopping Network operator recognizes your voice…id the taillight covers of your car are made of red tape...if you financed a tattoo, or if you’ve ever been involved in a custody fight over a hunting dog.”\n\nThe redneck experience is unique. Most are God-fearing, nature loving, family-oriented lovers of freedom. They trust their neighbors a whole lot more than the government. Most get a lump in their throat when they hear the national anthem and will go out of their way to respect someone in a military uniform. So, how many rednecks work for you? What do you think about a training class on how to lead a redneck?\n\nAbout this point in this blog, you are suspecting something out of the ordinary is afoot. You are already considering the fact that this blog is not really about rednecks at all. It is about the danger of labels and typecasts. \"How to lead a redneck\" seems rather silly. And, redneck could be replaced with any designated group different than the majority.\n\nI have been consulting organizations for over thirty-five years on how to foster a more humanist workplace. I have watched the profession go through lots of very savvy efforts to pigeonhole employees into categories or styles or features in order to make leadership more prescriptive. During the start of the diversity push, there were classes on “how to lead minorities” or “what women want in a leader.”\n\nThen there was the personality instrument era. Many leaders took classes to learn how to influence ESTJ’s or Analytics or Controllers.  I have been in organizations that put employees’ Myers-Briggs, DiSC or FIRO-B scores under their cubicle nameplates so leaders could get an instant interpersonal roadmap for effective interaction. Meetings were battlegrounds of buzzwords. “Your critical parent is talking to my high D.”\n\nNow we are learning about generational differences. I need to lead Gen Xers differently than Baby Boomers. Millennials need more of this and less of that. What do I do with the redneck under my leadership who likes Mozart more than George Jones? And what about the baby boomers who are “can-do,” purpose-driven early adopters who care more about learning than a gold watch, use Snapchat and listen to Jay Z?” It can all be very confusing when people don’t somehow fit in the neat boxes we have created for them.\n<h3><strong>Don’t Make an Ass Out of You and Me</strong></h3>\nI am a student of human behavior and an avid reader of books, blogs and articles on what makes people tick. I believe self-understanding is crucial to a well-lived life. I think leaders are influencers of people, not just a driver of results. Leading in the key of personality can orchestrate a harmonious, productive work environment. Great leaders never forget that people are complex and often unpredictable. Their work life is influenced, not just by the primary components of their life—family, career, health—but also by their internal reaction to these components.\n\nI am reminded of a story Stephen Covey wrote in his book <a href=\"https://www.amazon.com/Habits-Highly-Effective-People-Powerful/dp/0743269519\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People</strong></a>. He boarded a subway in New York City to go home. A young man and his three young children already occupied the subway car he chose. For three stops, the children jumped on the seats, yelled at each other, and acted completely unruly as their father sat silently. Dr. Covey was amazed the father made no attempt to discipline his kids. At the next stop, the young man got off with his kids. As he exited the subway car he turned to Dr. Covey and said, “I am so sorry my kids were loud and rowdy. We just came from the hospital where their mother died about an hour ago. I don\'t know what to think, and I guess they don\'t know how to handle it either.”\n\nLeadership is not about the pursuit of assumption. We all know the result when we dissect the word “assume.” Leadership is about leading everyone using a set of values that reflect the best of who we are as people. It is about authenticity, honesty, compassion, empathy, and a drive to bring out the finest in others. It is also about a commitment to a purpose, a dedication to being a good steward of the resources for which we are responsible, and a remover of barriers that inhibit human potential from being unleashed. It is about leading for the long-term health of both the organization and the people that make it up.\n\nGreat leadership is recognizing that people are different; each is a unique creation. Great leadership is the recognition that human diversity provides a rich tapestry of talent and growth. It is the abhorrence of decisions about people based on some ethnic, religious, cultural or physical feature unrelated to high performance and excellence.\n\nLearn much about generational differences; it is a fascinating topic. It enriches our understanding of ourselves; it deepens our knowledge of others. However, be careful of the ease with which our insight can breed stereotyping instead of appreciating; labeling instead of loving. Mark Twain said it well: “All generalizations are false, including this one!”', 'How to Lead a Redneck', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'how-to-lead-a-redneck', '', '', '2016-08-18 06:00:13', '2016-08-18 10:00:13', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=30952', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(30964, 416, '2016-08-17 06:00:13', '2016-08-17 10:00:13', 'If you’re doing business today, then you know—local is dead and global is the new norm. And with that, study upon study has come out stating that the number one agenda item for today’s corporate leaders is finding talent that can think and lead globally.\n\nWithout the ability to successfully manage a business across borders, you and your organization are destined to fall behind. Yet, leadership programs are failing at preparing future leaders with the skills needed to excel in this new business world. That’s because they fail to cultivate a global mindset which means truly having the desire, knowledge, and skills to operate effectively in business today.\n\nTo be an effective global leader, you need the 4 C’s—cultural sensitivity, collaborative skills, comfort with the uncomfortable, and the capacity to motivate people across cultures.\n\nSo, how do you get these skills? Thankfully, there are actions you can take right now to help you and your leaders successfully navigate in multiple environments to achieve your organization’s goals.\n<h3>Have an open mind</h3>\nGlobal leaders have the ability to accept that a particular situation may not be like anything they’re familiar with. They recognize that what works well in one culture could be unintentionally alienating in another, causing a rift between a manager and his or her team. They adapt their approach to specific dynamics and are able to mirror the shifting standards of multiple regions.\n<h3>Live and travel abroad</h3>\nLeaders need to experience what it’s like to live and exist in another country. This experience will help them appreciate cultural differences, incorporate what they learn into their work lives, and build networks of global relationships. The best global leaders are those that are comfortable in different cultures and understand the nuances of doing business outside their home country. Not to mention, living abroad, and seeing and experiencing new and different things can lead to a more fulfilling and enriched life.\n<h3>Be inquisitive</h3>\nThe best global leaders are curious about anything and everything new and different. They ask questions of their teams, customers, clients, and partners and put aside opinions and criticisms. They’re eager to learn, and listen more than they talk.\n<h3>Be flexible</h3>\nThe global business world is comprised of varying perspectives and ambiguity. A global leader is comfortable with this and is responsive to true differences in problem-solving among countries. They have the ability to learn from mistakes and to balance shorter and longer term objectives.\n<h3>Play memory</h3>\nIf you’re working in a new, specific, region of the world, get online, memorize five facts about the country or culture. When interacting with colleagues or business partners, use those facts as ice-breakers. In new sales or vendor meetings, you’ll be seen as credible. And by showing an effort to learn about their culture, you’ll gain respect and show genuine interest in your new associates.\n<h3>Be self-aware</h3>\nEffective global leaders know their management style and how it might be received by different cultures. For example, most of us have experienced both the micromanaging boss and the hands-off boss. In some cultures, teams will expect a manager to keep a tight rein and will feel abandoned by a boss who allows more independence. Other cultures are the opposite. Other differences to be aware of include how decisions are made, how recognition is given, how feedback is given and how time is viewed.\n\nIn today’s business world, you may have people working globally, working virtually, doing business with people from other regions or countries, or employing workers from other cultures. Being able to think and lead globally, or have a global mindset, is crucial for success and growth in this new business world order.', '6 Secrets to Success in the Global Business World', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', '6-secrets-to-success-in-the-global-business-world', '', '', '2016-08-17 06:00:13', '2016-08-17 10:00:13', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=30964', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(30967, 416, '2016-10-20 06:00:26', '2016-10-20 10:00:26', 'Work-life balance has been a perennial hot topic and a big reason why is because no one seems to know how to achieve it. The reason, I believe, is because work-life balance is a myth. It is about as real as a unicorn. But, what is real is the successful management of the two?\n\nHere are four simple strategies to overcome the challenges of aligning career and family, your personal and professional life:\n<h3><strong>Set boundaries at work and home</strong></h3>\nFigure out what balance means to you. Is it traveling once a month? Or not thinking about work on the weekends? Once you know what you want, you have to set expectations in the workplace to achieve these goals. Maybe you\'re home early three afternoons a week, but you\'re available during certain hours after the kids go to bed.\n\nAt home, talk to your family and significant others about what\'s important to you but also address what types of work situations may require your attention no matter what. This can help avoid children or partner resentment when those events arise.\n<h3><strong>Make your partner your partner in work and life</strong></h3>\nSheryl Sandberg has said a survival tactic of hers was accepting that her husband may not have been doing things around the house like she would, but at least he was helping. If the diaper is crooked, at least it’s on. If it’s pizza for dinner, at least no one will go to bed hungry.\n\nMore and more couples are figuring out how to share parenting and domestic responsibilities and a lot of it has to do with compromise. And planning. Just like you have a planning session at work, have one every week at home. Plan who will pick the kids up from school or handle taking out the trash.\n<h3><strong>Emit positive energy</strong></h3>\nOne of the best ways to avoid excessive stress is to put a smile on your face. You\'ll create a more easygoing atmosphere in your workplace and at home. A friendly \"good morning\" or a \"please\" and \"thank you\" can often work wonders for colleagues and family members.\n\nAnd, don’t forget to laugh. Humor makes us strong and resilient. Laughing with colleagues is not just fun, but helps us bond with one another. The next stress situation is thus only half as bad because the team shares the burden.\n<h3><strong>Be aware of your limits</strong></h3>\nIf you want to fight stress, you need time to recharge. So be sure to plan regular breaks. A brief change of location, fresh air, or a conversation with colleagues can provide new strength. In an acute stress situation, it is helpful to take a break and to take a few deep breaths.\n\nFinding a balance between the demands of your job and the rest of your life is likely to be an ongoing endeavor, but one that\'s worth it. After all, this is your one and only life.', 'Why Work-Life Balance is a Unicorn', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'why-work-life-balance-is-a-unicorn', '', '', '2016-10-20 06:00:26', '2016-10-20 10:00:26', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=30967', 0, 'post', '', 1),
(30977, 276, '2016-08-15 06:00:52', '2016-08-15 10:00:52', 'I find it interesting seeing people wanting to be leaders like it is the first-place position in a race. Each one is vying for that coveted position to be able to lead and tell people what to do, a position that has an aura of power and authority that is bestowed upon them, that enables them to give commands that their people have to follow and carry out.\n\nSuch demonstration of intense focus to gain power is akin to purchasing a house, thinking that once the house is purchased it is the end of the journey. But that is far from the truth. While the initial act of purchasing a house requires a huge financial outlay, the work that comes after that is even bigger and more demanding.\n\nAfter the purchase one has to tend to the needs of maintaining a property, like mowing the lawn, cleaning the gutters, trimming the bushes, planting and caring for the plants, raking leaves, shoveling the driveway during winters and the overall upkeep of the house inside and out. All the ensuing activities are often not clear until the purchase is completed because the intense focus of acquiring it shifts the focus to the house itself.\n\nAs John C. Maxwell said, “Leadership is action, not a position.”\n\nMost folks fail to realize that there is a lot required of them after they arrive at the destination and are given the opportunity to lead others. They have to serve their constituents; they need to spend a great deal of time and managing people is not easy. As a result, they fail at it because they don’t have a clear picture of what they need to do.\n\nTherefore it is important for leaders to educate their constituents about the work that is ahead of the folks who desire to be leaders. Just like purchasing a house, the single act pales in comparison to the commitment you need to dedicate time to serve and lead others. Until you realize the effort needed and learn what lies ahead, it is best to take the time in your journey to equip yourself with the necessary skills and knowledge to make it happen.\n\nI make it a point to mentor my people regarding the importance of the work that lies ahead and the commitment that is needed to get there.\n\nJohn C. Maxwell said that as we move up, we have to give up and do more time with and for our people. Unless one realizes the work needed ahead, they will certainly fail in leading their people. If you’re willing to sacrifice your time and develop people, that is when you should contemplate being a leader.\n\nOne must develop the heart of serving others and growing talent around them. It is the best gift they can give to their constituents to help them grow and develop.\n\nWriting is a labor of love, if you agree with my post let me know your thoughts. If you disagree, let me know your perspective, I look forward to learning from you.', 'Leadership in Action', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'leadership-in-action', '', '', '2016-08-15 06:00:52', '2016-08-15 10:00:52', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=30977', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(31009, 274, '2016-09-05 06:00:29', '2016-09-05 10:00:29', 'Welcome to the September 2016 edition of the Leadership Development Carnival!\n\nAt a time when our nation is gearing up for major elections, many people claim to have what it takes to lead. It can be challenging to sort out what they mean versus what they will actually do. We appreciate this set of posts; each one carries a nugget of something a leader can <strong>actually do</strong> in order to lead well.\n\nThe Lead Change Group would like to thank Coaches Training Institute (CTI) for sponsoring the Lead Change Group (including this carnival) for September 2016. Learn more about CTI <a href=\"http://www.coactive.com/\" target=\"_blank\">here</a>.\n<h3>Let\'s Get Started</h3>\n<strong>Anne Perschel</strong> of <a href=\"http://germaneconsulting.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Germane Coaching and Consulting</a> submitted <a href=\"http://germaneconsulting.com/golden-rules-for-leading-transformation/\" target=\"_blank\">Golden Rules for Leading Transformation</a>. Anne summarizes, \"When the CEOs of Ford Motor Company, Nokia, and Microsoft began changing their respective companies\' core business and/or culture, they each established golden rules for leading transformation. Learn from them how to do the same for your company.\" Follow Anne on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/bizshrink\" target=\"_blank\">@bizshrink</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Beth Beutler</strong> of <a href=\"http://www.bethbeutler.com/\" target=\"_blank\">H.O.P.E. Unlimited</a> provided <a href=\"http://www.bethbeutler.com/why-ive-cut-back-on-working-at-coffee-shops/http://www.bethbeutler.com/why-ive-cut-back-on-working-at-coffee-shops/\" target=\"_blank\">Why I\'ve Cut Back Working at Coffee Shops</a>. Beth recaps, \"Many leaders work in locations outside of their own office from time to time. But it may not always be as productive. In this post, I share some downsides to working at coffee shops.\" Find Beth on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/bethbeutler\" target=\"_blank\">@bethbeutler</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Chris Edmonds</strong> of the <a href=\"http://drivingresultsthroughculture.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Purposeful Culture Group</a> contributed <a href=\"http://drivingresultsthroughculture.com/leading-a-purposeful-positive-productive-culture/\" target=\"_blank\">Leading a Purposeful, Positive, Productive Culture</a>. Chris reminds us of the important part our company culture plays in getting the results we want. Follow Chris on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/scedmonds\" target=\"_blank\">@scedmonds</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<div class=\"divide\">\n\n<strong>Dan McCarthy</strong> of <a href=\"http://www.greatleadershipbydan.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Great Leadership</a> provided <a href=\"http://www.greatleadershipbydan.com/2016/08/10-ways-to-kill-off-your-star-employees.html\" target=\"_blank\">10 Ways to Kill Off Your Star Employees</a>. Dan recaps, \"Unfortunately, organizations don’t always do a good job when it comes to nurturing, developing, rewarding, and retaining their high potential employees. In fact, it often seems like they are going out of their way to <em>sabotage</em> their best employees. Of course, most organizations don’t intentionally try to kill their high potentials. It’s just that many managers don’t know how to manage a high potential, and end up doing well-intended things that get unintended results. Or – in some cases – they actually do set their high potential employees up for failure, as a result of feeling threatened or jealousy. So – if you want to kill your high potentials, just follow these 10 steps!\" Locate Dan on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/greatleadership\" target=\"_blank\">@greatleadership</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Dana Theus</strong> of <a href=\"http://inpowercoaching.com/\" target=\"_blank\">InPower Coaching</a> contributed <a href=\"http://inpowercoaching.com/insight-pride-vs-pride/\" target=\"_blank\">Insight: Pride vs. PRIDE</a>. Dana writes, \"When we flash our PRIDE around – which to an unsuspecting world can feel like a right cross – we miss a great opportunity to really share our value.\" Find Dana on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/DanaTheus\" target=\"_blank\">@DanaTheus</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>David Dye</strong> of <a href=\"http://trailblazeinc.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Trailblaze</a> submitted <a href=\"http://trailblazeinc.com/5-ways-pokemon-go-will-make-better-leader/\" target=\"_blank\">5 Ways Pokemon Go Will Make You a Better Leader</a>. David summarizes, \"Video games are masterful at drawing out people’s natural, internal motivations. David shares how you can be more effective and influential when you get these same motivations working for you and your team.\" Follow David on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/davidmdye\" target=\"_blank\">@davidmdye</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>David Grossman </strong>of <a href=\"http://www.yourthoughtpartner.com/\" target=\"_blank\">The Grossman Group</a> shared <a href=\"http://www.yourthoughtpartner.com/blog/bid/37145/open-ended-questions-enhance-employee-communication\" target=\"_blank\">Open Ended Questions Enhance Employee Communication</a>. David writes, \"As a leader, you know that engaging employees and helping connect them to your business goals can directly impact the bottom line.  Your internal communication plan can include two-way communication vehicles like feedback channels and listening sessions to help accomplish this.\" Discover David on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ThoughtPartner\" target=\"_blank\">@thoughtpartner</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\">\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Jill Malleck</strong> of <a href=\"http://epiphanyatwork.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Epiphany at Work</a> contributed <a href=\"http://epiphanyatwork.com/leaders-fighting-fires-what-darby-did/\" target=\"_blank\">Leaders Fighting Fires: What Darby Did</a>. Jill shares, \"At some point, all leaders are faced with tense situations. Learn how one leader showed a strong heart in a life-and-death situation.\" Find Jill on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/epiphanyatwork\" target=\"_blank\">@epiphanyatwork</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Jesse Lyn Stoner</strong> of the <a href=\"http://seapointcenter.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Seapoint Center</a> shared <a href=\"http://seapointcenter.com/definition-of-leadership/\" target=\"_blank\">A Definition of Leadership for These Pressing Times</a>. Jesse Lyn recaps, \"What’s your definition of leadership? We need a clear, unbiased definition to form a common language. In this post, Jesse Stoner takes you through her journey of digging down to the root of the word, stripping away assumptions, and creating a definition of leadership for the pressing conversations we need to have. Unexpectedly, this process revealed a different lens for understanding leadership in today\'s world. This post has sparked a lot of conversation, and you are invited to add your voice.\" Follow Jesse Lyn on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JesseLynStoner\" target=\"_blank\">@JesseLynStoner</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Joel Garfinkle</strong> of the <a href=\"http://careeradvancementblog.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Career Advancement Blog</a> submitted <a href=\"http://careeradvancementblog.com/strong-leaders-vulnerability\" target=\"_blank\">Why Strong Leaders Have the Courage to Show Vulnerability</a>. Joel recaps: \"Not being afraid to show your vulnerabilities shows confidence and authenticity, which encourages respect and openness in your team. This attitude creates a culture of learning from mistakes and using everyone\'s strengths to best move forward.\" Discover Joel on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JoelGarfinkle\" target=\"_blank\">@JoelGarfinkle</a>.\n\n</div>\n<strong>John Hunter</strong> of the <a href=\"http://management.curiouscatblog.net/\" target=\"_blank\">Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog</a> shared <a href=\"http://management.curiouscatblog.net/2016/08/23/applying-toyota-kata-to-agile-retrospectives/\" target=\"_blank\">Applying Toyota Kata to Agile Retrospectives</a>. John summarizes, \"Creating a culture where it is expected that any improvement ideas are tested and evaluated is one of the most important changes on the path to a company that will be able to continually improve. If not, what happens is some changes are good, many are not and soon people lose faith that any effort is worth it because they see how poor the results are.\" Find John on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/curiouscat_com\" target=\"_blank\">@curiouscat_com</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\">\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Jon Mertz</strong> of <a href=\"https://www.thindifference.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Thin Difference</a> contributed <a href=\"https://www.thindifference.com/2016/08/business-leaders-raising-political-voices/\" target=\"_blank\">Business Leaders Raising Political Voices</a>. Jon shares, \"Dangers exist for businesses standing up for certain political issues, especially with the polarization present today. However, business can be a voice for positive change, and employees and customers may now expect business leaders to raise their rational voice in an environment of stalemate and divisiveness.\" Follow Jon on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ThinDifference\" target=\"_blank\">@thindifference</a>.\n\n</div>\n<strong>Julie Baron</strong> of <a href=\"http://thethoughtboard.com/\" target=\"_blank\">The Thought Board</a> shared <a href=\"http://thethoughtboard.com/get-more-attention-dos-donts-for-working-with-the-media/\" target=\"_blank\">Get More Attention: Do’s &amp; Don’ts for Working with the Media</a>. Julie writes, \"Want to increase the visibility of your business? Perhaps you seek to educate people about your service, inform them about your events, or change their opinion about your price. Maybe you want to be seen as an industry thought leader or you want to generate business leads or prospective employee interest. No matter the goal, media coverage is a great way to get more attention. These do’s and don’ts for working with the media will boost your chances of coverage success.\" Discover The Thought Board on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/commwrks\" target=\"_blank\">@commwrks</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\">\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Karin Hurt </strong>of <a href=\"http://letsgrowleaders.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Let\'s Grow Leaders</a> contributed <a href=\"http://letsgrowleaders.com/winning-well/6-reasons-your-training-program-isnt-working/\" target=\"_blank\">6 Reasons Your Training Program Isn\'t Working</a>. Karin recaps, \"Training programs are great, but sometimes mask the deeper issues. Karin shares six reasons why your training program may not be as effective as you’d hoped..\" Follow Karin on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LetsGrowLeaders\" target=\"_blank\">@letsgrowleaders</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Mary Jo Asmus </strong>of <a href=\"http://www.aspire-cs.com/need-really-listen/\" target=\"_blank\">Aspire Collaborative Services LLC</a> submitted <a href=\"http://www.aspire-cs.com/need-really-listen/\" target=\"_blank\">When You Need to Really Listen</a>. Mary Jo summarizes, \"Leaders can always listen more, but there are times they <i>really</i> need to listen at a deeper level.\" Follow Mary Jo on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/mjasmus\" target=\"_blank\">@mjasmus</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Mary Ila Ward </strong>of <a href=\"http://horizonpointconsulting.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Horizon Point Consulting</a> contributed <a href=\"http://horizonpointconsulting.com/blog3/item/hills-in-the-heat-why-you-have-to-do-the-hard-stuff-to-run-and-lead-well/\" target=\"_blank\">Hills in the Heat: Why You Have to do the Hard Stuff to Run and Lead Well</a>. She recaps, \"Running and leading have many overlapping lessons.  As the author sets out to train for a marathon, she reflects on how doing the hard stuff strengthens success in running and leading.\" Discover Mary Ila on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MaryIlaWard\" target=\"_blank\">@maryilaward</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Mary Schaefer </strong>shared  <a href=\"http://www.cio.com/article/3107833/careers-staffing/3-ways-to-improve-employee-engagement.html?utm_campaign=Outside%20Source-Performance%20Management&amp;utm_content=35618778&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter#tk.rss_all\" target=\"_blank\">3 Ways to Improve Employee Engagement</a>. Mary continues, \"<span style=\"font-family: HelveticaNeue, \'Helvetica Neue\', Helvetica, Arial, \'Lucida Grande\', sans-serif; font-size: medium;\">Are you getting everything you can from your focus on employee engagement? You may make more impact by rewiring how you think about it\" Find Mary on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MarySchaefer\" target=\"_blank\">@maryschaefer</a>. </span>\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Michael Lee Stallard </strong>of <a href=\"http://www.michaelleestallard.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Michael Lee Stallard</a> submitted <a href=\"http://connectionculture.com/3-ways-lead-like-lincoln/\" target=\"_blank\">3 Ways to Lead Like Lincoln</a>. Michael shares, \"Abraham Lincoln had a talent for converting detractors into loyal supports. These three elements of his leadership and communication style explain how he did it.\" Follow Michael on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/michaelstallard\" target=\"_blank\">@michaelstallard</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Miki Saxon</strong> of <a href=\"http://mappingcompanysuccess.com/\" target=\"_blank\">MAPping Company Success</a> contributed <a href=\"http://mappingcompanysuccess.com/2016/08/golden-oldies-narcissism-leadership/\" target=\"_blank\">Golden Oldies: Narcissism and Leadership</a>. Miki writes, \"Narcissism has always been problematic for leaders. However, it\'s not about having narcissistic traits; it\'s about how you choose to manage them.\" Discover Miki on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/OptionSanity\" target=\"_blank\">@optionsanity</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Neal Burgis</strong> of <a href=\"http://www.successful-solutions.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Burgis Successful Solutions</a> submitted <a href=\"http://www.successful-solutions.com/2016/08/29/the-curious-leader/\" target=\"_blank\">The Curious Leader</a>. Neal recaps, \"By adopting a curious mindset, your leadership style goes hand-in-hand with curiosity. Many curious leaders are destined for the C-Suite due to their curious nature in asking questions and exploring ideas for opportunities.\" Find Neal on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Exec_Solutions\" target=\"_blank\">@exec_solutions</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Paul LaRue </strong>of <a href=\"https://upwardsleader.com/\" target=\"_blank\">The UPwards Leader</a> contributed <a href=\"https://upwardsleader.com/2016/08/01/why-leaders-should-build-the-castle-first-2/\" target=\"_blank\">Why Leaders Should Build the Castle First</a>. Paul summarizes, \"A great leader showed how to create a positive culture in the midst of a negative one.\" Follow Paul on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/paul_larue\" target=\"_blank\">@paul_larue</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Randy Conley</strong> of <a href=\"http://leadingwithtrust.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Leading With Trust</a> shared <a href=\"https://leadingwithtrust.com/2016/08/01/thrown-under-the-bus-8-tips-on-dealing-with-unfair-criticism/\" target=\"_blank\">Thrown Under the Bus? 8 Tips on Dealing with Unfair Criticism</a>. Randy writes, \"Sooner or later we all get thrown under the bus and criticized unfairly, and how you respond shapes the perceptions people have of you as a leader. In this enlightening post, Randy Conley shares 8 strategies for responding to unfair criticism in a healthy and productive way.\" Find Randy on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/RandyConley\" target=\"_blank\">@randyconley</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Robyn McLeod </strong>of <a href=\"http://chatsworthconsulting.com/thoughtful-leaders/\" target=\"_blank\">Thoughtful Leaders</a> contributed <a href=\"http://chatsworthconsulting.com/2016/08/15/are-you-really-a-leader-an-easy-way-to-tell-2/\" target=\"_blank\">Are you really a leader? An easy way to tell.</a> Robyn shares, \"we are truly leaders when what we do inspires those around us to be, do, and achieve more.\" Follow Robyn on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ThoughtfulLdrs\" target=\"_blank\">@thoughtfulldrs</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Shelley Row</strong> of <a href=\"http://www.shelleyrow.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Shelley Row</a> submitted <a href=\"http://www.shelleyrow.com/tough-decision-use-secret-weapon-values/\" target=\"_blank\">Tough Decision? Use Your Secret Weapon - Values</a>. In this piece, Shelley reminds us that we have a built-in secret weapon we can apply when making a tough decision—our values. Discover Shelley on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ShelleyRow\" target=\"_blank\">@shelleyrow</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Susan Mazza</strong> of <a href=\"http://randomactsofleadership.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Random Acts of Leadership</a> provided <a href=\"http://randomactsofleadership.com/why-politically-correct-is-not-a-four-letter-word/\" target=\"_blank\">Why \'Politically Correct\' Is Not A Four Letter Word</a>. Susan explains, \"The more visible your leadership, the more important it is for you to be mindful of your words and deliberate with your messages. But personal honesty and even transparency is not the ultimate antidote to the political correctness that has polarized us and degraded our trust in politics. In fact, it may even be dangerous.\" Follow Susan on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/SusanMazza\" target=\"_blank\">@susanmazza</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Tanveer Naseer</strong> of <a href=\"http://tanveernaseer.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Tanveer Naseer</a> submitted <a href=\"http://www.tanveernaseer.com/how-leaders-can-help-employees-overcome-workplace-distractions/\" target=\"_blank\">What It  Takes to Overcome Distractions in the Workplace</a>. Tanveer continues, \" A lesson from Olympic rowers reveals a powerful message for leaders on how they can help their employees to overcome workplace distractions.\" Discover Tanveer on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TanveerNaseer\" target=\"_blank\">@tanveernaseer</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Tom Magness</strong> of <a href=\"http://leaderbusiness.blogspot.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Leader Business</a> contributed <a href=\"http://leaderbusiness.blogspot.com/2016/08/how-not-to-micromanage.html\" target=\"_blank\">How NOT to Micromanage</a>. Tom summarizes, \"Successful leaders stay out of the weeds by avoiding telling their team HOW to do things.  Instead, provide clarity on INTENT, essentially the WHAT and WHY, and allow the team to figure out the rest.  The results (buy-in, empowerment, innovation) are a true game-changer.” Follow Tom on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LeaderBusiness\" target=\"_blank\">@leaderbusiness</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\">\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Wally Bock</strong> of <a href=\"http://www.threestarleadership.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Three Star Leadership</a> submitted <a href=\"http://www.threestarleadership.com/leadership/getting-fairness-right\" target=\"_blank\">Getting Fairness Right</a>. Wally recaps, \"People won’t give you their best unless they feel like you’re treating them fairly. There are many ways to get fairness wrong.  Here\'s what you should know to get fairness right.\" Find Wally on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/wallybock\" target=\"_blank\">@wallybock</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<em>Thank you to everyone who submitted articles for this month\'s carnival! If you would like to be on the distribution list for submission calls, please contact Paula Kiger (paula @ weavinginfluence (dot) com)!</em>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n</div>', 'September 2016 Leadership Development Carnival', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'july-2016-leadership-development-carnival-2', '', '', '2016-09-05 06:00:29', '2016-09-05 10:00:29', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/july-2016-leadership-development-carnival-2/', 0, 'post', '', 0);
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(31013, 323, '2016-09-21 06:00:16', '2016-09-21 10:00:16', 'I ran across a leadership quote that I\'d say was a little atypical as leadership quotes go.\n\nIt got my attention because it was from one of my favorite movies of all time: <em>The Karate Kid.</em>\n\nNo, not the remake. The can\'t-be-copied-original from 1984. The one with Pat Morita as Mr. Miyagi and Ralph Macchio as Daniel Larusso.\n\nI absolutely loved this movie because it was about a kid like me, who got pushed around by the more athletic - and blond - big shot of a bully. But one who, with hard-work and perseverance, overcame his limitations and came out on top.\n\nSeeing that movie was the first time I believed nice guys <em>can </em>finish first!\n\nI\'ll never forget the overwhelming feeling of joy the end of the movie brought me. We hear the song lyrics to \"You\'re the Best Around,\" by Joe Esposito, underscoring the montage of the final tournament. We watch Daniel land one karate kick after another on his way to the championship round. And in his final moments, injury and all, he delivers the final bully-defeating kick that makes him...well...the Karate Kid!\n<blockquote>You\'re the best!\nAround!\nNothing\'s gonna ever keep you down</blockquote>\nSo many recognizable quotes came from that movie. You may recall, and might even be able to hear Mr. Miyagi say in your head, \"Wax on, wax off.\" Or \"Up. Down.\" Or perhaps you recall, \"Sweep the Leg.\" And the classic, \"No Mercy.\"\n\nBut the quote I would like to discuss today is:\n<blockquote>\"Man who catch fly with chopstick, accomplish anything.\"</blockquote>\nThat\'s deep, right? But what does it mean?\n\nI really pondered this one - many thoughts circled my brain like a fly buzzing around my living room.\n\nFirst, it occurred to me that this quote speaks to many of the traits that are so necessary for success in leadership and in life.\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Focus. Precision. Determination. Patience.</em></p>\nBut the harsh reality of our situation is that catching a fly with a chopstick is just damn near impossible. Despite how focused, precise, determined, or patient you are. What were you thinking, Mr. Miyagi!?\n\nAs I pondered further, something else hit me. No, not the fly - an idea!\n\nI felt a surge of energy because in that moment I was sure I had discovered the truth of what Mr. Miyagi was saying.\n\nIt isn\'t about catching a fly with chopsticks. No! Instead, it is all about the <em>journey</em> on the way to catching the fly.\n\nThink about it.\n\nWhen we take on a challenge beyond our means, we are almost guaranteed to gain something unexpected along the way. It may never be the exact thing we were after, but could be new skills and insights that weren\'t there before.\n\nLet\'s call it <em>Collateral Learning. </em>\n\nCatching the fly doesn\'t matter. But <em>trying</em> to catch the fly does.\n<h3>This one time, I tried to \"catch a fly\"</h3>\nIt was a few years ago. A time when I had just left the warm and safe surroundings of a mid-sized company - where I had basically grown up and come into my own as an HR professional - to take the top HR spot for a small, family- and locally-owned business.\n\nThis company had just come back from the brink of extinction under new ownership. The new leadership team was looking for a dynamic, energetic, go-getter to lead their HR department and help make that company great again. They wanted me!\n\nThroughout the interviews, it was all rainbows and roses...of course...it always is. And I was excited to join this wonderful organization and be part of its future success.\n\nHowever, it wasn\'t long after I walked through the front doors that I saw the rainbows and roses disappear. Poof.\n\nThe reality of my situation became clear. First, the HR department was in complete disarray. Next, the employees worked in silent compliance. Third, the leadership wasn\'t aligned, nor interested in change.\n\nThis was my new normal and it was going to be hard.\n\nI decided I was up for the challenge. I was going to fix it. I was going to catch a fly with chopsticks.\n\nLong story short: I didn\'t.\n\nAs hard as I tried to change the culture - and trust me, by the end, I had pulled out all the stops and there were no tricks left in my bag - I just couldn\'t.\n<h3>What I learned</h3>\nI won\'t go into the details of what I tried, or what specific challenges I faced. Instead, I\'ll share the top things I gained from the experience.\n<ul>\n 	<li>Courage and grit</li>\n 	<li>Pragmatism</li>\n 	<li>Adaptability</li>\n 	<li>Influence</li>\n 	<li>New knowledge and skills in my field</li>\n</ul>\nAnd, finally, I learned that while I couldn\'t change things overall, I helped a few people. I only know this because of the stories those individuals shared with me on how my contributions impacted them personally. So, like the parable of the starfish on the beach - while I couldn\'t help them all, I was able to make a difference to a few. Maybe one. Maybe two.\n\nIf you\'ve seen <em>The Karate Kid</em>, you know that Daniel <em>did</em> eventually catch a fly with chopsticks. It is possible.\n\nIn reality, though, we know not everyone can do that.\n\nInstead, I now believe that on the journey toward the impossible, we acquire wisdom and strength. And that\'s what makes the effort worthwhile.\n\nWith that said, get out there and catch a fly...with chopsticks!', 'Catching Flies with Chopsticks', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'catching-flies-with-chopsticks', '', '', '2016-09-21 06:00:16', '2016-09-21 10:00:16', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31013', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(31029, 412, '2016-08-24 06:00:39', '2016-08-24 10:00:39', 'The term “drive performance” is popular in a bottom-line, transactional world made up of managers and executives who lead through their positional authority. Yet over the years I have learned that leadership culture has changed. Driving no longer holds a favorable place, especially with Millennials. If you think about it, we drive cattle and cars; they have no say because “we’re in charge.” We steer them where we want them to go, but that’s the opposite of what a great leader does or is.\n\nA leader inspires and encourages excellent performance, and followers attribute authority to those they trust. The truth here is that people want to be inspired into action, not driven like cattle.\n\nFor the rest of this article, we will focus on four areas that have been proven over time to develop a culture of trust and loyalty in leaders.\n<h3>Great Leaders Facilitate a Shared Vision</h3>\nBarry Posner and Jim Kouzes, authors of the bestselling book <a href=\"https://www.amazon.com/The-Leadership-Challenge-Extraordinary-Organizations/dp/0470651725/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1393599882&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=leadership+challenge\" target=\"_blank\">The Leadership Challenge</a>, have surveyed tens of thousands of employees about what they look for and admire in a leader. Seventy-two percent want leaders who are forward-looking. Among respondents in more senior roles, the percentage shot up to 88 percent.¹\n\nBut even more important than a visionary is a leader who reflects the visions and aspirations of his or her tribe. This leader learns to communicate an image of the future that draws the tribe in—that speaks to what people see and feel.\n\nAs most MBA programs teach, great visions will answer these three questions:\n\n· Destination: Where are we going?\n· Purpose: Why do we exist? What greater good do we serve?\n· Values: What principles guide our decisions and actions on our journey?\n\nWhen a vision addresses all three of these questions for team members, a tremendous amount of energy is unleashed. There is going to be a higher level of commitment because they are able to see the relationship between the direction of the organization and what they personally believe in and care deeply about. After all, they signed up for this. As their leader, you learn to communicate an image of the future that speaks to what they see and feel, why they are doing the work, and how their work contributes to the bigger picture.\n\nBut the vision isn’t being driven forcefully. Great leaders encourage their tribes to contribute their ideas, insights and realities.\n<h3>Great Leaders Share Power and Release Control</h3>\nThe leaders in this relationship economy have a penchant to serve the needs of others first. What makes them stand out is an intrinsic motivation to share power and release control. As a servant leader, the power and the control come from the whole. It’s the enthusiasm and commitment the whole team has to something—to specific projects and tasks that drive organizational objectives.\n\nIf you want to foster high trust, high risk-taking, high creativity and open communication, and you’re still riding on your autocratic high-horse, consider getting off for the higher road of sharing power and releasing control. Because when you do, you actually gain real power by pumping fear out of the room; your team will have your back, unleash discretionary effort and do amazing work.\n<h3>Great Leaders Share Status and Promote Others</h3>\nGreat leaders enable their people by sharing status. Since humility is a natural strength of theirs, instead of leveraging their positional power for personal gain, self-promotion or demands for special privileges, they put their people in positions of leadership to stretch their growth and develop new strengths. The return on sharing status is a culture of leaders, not followers, who will make others better as well.\n<h3>Great Leaders Push Authority Down</h3>\nEverybody is familiar with the leader-follower structure in a top-down culture, right? It’s still the prevalent way most companies operate. What’s appealing about this is that it takes responsibility away from followers to think on their own. So a leader at the top may be rewarded for being indispensable. When the leader leaves the company, and his or her department’s performance goes down the tubes, it’s taken as a sign that he or she was a good leader.\n\nThe reality is that, most often, the leader was not very effective in equipping, training and developing people properly.\n\nThe problem here is that employees are released from any responsibility of the hard work of thinking, making decisions and being accountable because they’re just cogs in a wheel (so they think). Their attitude may be, “Hey, I was only doing what I was told by my boss.”\n\nPeople get comfortable with the idea of being a follower, doing what they’re told to do and nothing else.\n\nWhile a leader-follower culture is still effective, there’s a cost to this model over time. People who are treated as followers, you will find, will treat others as followers when it’s their turn to lead. In turn, a vast untapped human potential is lost.\n\nIn highly effective organizations, there are leaders at every level, not just at the top. The solution is always to push authority down so you’re creating a leader-leader culture.\n\nRetired U.S. Navy Capt. David Marquet once commanded the USS Santa Fe, a nuclear-powered submarine. Marquet wrote a brilliant leadership book a few years ago called Turn the Ship Around, a true story and case study of how he transformed a ship in a culture of followers by challenging the U.S. Navy’s traditional leader-follower approach and pushing for leadership at every level. As a result, the Santa Fe skyrocketed from worst to first in the whole fleet because of his choice to give up control. The crew became fully engaged, contributing their intellectual capacity every day, and the Santa Fe started winning awards left and right and promoting a huge number of officers to submarine command.\n\nThe lessons from this case study transfer to any business or position, and the payoff is huge: a happy team where every member is taking responsibility for his or her actions, and where each is a leader. Pay close attention to the do’s and don’ts as you assess where you are with your team or work culture.\n\n_____________\n\n¹“To Lead, Create a Shared Vision,” by Posner and Kouzes, <em>Harvard Business Review</em>, January 2009 edition.', 'To Develop a Culture of Trust and Loyalty, Try Sharing Your Leadership', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'to-develop-a-culture-of-trust-and-loyalty-try-sharing-your-leadership', '', '', '2016-08-24 06:00:39', '2016-08-24 10:00:39', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31029', 0, 'post', '', 1),
(31045, 434, '2016-08-26 06:00:34', '2016-08-26 10:00:34', 'Focus on your strengths—not weaknesses! How many times have you heard that line? I can’t be the first to say it to you. So, why don’t you do it? Is it because it sounds like mom telling you to wear sunscreen or dad yelling to put on your seat belt?\n\nWell, mom and dad were right about that and I am right about focusing on your strengths.\n\nBut just accepting that as truth doesn’t make you focus on those strengths. Because those are just words. Saying those words doesn’t show you how to focus on those strengths, help you understand why that’s important, or discover if you know what your strengths even are! Only when you do some hardcore strength training—no excuses!—and better understand who you are do you start to create real personal relevance. Which is why time with our launchbox clients—individual and corporate—starts with a <a href=\"http://launchbox365.com/solutions/individual-coaching/\" target=\"_blank\">personal strengths assessment</a>.\n\nBut there’s another reason why focusing on your strengths is so important: to help you kick ass the right way. That’s right: Kick. Ass. Not kick someone else’s ass. You’ve been doing that with your millennials and likely all your people the wrong way for too long. That’s why you are chasing relevance with them.\n\nGetting comfortable with your strengths is as basic as it gets for both kicking ass and understanding and finding relevance, because it forces you to go follow your true nature. It’s like that quote that some attribute to Ein­stein but is actually just a self-help line from the 1970s: “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”\n\nI agree! Don’t apologize for who you are because you can’t be who you are not.\n\nBut you know what is even more stupid? Being a fish and thinking you can climb a tree. Maybe you are terrible at something because you are working from a point of weakness rather than strength. And you know what is even more stupid and alarming than being a fish and thinking you can climb a tree? Not knowing whether you are a fish or something else. That’s what you’re doing by not knowing and using your strengths—a crucial step that combines with the next steps we outline to articulate your personal value.\n\nAnd its starts with asking yourself:\n\n1. Where do I kick ass?\n2. I could kick more ass if . . .\n3. Where do I wish I kicked ass?\n\nI want you to kick ass to find your own relevance and purpose in everything you do by not only understanding your strengths but also making a commitment to lead from those strengths. That’s how you deliver value to yourself and others in a way that makes a real, quantifiable difference to everyone you touch. That’s the first step to becoming the leader and manager you were meant to be and leveraging your strengths and others’.', 'To Leverage Your Strengths and Kick Ass, Ask Yourself These 3 Things', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'to-leverage-your-strengths-and-kick-ass-ask-yourself-these-3-things', '', '', '2016-08-26 06:00:34', '2016-08-26 10:00:34', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31045', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(31126, 273, '2016-09-12 06:00:51', '2016-09-12 10:00:51', '<div>\n\nSearch on the term “Leadership App” and your web browser will explode. Dumped in front of you will be a plethora of articles from famous outlets like <a href=\"http://www.inc.com/shawn-murphy/10-great-apps-every-leader-needs-to-be-effective.html\" target=\"_blank\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=http://www.inc.com/shawn-murphy/10-great-apps-every-leader-needs-to-be-effective.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1472239814783000&amp;usg=AFQjCNG68_-DVE1X_cRMPof7bRpcMi2P1w\">INC Magazine</a>, private leadership mobile apps from stalwarts like <a href=\"http://www.dalecarnegie.com/knowledge-center/smartphone-apps/personal-leadership-app/\" target=\"_blank\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=http://www.dalecarnegie.com/knowledge-center/smartphone-apps/personal-leadership-app/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1472239814783000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHNl6FoI97sqCwbKb23G5NaWFA6yg\">Dale Carnegie</a>, and Google and iTunes store links to leaderships apps in dizzying amounts.\n\nApplications are a ubiquitous part of our 21st century lives. But the key to good leadership isn’t finding the right app to help. The key to being an effective boss is to live as closely to your own ideals of leadership as possible. Technology is supposed to enhance, not hinder that quest. Applications should help you be more “YOU.” Apps should assist you in reaching your potential so you can help others reach theirs. Your core beliefs are the filter through which you choose what lucky apps come into your life.\n\n</div>\n<div></div>\n<div>\n\nThe core belief “Leadership is service to others” may have you asking yourself “how can I efficiently design my technology to enable my team?” Of course, the expected communication apps (e.g. <a href=\"https://slack.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Slack</a>, <a href=\"https://www.messenger.com/?_rdr\" target=\"_blank\">Messenger</a>) are popular answers. Being available for texts in an app that keeps a public record is essential for many leaders. Dig deeper, though. Doesn’t serving others mean you must take responsibility for yourself first? As a leader, how do you center yourself? How do you renew your commitment to the work, to your people, every day? How do you foster your own growth?\n\nHere are 3 free apps that you won’t see on typical listicles of applications for leaders. “Lifehack” these apps to help you be more you.\n\n</div>\n<div></div>\n<h3>Pinterest</h3>\n<div>\n\nNo site on the internet collects more “motivational” media than <a href=\"http://www.pinterest.com\" target=\"_blank\">Pinterest</a>. Sometimes we need a quick reminder of why we do the work we do. Search Pinterest on “leadership” or “service” (or both) to find some beautifully-presented old adages as well as new wisdom that remind you why you took this job in the first place.\n\n</div>\n<div></div>\n<h3>Goodreads</h3>\n<div>\n\nThe quote search on <a href=\"http://www.goodreads.com\" target=\"_blank\">Goodreads</a> has no equal. Real quotes from cited sources are offered up like cakes on a plate. The books the quotes come from can be easily added to your “Want to Read” list. Plus, Goodreads is a great way to stay current with the literature in your field; you can find other managers or people with similar jobs and follow their reviews, updates and reading lists.\n\n</div>\n<div></div>\n<h3>Reddit</h3>\n<div>\n\nListen, we know <a href=\"http://www.reddit.com\" target=\"_blank\">Reddit</a> is the internet’s Rabbit Hole to End All Rabbit Holes. But! But. Sometimes as leaders we can get farther and farther away from the team members we manage, and as a result, we don’t hear the things we should. Ideally, you’d hear your team members’ honest needs and wants from them. But when you can’t, Reddit users can give you a hint. Lurk (don’t post!) around management “subreddit” boards, boards dedicated to your business area or perhaps the age-range demographic of your team. You may find some truths that give you the insights you need to help raise your people up.\n\nAny technology can confuse and distract. It’s our job to wrangle tech to work for us. We are not to allow tech to enslave us. Start with your core beliefs, then find technology and practices that bring your behaviors closer to those beliefs. Let technology serve you wisely, so you can serve others well.\n\n</div>\n<div></div>\n<div><img class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-31128\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/chistine-e1472156726572-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"chistine\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" />Christine Cavalier, M.Ed., is a human behavior expert and content strategist from Philadelphia, PA. Christine has been blogging since 2004 at her site, <a href=\"http://www.purplecar.net/\" target=\"_blank\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=http://www.purplecar.net/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1472239814783000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEqMG_-_royvYMIgrWlrlDUeOhzZA\">PurpleCar.net</a>. Find her on Twitter, Goodreads and Pinterest as @PurpleCar. (Her Reddit account is anonymous and she suggests yours should be, too.)</div>', '3 Unexpected Apps for Leaders', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', '3-unexpected-apps-for-leaders', '', '', '2016-09-12 06:00:51', '2016-09-12 10:00:51', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31126', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(31136, 374, '2016-09-01 06:00:26', '2016-09-01 10:00:26', '<div class=\"message_content \">\n\nWe are <strong>pleased</strong> to have <a href=\"http://www.coactive.com/\" target=\"_blank\">CTI</a> as our Lead Change Group sponsor for September! CTI trains employers and individuals to balance “being” and “doing.” Their Co-Active Model catapults individuals and organizations into higher achievement, deeper connection, and increased fulfillment. Professing transformational change as their business, CTI wants a world that works for everyone where people know that \"who we are is as important as what we do.\"\n\nThe Co-Active model infuses all of CTI\'s work, including coach training, leadership programming, and organizational consulting. We have elaborated on some of this work below:\n<h3>The Co-Active Model</h3>\nIn speaking about their model, founders Henry and Karen Kimsey-House explain:\n\n<em>The Co-Active Model balances self-awareness, a keen agility with relationships, and courageous action to create an environment where individuals can be deeply fulfilled, connected to others and successful in what matters most.</em>\n\n<em>The “Co” in Co-Active suggests relationship, connection, intimacy and collaboration. Thus, the “Co” in us is curious, listens deeply, hears nuance, holds space for others, intuits and nurtures.</em>\n\n<em>The “Active” in Co-Active stands for power, direction, action and manifestation. So, the “Active” in us is courageous, has clarity and conviction, takes charge and achieves goals</em>\n\n</div>\n<div class=\"message_content \">\n\n<img class=\"size-full wp-image-31155 aligncenter\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/co-active_leadership_16.png\" alt=\"co-active_leadership_16\" width=\"440\" height=\"220\" />\n<h3><strong>Training</strong></h3>\n</div>\nThe oldest and largest in-person coach training organization in the world, CTI<sup>®</sup> has trained over 50,000 coaches and has also trained employees in more than half of the Fortune 100 companies. CTI’s Co-Active Coach<sup>®</sup> Training Program is widely recognized as the most rigorous coach training and certification program in the industry.\n<h3>The Co-Active Leadership Program</h3>\nThe Co-Active<sup><span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\">®</span></sup> Leadership Program empowers leaders to recognize their capacity to lead in all areas of life. Designed to uncover, deepen, and build on participants\' natural strengths as leaders, the Co-Active Leadership Program is a powerful, experiential 10-month leadership training guaranteed to identify and break through self-perceived limits and put participants on the road to a deeper and richer expression of themselves as leaders.\n<h3>Organizational Consulting</h3>\nBy taking a transformative approach to human capital development, CTI helps organizations create a workforce that is able to collectively and courageously step forward, set radical expectations and achieve unprecedented outcomes.\n<h3>Books</h3>\nHenry and Karen Kimsey-House have authored two books that provide additional exposure to their philosophies, <a href=\"https://www.amazon.com/Co-Active-Coaching-3rd-Kimsey-House-Karen/dp/B008AUGLH8/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1472259862&amp;sr=8-10&amp;keywords=henry+and+karen+kimsey-house\" target=\"_blank\">Co-Active Coaching</a> and <a href=\"https://www.amazon.com/Co-Active-Leadership-Karen-Kimsey-House-2015-09-21/dp/B01K3RJS48/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1472259862&amp;sr=8-11&amp;keywords=henry+and+karen+kimsey-house\" target=\"_blank\">Co-Active Leadership</a>.\n\n<img class=\"aligncenter wp-image-31153\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Co-Active-Covers-1024x512.jpg\" alt=\"Co-Active Covers\" width=\"500\" height=\"250\" />\n<h3><strong>Webinars</strong></h3>\nWe are excited about upcoming webinar offerings being planned by CTI. Click <a href=\"http://www.coactive.com/community/events-calendar\" target=\"_blank\">here</a> for the schedule.\n\nUntil you are able to enroll in one of the upcoming webinars, we invite you to watch this replay of their November 2015 webinar:\n\n<iframe src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/AxKWmd4C6A8\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"></iframe>\n\nWe are grateful for the difference you have made for so many organizations and individuals through your work, Henry, Karen, and all of CTI. Thank you for your support of the Lead Change Group!', 'Highlighting Our September Sponsor: Coaches Training Institute (CTI)', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'highlighting-our-september-sponsor-coaches-training-institute-cti', '', '', '2016-09-01 06:00:26', '2016-09-01 10:00:26', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31136', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(31181, 435, '2016-11-09 06:00:07', '2016-11-09 11:00:07', 'We all want to have a successful day. Not only one day but as many successful days as possible. We want every minute of our lives to count and bring us one step closer to achieve our dreams. When we lead others, they are looking to us to set the tone.\n\nBut to achieve success, we need to invest in self-discipline and create a structure that leads us towards it. Unfortunately, we tend to stick to our habits, and they aren’t always what we need to be doing.\n\nThe best way around it is organising a check-list of things we must do every day to become more successful.\n<h3><strong>Start with a great morning ritual</strong></h3>\nYou might have seen many articles recently about the importance of <a href=\"http://www.lifehack.org/articles/featured/morning-ritual.html\">having a morning ritual</a>. And you should believe in them.\n\nStarting your day on the right foot is as important as going through it. Your body and your mind need to be nicely initiated.\n\nIt includes a great breakfast for starters. Choose something that you really enjoy (among healthy options, of course) so you can start your day with a smile on your face.\n\nThere are many things that you can add, such as meditation, a walk, a bit of reading, a shower, or else. It is up to you which activities make you feel ready for the day, really.\n\nBut what you can’t afford to do is jump out of your bed, dress in the first thing you see, storm out of your place, and grab a coffee on your way to work.\n\nIt will send a message to your brain that you are going for some kind of war, and you will feel stressed right from the start.\n<h3><strong>Prepare your schedule</strong></h3>\nBefore getting on with your tasks, it is essential that you prepare a schedule for the day.\n\nList all you have to do and label those tasks that are important or urgent. This way you will know what you should prioritise. Also, pick a goal for that day to feel motivated.\n\nMake sure that you spare time for breaks so that you can feel less tempted by distractions. A change of scenery is also good to boost your creativity and recharge your batteries throughout the day.\n\nThe ideal behaviour here is that you get your schedule ready on the day before, so you will be starting your day prepared. But, if you can’t prepare in advance of the day, at least get yourself organised first thing in the morning.\n<h3><strong>Concentrate on your work</strong></h3>\nIf you want to make your day a successful one, then concentrate on your work or any task you are trying to accomplish.\n\nIt is a question of mindset. You got your schedule, you have your goal for the day, then make it happen.\n\nRest assured that many things will happen that might get on your way.\n\nOther people have their own priorities and might want to “delegate” to you work they should do themselves. Stand your ground and learn to say no. Only take extra work if you have space for it on your schedule. Or if you get well paid for it. The best option sometimes is to get some extra help for yourself from other professionals. Consider getting help for tasks like the ten mentioned <a href=\"https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/225318\" target=\"_blank\">here</a>.\n\nIf you are fulfilling an order from above, such as from a boss or an important client, try and figure out what won’t get done instead. You are only one person, and the day has only 24 hours, no matter how much you wish these two facts were different.\n\nYes, there will be days when overtime will be needed. But they should be an exception, not a rule.\n<h3><strong>Spare time for lunch and dinner</strong></h3>\nEating is as important as anything else that you will do throughout your day, so make sure that you spare a decent amount of time for your lunch and dinner.\n\nEating at your desk is not an option, neither is skipping meals, or having them in front of the TV or laptop.\n\nYour body needs the right nutrients to get things done and to deal with stress, so make sure that you have balanced and healthy meals.\n\nEach person has different needs, depending on their lifestyle and line of work. So ask your doctor for assistance when you are trying to create your menu planner.\n<h3><strong>Exercise</strong></h3>\nEspecially if you work sitting down on a chair all day long, your body will need some exercising afterwards.\n\nIt can be any activity, from going to the gym, walking, dancing, running, or swimming. Or it can be your favourite class, such as yoga or Zumba.\n\nWhat matters here is to move your body, and work on your posture, strength, and cardiorespiratory system.\n\nEven if you think you don’t have the time to spare, try to fit some activities in your normal day. You can stop taking the lift and go for the stairs; leave your bus or metro one station before and walk home; or you can make the most of housework, for instance. (<a href=\"http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/5-creative-ways-squeeze-exercise-into-your-day-especially-when-busy.html\" target=\"_blank\">Here are a few more tips.</a>)\n\nYour health will thank you in the future.\n<h3><strong>Laugh about something</strong></h3>\n“A day without laughter is a day wasted”, said Charles Chaplin. Laughing can be the best medicine for any problem or challenge you might be going through.\n\nAnd it isn’t because you are being silly or going crazy, but because of the way our brains work. If you are laughing, your body understands that you are OK, that there is no threat, so it stops releasing stress hormones into your bloodstream.\n\nAs a consequence, you will be able to think much clearly after laughing.\n\nPlus, you probably know much a good laugh can help you at any negotiation table. It will boost your creativity, motivate your team, and your day will go much faster.\n<h3><strong>The bottom line</strong></h3>\nStructuring a successful day is about<a href=\"http://www.developgoodhabits.com/good-daily-habits-list/\"> investing in good habits</a>. You will have to add some great rituals to your morning, get yourself organised before working, and concentrate on your work.\n\nYou should also invest in healthy and mindful meals, plus physical activities and great laughs every day.\n\nWith all these elements together, you are more likely to achieve your goals, feel less stressful, and go back home with a sense of accomplishment.', 'How to Structure Your Day for More Success', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'how-to-structure-your-day-for-more-success', '', '', '2016-11-09 06:00:07', '2016-11-09 11:00:07', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31181', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(31188, 408, '2016-08-31 06:00:45', '2016-08-31 10:00:45', 'Automation and the future of work. Are enough citizens taking this topic seriously? There have been some really great reads on the topic ranging from the 2011 ebook, Race Against the Machine by Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson out of MIT, to the recent LinkedIn post, <a href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-happens-when-millions-jobs-lost-because-jeff-selingo\" target=\"_blank\">What Happens When Millions of Jobs Are Lost Because of Automation?</a> by Jeff Selingo. Selingo’s piece criticizes – in my opinion rightly so – the U.S. education system for focusing on teaching skills that will effectively be automated in the future.\n\nWhy is the at-large education system failing our youth when it comes to automation? Because of its resistance to change, of course. Yes, there are wonderful exceptions. We can also acknowledge how difficult it is to change a behemoth like a school system or any large institution of learning, but are the schools wholly to blame? No, the blame doesn’t fall completely on the schools or their systems. The reality is that not enough people yet demand this kind of change.\n\nIs the lack of demand caused by sheer ignorance? By a disregard for the evidence around us? Or could it be an intentional myopia brought on by pining for grand dreams of a time of yore that really won’t ever be again?\n\nWhether it’s simple technology or complex artificial intelligence, we can’t deny that our world in the not-too-distant future will be a place that functions very differently than we do today. As I ponder the question of why the masses aren’t demanding the kind of change that will really prepare our college graduates for this new kind of world, I can’t help but reflect on our recent past. Things we take for granted today as can’t-live-without mostly existed for quite some time before demand caught up: robotics; the Web; graphical design software; computerized motor engines; online banking; the smart phone; and wireless broadband devices are just a few.\n\nEach of these technologies – typically advanced by a market innovator and not necessarily the technology inventor – changed the landscape of jobs in this country. While new industries created job opportunities, many advances in technology have decimated others. Heck, how many people even realize that their money-dispensing ATMs stand for “automated teller machines” (“Teller? What’s a teller??”). If you look around with eyes wide open, it’s not too hard to see the writing on the wall: in 10 years’ time, will cheap labor really be the threat or will it just be automated labor?\n<h3>Is Education Preparing Us for Automation?</h3>\nInstitutes of education, unfortunately, can be lumbering, old giants resistant to change. In the early 2000s, I experienced first-hand what happened when many old university deans chose to ignore the Internet as a marketing and recruitment tool, despite entreaties by their staff members. Commonly, even now, other members of college administration and faculty want to protect their world and fiefdoms as they knew it, and so oppose change that deviated from “the way it’s always been done.” Many schools only finally paid attention when competition from online-only institutions came crashing into their space.\n\nToday I don’t think schools need to be focused on the digital battleground so much as they need to be focused on whether or not they’ll even be attracting our best and brightest at all. For instance, a very smart friend of mine has announced flat out that he won’t be sending his two brilliant children to a four-year college. He thinks it’s a waste of money for diminished learning value; that higher education offered today will not meet the market demands of the future. Instead, he’s having them take their SATs early, college-level courses in high school, enter community college while still attending high school, and then if they need advanced education to get a certain job or degree, they can just take the necessary credits from the most suitable provider offering them.\n\nMy friend’s choice is perhaps an extreme example, but looking down the road, it may not be too far-fetched. How well are schools training our youth for the gig economy, where people cobble together a living working a string of several separate freelance jobs simultaneously or from project to project? How well are schools teaching people to be adaptable rather than specialized so that when their job gets eliminated they can create other options? How well are schools teaching kids to have foresight so that they can better see the path of automation and anticipate the “expiration date” of a particular job before automation takes it over? For that matter, should high school grads aspire to a typical white collar career that demands a college education or does greater, more stable opportunity really lie in a newly-minted version of the vo-tech school, one that services our ever-more automated world?\n\nI used to think that reinvention wasn’t for the young – they are too busy inventing to be reinventing themselves. I’ve now come to realize, however, that reinvention skills need to be taught at all ages. Reinvention isn’t accepting change, it’s choosing to change.\n\nAnd in a fast-changing world if you don’t choose change, it will soon be forced upon you whether you like it or not.', 'Are We Really Prepared for a More Automated Future?', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'are-we-really-prepared-for-a-more-automated-future', '', '', '2016-08-31 06:00:45', '2016-08-31 10:00:45', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31188', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(31199, 386, '2016-09-06 06:00:29', '2016-09-06 10:00:29', 'I just returned from a week long sailing holiday. Karalee and I chartered a 30-year old boat through our yacht club. While I’ve sailed for more than 45 years, this trip taught me that I still have lots to learn about sailing and leadership.\n\nWe started out the first day with our daughter Jocelyn and her husband Daniel. We got in a little sailing, then travelled to a small island with a very tight little bay where we planned to anchor for lunch. I asked Jocelyn and Daniel to let go the anchor. While I had been briefed on how to do this, I only gave them a short overview as we entered the bay. Needless to say, the two of them struggled to control the anchor as it went down and we drifted around the tiny anchorage coming near both other boats and rocks.\n\n<strong>Lesson 1:</strong> Do training and knowledge transfer before you are in the stressful situation that needs the knowledge and skills.\n\n<strong>Lesson 2:</strong> Even better than #1,  practice before you need to. We could have easily practiced dropping the anchor together when we were at the dock or before we entered the bay.\n\nIn the panic to get the boat anchored, the extra adrenaline caused me to push way too hard on the shifter controls causing the shifter cable to break.\n\n<strong>Lesson 3:</strong> Be aware when you are getting anxious in tense situations.\n\n<strong>Lesson 4:</strong> Being experienced doesn’t mean that you have the knowledge and skill you need today. This sailboat had dual steering stations with dual shifter and throttle controls. This was the first time I had ever run a boat with this configuration.\n\nAfter our lunch stop we successfully brought the anchor up and drove the boat using the second set of controls. During lunch the wind had switched direction and was now blowing very strongly in the direction we wanted to go. Jocelyn was keen to give Daniel more sailing experiences, so we agreed to try sailing. When we put the main sail up, there were no reef lines in place to reduce the amount of sail area.\n\n<strong>Lesson 5:</strong> It is up to the leader to make sure that everything is prepared the way it should be. With the sailboat on the edge of being overpowered, we put out some of the Genoa. While we only put out a little bit, we were soon completely overpowered and then struggled to get the Genoa put away and the boat back under control.\n\n<strong>Lesson 6:</strong> You must adjust to the situation and what is happening around you in the moment.\n\nI called ahead to the marina where we were going to for the night. I was given our slip assignment and we motor sailed to the entrance to the marina. Once we got there, I had to steer from down below, which severely limited my visibility (remember the shifter control at the outside wheel was now broken). We could see the finger where we were supposed to moor the boat, but none of us could see the numbers for the slips. I called the marina on VHF 66 and asked for the names of boats as references to find the relative position of where we were to moor for the night.\n\n<strong>Lesson 7:</strong> It is always okay to ask for help.\n\n<strong>Lesson 8:</strong> Get the information you need in a context that works for you and your team (relative instead of absolute in this case).\n\nWe made it safely to the dock. We went out to dinner together and shared a few laughs over our day’s adventures. With more training, preparation, and situational awareness the day could have been just as fun without quite as many challenges.\n\n<img class=\"aligncenter wp-image-31201\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/20160821.greer_.sunset01-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"20160821.greer.sunset01\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" />', 'When Things Go Wrong', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'when-things-go-wrong', '', '', '2016-09-06 06:00:29', '2016-09-06 10:00:29', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31199', 0, 'post', '', 2),
(31205, 372, '2016-09-09 06:00:56', '2016-09-09 10:00:56', '“Sure, I’ll have that to you tomorrow morning!\"\n\nHow many times have you been promised something only to be disappointed hours (or days) later when that promise was broken?\n\nThough there may be many reasons why a person or team misses their commitment - some of those even legitimate reasons - you end up on the short end of the stick. If they\'d promised to deliver a key element in a project you’re working on and they simply don’t deliver, your timeline is blown.\n\nAnd your commitment, your promise, is at risk of being broken, too. In addition, your reputation as a consistent contributor might well be at risk.\n\nIt’s not an enjoyable experience. Though we all react differently to such frustrations, my experiences may be similar to yours.\n<h3><strong>The “Roger Folder\"</strong></h3>\nYears ago I worked with a gentleman named Roger. Though we were in different departments, we interacted regularly and depended on each other frequently.\n\nRoger was a great guy. He was kind, fun, and caring. He just couldn’t - for the life of him - keep promises.\n\nHe over-promised and under-delivered regularly. It was frustrating when one promise was broken. To have Roger break many promises was infuriating.\n\nYet Roger was so nice, I didn’t want to come on strong. So, I tried to casually mention those promises. He’d apologize. He was genuinely sorry for the difficulty he caused. He\'d say he’d get right on it.\n\nBut he didn’t get right on it. It got lost in the details of his work demands - or something.\n\nI actually didn’t care why Roger missed so many commitments. I had to create an approach that let me know, well in advance, if Roger would meet his commitments or not.\n\nBeing one of the \"detail-oriented\" personality types, I created a system to manage Roger’s commitments to me in the form of a “Roger Folder.” I sought very explicit agreements so there was no question what I needed from Roger and when I needed it. I’d carefully note the day and time of when I met with Roger and what our agreements were. I’d copy my list of agreements and give it to Roger - and assured him I’d be following up on each of these agreements.\n\nEvery day, my to-do list had an entry that read, “Roger Folder.\"\n\nMy “Roger Folder” was thick. I sought out Roger frequently to ensure we were both on track with our commitments that week.\n\nThis approach was thorough and exhausting to manage. But, it worked. Roger didn’t always have a smile on his face when he saw me coming to find him, with my “Roger Folder” in hand.\n\nWhen my role changed and my dependency on Roger was reduced, I was a happier camper.\n\nYou may have found different ways to manage others’ commitments to you and your own commitments to others. Here are three takeaways from my Roger experiences that might help you keep your promises.\n\n<strong>Explicit Agreements</strong> - Be specific in what you need and when. Be equally specific when you make commitments to others. Those parameters may change over the course of a project. That’s fine - just keep up-to-date on the current commitments.\n\n<strong>Disciplined Tracking</strong> - Don’t be casual about your commitments. In our fast paced, multi-tasking world, we lose track of many things! Find a system that works and follow it religiously. I’m a huge fan of Evernote (I’m writing this post in Evernote right now) and Nozbe to track to-do’s, commitments, and follow up required (on my part and others’).\n\n<strong>Frequent Communication</strong> - Don’t be a stranger to those with whom you share commitments (theirs or yours, at work or with friends or at home). Check in meetings can be short and sweet - five minutes in length - to ensure both parties are on track with their promised delivery. If you learn of a curve ball coming your way, fully inform all stakeholders of the potential delay and what you’re doing to alleviate it. And, expect the same from those who have commitments to you.', 'Three Ways to Ensure You Keep Your Promises', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'three-ways-to-ensure-you-keep-your-promises', '', '', '2016-09-09 06:00:56', '2016-09-09 10:00:56', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31205', 0, 'post', '', 1);
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(31220, 252, '2016-09-07 06:00:02', '2016-09-07 10:00:02', 'I was lunching on a salad in a bustling restaurant with a former boss. We talked about the infiltration of electronic devices in the workplace – and particularly how we use them for communication. Sometimes we misuse them.\n\nWe each have our own preferred method of communication at work, no matter what our generation. The bottom line is, aside from your method of choice, <em>how </em>you say things is as important as what you say, particularly when it comes to building social capital.\n<h3>What is social capital and why is it important?</h3>\nYou probably have been in a meeting when someone’s smartphone pings. They look at it, scowl and turn the phone face down. You don’t want to be the reason a person does that. If they scowl at your email, text or call, your social capital is low.\n\nWhat is social capital? A formal definition based on the work of Pierre Bourdieu is: value that can be derived from social participation and cooperation. To apply it to our context, I describe it as people willing to go out of their way to help each other. You can’t BUY this. That’s why I’m using the term <em>social</em> capital. It’s all about your awareness and treatment of <em>others.</em>\n\nIf they always look at your emails or texts first, for instance, you’ve created great social capital. If someone is pleased to hear your voice or see you coming you’ve created high social capital.\n<h3>Increase your capital through thoughtful (and professional) gestures.</h3>\nCommunication is one way to influence people to cooperate with you, get work done, or have a favor granted. I’m not suggesting manipulation for devious purposes. I am suggesting creating goodwill and trust so people are happy to help you.\n\nHere are 10 tips, some of which may seem obvious, but just in case:\n<ol>\n 	<li>When your email goes beyond 3 paragraphs, reconsider whether it should be a conversation instead.</li>\n 	<li>Particularly in an important conversation, paraphrase what you heard so they know you understood.</li>\n 	<li>When others make a request, ask them when they need it. Negotiate if necessary.</li>\n 	<li>If you are running a meeting, create an agenda. Bonus points for sending it ahead of time.</li>\n 	<li>Make sure everyone has a chance to speak in the meeting you are running. Ask everyone to jot down an answer and go around the room if you have to.</li>\n 	<li>Don’t interrupt a person who is speaking.</li>\n 	<li>If it looks like someone started to speak but the crowd swallowed up their comment go back and make room for them to speak. You can do this even if you are not running the meeting.</li>\n 	<li>When you forward a long email thread, explain what you want the recipient to \"get.\"</li>\n 	<li>When you make a request, be clear about what you want/need them to do.</li>\n 	<li>Be attentive to timing when you communicate. If it’s off-hours, and you don’t need an answer then, make that plain.</li>\n</ol>\n<h3>Good manners are always welcomed.</h3>\nAs I was finishing this post, I received an email from someone who has high social capital with me. I had emailed her yesterday and was eager for her reply.\n\nHere it is, paraphrased: “Sending a quick acknowledgment that I received your email and that I want to take a look at your programs and materials to best help you. This week it’s back-to-back meetings, but I\'d like to look over things and get back to you early next week. I\'ll be back in touch to help in the best way possible.”\n\nJust to clarify, we are not in a paying relationship. She is not making good on any financial arrangement. This woman added another point to our list.\n<blockquote>Confirm that you’ve received what the other person would consider an important message.</blockquote>\nShe took the time to set expectations and reinforce how she values our mutual arrangement. Some people would move on from my email without replying because, after all, they are in meetings <em>all week.</em>\n\nThe digitalization of the world is inevitable. Whether you are using a device or talking face-to-face, excellent communication takes effort. The effort you do put into it will pay off in innumerable ways to build your social capital.', 'Do You Know The Value of Your Social Capital at Work?', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'do-you-know-the-value-of-your-social-capital-at-work', '', '', '2016-09-07 06:00:02', '2016-09-07 10:00:02', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31220', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(31249, 409, '2016-09-23 06:00:41', '2016-09-23 10:00:41', 'We have so much stuff swimming around in our heads; half-baked ideas, things promised to others and that ever-growing list of to-dos that require attention and feel ever-present yet are ultimately unachievable. This is because getting that stuff <em>out</em> is becoming increasingly difficult in a world full of distractions.\n\nI don’t proclaim to be immune to this, but a technique I discovered a few months ago has enabled me to greatly reduce the number of tangled thoughts in my brain.\n\nMy knight in shining armour <a href=\"http://www.inboundtom.co.uk/introduction-mind-maps/\" target=\"_blank\">came in the form of a mind map</a>. Here’s an example of one in action:\n\n<img class=\"alignnone wp-image-31250\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Blog_content_ideas_for_hotel_website-1024x515.png\" alt=\"Example mind map\" width=\"600\" height=\"301\" />\n\nDon’t run away! Take a look again.\n\nMakes sense, doesn’t it? Even though you’re not part of this particular project, I bet, within a few seconds, you’ll have worked out what I’m trying to achieve. I’ve been tasked with the content marketing effort for a hotel website and a key part of it is the blogging strategy.\n\nWithout the mind map, I’d have notes (both physical and digital) strewn everywhere with post ideas, and a brain constantly reminding me that this particular project requires the attention it deserves.\n\nNow, just one look at that mind map, and I know exactly what I need to do next, and can follow my thought process for every idea I’ve previously had.\n\nMind mapping has restored order to my working day, but, crucially, it has also <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/3-steps-to-eliminate-leadership-stress/\" target=\"_blank\">removed a great deal of stress</a>. I hate not feeling on top of things and having a to-do list which is forever running away from me. Feeling out of control of one’s workload is a surefire way to increase stress levels, therefore any device that adds clarity and encourages creative thought demands further investigation.\n<h3>How do mind maps work?</h3>\nThe example above should be relatively self-explanatory (that’s the beauty of mind maps), but it’s worth considering exactly how these ingenious diagrams work.\n\nYou start by placing the central theme on a piece of paper and circling it. This may be the project, meeting title or business idea. From that central theme, you extend to what are known as ‘nodes’. These are intended to flesh out the ideas you have by placing them in relevant categories. In our example, we have a node for ‘hotel specific’ which is designed to encourage thought on potential blog titles that relate to the hotel itself.\n\nFrom each node, you can extend further to ‘child nodes’. I’ve used ‘offers’, ‘history’ and ‘staff stories’ to help me brainstorm content ideas that revolve around those areas, which is why you’ll see further nodes beyond containing title ideas. I’ve even added another node labelled ‘Dave’ which is used to denote the intended author for one particular post.\n\nThe beauty of mind maps is that they can expand almost limitlessly and, because they’re very visual in nature and tightly categorised, it’s easy to pick them up at any time in order to add further ideas or share with colleagues.\n<h3>Non-linear thinking at its best</h3>\nBesides the hours and minutes that march forward relentlessly each day, life is rarely linear. This is particularly the case in the professional realm, where nearly every day will differ from the last. Our brains, if only tuned to think in a linear fashion (i.e. I’ll need to do this next, then that, etc), are less able to think creatively; tasks back-up and our true potential is rarely realised.\n\nMind mapping is non-linear thinking at its best. It can be approached in any way you see fit and enables thoughts and ideas to simply tumble out of your brain in any order, no matter how disparate each one is.\n\nRather than ending up with a notepad full of these ideas, line-after-line, a mind map helps you organise them into something meaningful and ultimately engaging. It draws you in.\n<h3>Uses for mind mapping</h3>\nThe example mind map I’ve provided in this post relates to project planning, but they have so many other uses, each one destined to take a weight (literally) off your mind.\n\nHere’s how you could use mind maps at both work and in your personal life:\n<ul>\n 	<li><strong>Meeting notes</strong>. Of all the non-linear practices, meetings must be <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/6-ways-to-get-rid-of-bad-meetings-once-and-for-all/\" target=\"_blank\">among the most prolific</a>. Rarely do they follow the set agenda, and as a result, notes taken make little sense further down the line. Mind mapping is a brilliant way to take meeting notes that can be easily digested one the dust has settled.</li>\n 	<li><strong>Presentations</strong>. Who wants to sit through slide after slide of what makes an idea or product so fantastic? Impress upon potential customers and peers by using mind maps to tell your story instead. It’s far more engaging.</li>\n 	<li><strong>House move</strong>. There are so many things to keep on top of when moving house - imagine a mind map that neatly compartmentalises each thing you need to do and your plans for making the move a success.</li>\n 	<li><strong>That novel you mean to write</strong>. If you’ve had a burning desire to create something - be it a novel, album or video highlight reel from your wedding, there’s no better way to ensure it finally happens than by using a mind map to plan its production. Get those ideas out of your head and into some kind of structure on paper and your creative endeavour will become a reality!</li>\n</ul>\n<h3>Summing up</h3>\nMind maps have worked for me when it comes to compartmentalising my thoughts and all but removing that constantly-nagging doubt that I’m not reaching my full potential. And the best thing? They’re ridiculously easy to start using. Although plenty of software mind mapping tools exist, all you need as a novice is a big sheet of paper and a pen.\n\nGive it a try!', 'How Mind Maps Removed Stress From My Working Day', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'how-mind-maps-removed-stress-from-my-working-day', '', '', '2016-09-23 06:00:41', '2016-09-23 10:00:41', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31249', 0, 'post', '', 10),
(31254, 427, '2016-10-11 06:00:44', '2016-10-11 10:00:44', 'At your core there exists a unique set of abilities. We refer to them as <em>strengths. </em>These are not difficult to discover. There are many <em>“strength finder”</em> type assessments that are more than capable of pointing these abilities out.\n\n<em><u>What usually go unnoticed</u></em> are the multiple enablers that surround our lives and enhance our abilities. They make our abilities come alive. And they come in many forms. They stem from opportunities and circumstances that are unique to us.\n\nSome are from the <em>place of privilege</em> (which is true of most even though often not apparent). And some are from the <em>place of adversity</em>. They are the parts of life that make you one of a kind.  It’s more than your strengths. It’s your strengths combined with your life’s events.\n\nI could have the same strengths as someone else, yet my opportunities and circumstances surrounding my origin and experiences make me unique!\n\nHere are 7<strong> enablers</strong> surrounding your strengths that make you unique. They also highlight your potential.<span id=\"more-5649\"></span>\n<ol>\n 	<li><strong>Your Character – </strong>this is an essential — not an elective.  It’s a must if you want to do something of significance.  This usually gets top billing when you are observed.  What is it that marks your character for those that know you the best?  How can you be intentional in creating it and building on it?  Write down two.</li>\n 	<li><strong>Your Experiences – </strong>the total of your experiences have left an indelible mark.  You can’t deny them, make them up, nor change them.  They are yours.  Even though time moves on, it passes to the present from those experiences.  They are, therefore, to be embraced.  What are two experiences that were points of demarcation for you?</li>\n 	<li><strong>Your Advantages – </strong>there are things in life that have given you a competitive advantage.  Do you know what they are?  Others do!  This should not be a haven for self-pity because of what you lacked, or guilt because of what you gained.  They are what they are – advantages.  No two people’s advantages are the same – so rule out comparison or self-pity. Ignorance will underplay them.  Acknowledgment will leverage them. Can you name and claim two of yours?</li>\n 	<li><strong>Your Obstacles – </strong>no one gets far in life without some “game-threatening” challenge.  The victim posture never creates learning.  At best it will neutralize you and at worst it will nullify you.  Neither one are good options.  The resilient person is either up, or getting back up.  Your obstacles have been significant in making you who you are today.  Your greatness lies outside your circle of comfort.  What are two obstacles that stand out?</li>\n 	<li><strong>Your Resources – </strong>everyone has access to resources.  What’s uncommon are the resources themselves.  There are <em>external </em>resources – money, influential friends, community, technology, etc.  And there are <em>internal </em>resources – motivation, resilience, time, commitment, etc.  An accurate assessment of resources is essential for the best life-decisions. They might be different from others, but for you their value is just as high.  What are four of yours?</li>\n 	<li><strong>Your Value – </strong>there is an ascending and descending scale of the value we bring to people.  We can bring a number of valuable things their way, but not all of them are of the same value to the recipient.  The value you bring is multiplied in its benefit.  Since they are a part of who you are, the recipient gains more than you give.  It’s exponential for them, and therefore a great investment of your efforts.  Can you describe four of your points of unique value?  False modesty is not helpful here.</li>\n 	<li><strong>Your Markets – </strong>you are capable of running in many venues, but what is that niche where your effectiveness peaks?  Some call this your tribe – that place where you exert the greatest influence.  The distinctions of these markets might be fuzzy, but they eventually self-define and will reveal themselves as your most likely place of impact and influence.  It’s difficult to be all things to all people. What are three of those markets – those niches that are a great fit?</li>\n</ol>\nYour key to developing the leader in you starts at your core, but doesn’t end there.  Be aware of these 7 enablers that highlight your unique abilities and increase your ever-expanding potential.  The list is a great resource.  And the good news is, the enablers are yours!', '7 Things That Drive Your Core Strengths and Make You Unique', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', '7-things-that-drive-your-core-strengths-and-make-you-unique', '', '', '2016-10-11 06:00:44', '2016-10-11 10:00:44', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31254', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(31268, 428, '2016-10-13 06:00:20', '2016-10-13 10:00:20', 'There are three competencies that are necessary to have if a CEO is to be successful. A CEO clearly needs to be good at the many competencies that all good leaders need, but these three aren\'t quite as critical for leaders at other levels.\n\nA CEO who masters these skills drives the success of their organization, commands a significant salary, and sometimes becomes legendary. In contrast, a CEO who doesn\'t do well with these competencies does average at best and at worst is invited to leave the organization. It explains why the average tenure for a Fortune 500 CEO is only about four and a half years.\n<h3>Visioning</h3>\nThe first skill that\'s essential for a CEO is the ability to develop a vision for the future. In the absence of a future that is different from the present, a CEO is destined to make only incremental improvements, simply tweaking what already exists. A CEO who has a vision of the future can put a strategy in motion which, if executed well, can alter the course and the fortunes of a business.\n\nHow can someone gain the ability to have vision and foresight? It first requires that a CEO have external awareness. In other words, he or she must have a sense of trends, developments and changes in behavior in the world outside of the organization. Only by being observant can new insights be gained. Next, having vision requires that a CEO keep from being restricted in his or her thinking by self-imposed (and usually unfounded) constraints. In other words, he or she must think \"outside the box.\" As a friend of mine likes to say, \"If you argue for your limitations, you get to keep them...\"\n\nHow do you gain a fresh perspective? The most effective means is to remove yourself from the day-to-day and spend time reflecting.  You\'ll end up gaining new insights and perspectives on your business.\n<h3>Decisiveness</h3>\nThe second skill that\'s essential for CEO success is the ability to make decisions with incomplete information. Almost always, the vision of a new future requires heading into uncharted waters. There is no way to have all the facts before action is taken.\n\nHow do you gain this ability? It obviously requires some tolerance of risk, therefore a CEO can\'t be overly risk averse. The key is to minimize the risk, so that if things don’t go as planned, all is not lost. It is essential to consider the various possible scenarios and then review the result of each. Making decisions without all the information requires a CEO be clear on the underlying problem so as not to address a symptom instead. But at some point, a decision must be made without having all the pieces of the puzzle.\n<h3>Influence and Persuasion</h3>\nThe third skill that every good CEO must possess is the ability to influence and persuade. Although a CEO can dictate his or her desires to the organization, the results gained from people who are simply complying will be very different than from those gained by a committed organization.\n\nHow can someone improve their ability to influence and persuade? It first requires that a CEO gain the trust and respect of the organization. Trust and respect are earned over time, and are determined as people observe the way in which we conduct ourselves on a daily basis. The level of trust and respect that people have for us greatly impacts the degree to which we are able to influence them.\n\nThe second aspect to influencing others relates to the fact that people \"buy\" emotionally. It doesn\'t matter whether we\'re talking about selling widgets or a vision of the future, people make their decisions to accept or reject on an emotional level. (They then use facts and logic to rationalize and justify their decision.) One of the most effective means of evoking emotion is through the use of stories. And some of the most effective stories are analogies. The artful use of analogies not only can evoke emotion, but can avoid arousing defensiveness in people. Effective CEOs are master storytellers.\n\nIf you want to be a more effective CEO or want to prepare yourself to become a CEO, it is essential to have vision and foresight, make decisions without all the facts, and master the ability to influence others.', '3 Skills That Set Successful CEOs Apart', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', '3-skills-that-set-successful-ceos-apart', '', '', '2016-10-13 06:00:20', '2016-10-13 10:00:20', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31268', 0, 'post', '', 3),
(31270, 329, '2016-09-19 06:00:23', '2016-09-19 10:00:23', 'He was arguably the greatest composer who has ever lived. He wrote over 600 scores during his short 35 year life span. He was performing advanced piano works before kings at the age of five. As a teenager, Wolfgang Mozart once heard a full opera performed in the Sistine Chapel; he then went home and copied it completely from memory, including the parts played by each instrument in the orchestra.\n\nHis operas—like The Magic Flute, The Marriage of Figaro, and Don Giovanni are among the most beloved operas ever written. His 200+-year-old music was used in such diverse modern movies as Alien, JFK, Star Trek, A Beautiful Mind, Batman, Out of Africa, The Associate, and Shawshank Redemption.\n\nHe was also a spoiled brat. He squandered his earnings on fancy clothes and all-night parties. When his boss, the Archbishop of Vienna, forbade the play “The Marriage of Figaro” from being used as a backdrop for an opera because it was deemed licentious, Mozart composed the comic opera anyway. When the use of ballet in an opera was forbidden, he defied the order and included the dance. His actions seemed less about rebellion and more about artistic license and the pursuit of his vision.\n\nBut this piece is not about <strong>the</strong> Mozart. It is about providing leadership to all those passion-driven over achievers who end up as the “Mozart” in organizations. What would your leadership style be like if you supervised film director James Cameron, Steve Jobs, runner Usain Bolt, Lady Gaga, activist Susan B. Anthony, or Thomas Edison?\n\n“Mozarts” have common noble traits—brilliant, visionary, perfectionistic, and passionately driven. They are also very challenging to work with, extremely bull-headed, egotistical, countercultural, irreverent and sometimes borderline crazy. Organizations cannot tolerate very many “Mozarts.” They disturb the sanctity of stability and status quo. Highly conservative organizations view them as extreme misfits.\n\nA “Mozart” will ask tough questions that make mediocre performers feel inadequate. “Mozarts” ignore tidy rules of corporate civility in a headlong pursuit of their bold visions. They poke around in areas outside their sandbox and beyond their pay grades. While most “Mozarts” would get an easy A+ in creativity, their impatience with diplomacy would net them a grade of F in “emotional intelligence.”\n<h3>The Plight of a Mozart</h3>\nSome organizations try to expel a “Mozart.” “Mozarts” often get labeled, ignored and ostracized. Their performance reviews give short shrift to their vast achievements while spotlighting only their “does not play well with others” dimensions. They are told to get a coach or read a book or go talk with HR. Failing to be valued for their contribution, most exit for greener pastures. Consider the massive loss to the organization they vacate.\n\nEvery organization interested in growth needs a few “Mozarts.” They can make us better and more vigorous. Sure, they are complex, challenging, and downright difficult. But they can propel us to greatness by being the spark plug for the organization’s innovation engine. Of course they can make us wring our hands and shake our heads. They can also ensure our advancement and competitiveness. They are very rare and we need them.\n\nBeing a “Mozart” can be quite lonely. Without leadership they can end up like Wolfgang—a pauper buried in a mass grave without a marker. However, being the leader of a “Mozart” can be downright nerve wracking. As the boss, you are perpetually surprised by events that signal your “Mozart” has “done it again!” Other employees are constantly in your office complaining about their quirky actions, rude business etiquette, and insensitive cross-examinations. What are ways to lead a “Mozart” in a fashion that maximizes their value without losing them to a competitor?\n<h3>Embrace Their Weirdness</h3>\nAvoid trying to explain to someone why “Mozarts” are the way they are. You cannot reprogram eccentricity or turn off a compelling vision. Searching for a rational explanation for their idiosyncrasies carries the implication that if they can be understood they can be “cured.” The goal is not to change them but to effectively lead them in a fashion that harnesses their creative energies. “Mozarts” see the world through a completely unique set of lenses and their perspective looks absolutely right to them. Accept their special treasures and steer their talents. Comments like, “George is a bit of a character, but my, what a talent!” can send a different message to others than, “George is just not like the other ‘children\'.”\n<h3>Provide Loose Control and Tight Guidance</h3>\nSince “Mozarts” live in the big picture world it is key they be given an accurate view at the macro level but not be micro managed. They can be successfully led but are poorly managed. External controls trigger their aversion to restrictions and constraints. They do not deal well with mindless policies, narrow job descriptions, and obsessive hierarchical controls that seek to convert them from “wild ducks” to barnyard chickens. They work nontraditional hours, guided more by the rhythm of their work than the hands of the clock. However, they need boundaries regarding where an overstep risks the mission. “Mozarts” without governors can be a clear and present danger to the effectiveness of the organization.\n<h3>Run Interference for Them</h3>\n“Mozarts” need sponsors, courageous champions with gladiator-like traits to take on naysayers and the sometimes-frustrated mob. They need someone who always has available a “get out of jail free” card--a defender who can explain their contribution in a fashion that makes defending their foibles completely unnecessary. They need a scout shrewd enough in corporate politics to provide them early warning regarding interpersonal mine fields and lurking group ambushes. Without a front person, a “Mozart” can too often be marginalized and ultimately rendered impotent.\n<h3>Resource Them</h3>\n“Mozarts” need special resources. They need more latitude and a higher tolerance for their errors than others. They may present a dozen approaches, eleven of which are wacky, but the twelfth could be borderline genius. Discarding the first eleven before reviewing all their ideas risks robbing the organization of breakthroughs. They should be given the latest tools and access to the best minds. They need a network of like-minded “odd balls” who can function as a sounding board for their most outrageous ideas. They need an easy entrée to information and access to a cadre of people who can help them refine their “perfect” idea into an “effective” application.\n<h3>Celebrate Them</h3>\n“Mozarts,” while often the owners of larger than normal egos, need little public affirmation. They do want credit. However, applause others may cherish is not what drives them--the intrinsic give-back of their work is more than enough. However, celebration can help others learn to value their contributions. Celebration enables fellow employees to separate the person from the performance. It can foster their resilience and facilitate patience among others. If their presence becomes completely intolerable and no <a href=\"http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/aeronautics/skunkworks.html\" target=\"_blank\">skunk works-like</a> outlet is available, celebrate them by helping them migrate to organizations where their talents will be better used.\n\nOne of the late Waylon Jennings\'s best-known hit songs included the lyrics, “I’ve always been crazy and it’s helped me from going insane.” It could be the mantra of a “Mozart.” “Crazy” is the moniker for mavericks, eccentrics, rebels, and nonconformists. Effectively led, they can make huge contributions. However, like wild ducks and wild horses, they should never be domesticated. As the leader of a “Mozart” it may help to remember the paraphrased words of Harvard history professor Laurel Ulrich: “Well behaved people seldom make history.”', 'Leading a &quot;Mozart&quot;', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'leading-a-mozart', '', '', '2016-09-19 06:00:23', '2016-09-19 10:00:23', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31270', 0, 'post', '', 2),
(31277, 436, '2016-11-03 06:00:35', '2016-11-03 10:00:35', 'What is the point of good leadership? Shouldn’t all team members be considered and treated equal? Why do people need someone to look up to at all? These are questions raised by people who are skeptical about someone taking on the said role and not exhibiting any such quality or simply failing to live up to the title. Everyone knows what qualities a poor leader exhibits. A poor leader lacks humility, has poor communication skills, blames every mishap on others, and does not take any kind of responsibility.\n\nOther than that, the pioneers of great leadership have left a lot of ground to cover for those at their initial levels and have raised expectations. They ooze of excellence, boast confidence, and play to their strengths. How is it that even after doing all the above things many are not able to earn the respect of their employees? It’s because they lack involvement in areas which truly matter, such as these:\n<h3><strong>Understanding a Teammate’s Plight</strong></h3>\nOf course, everyone has a fierce will to succeed. But what if you failed to perform up to the mark because of any external issue? A great leader is involved in the workings of everyone under his or her leadership. Other than that, they do make an effort to understand and look at things from their point of view. Because of this quality, they’re not deemed arrogant because they’re willing to listen to their teammates and keep an open ear to understand their situation.\n<h3><strong>Trusting Everyone</strong></h3>\nIf you hand over responsibilities to other employees, you’re exhibiting a sign that you trust them to carry on with the assigned task and fulfill it in time. You can also empower them to make their own decisions; encouraging them to do that can make an employee feel confident about the input they provide you. Once you provide them a task, you do not meddle in or tell them over and over again how to do it. If you trust them, you can be sure they’ll do all they can to keep your trust.\n<h3><strong>Accepting Their Flaws</strong></h3>\nThere is a common saying around the world that success tastes the sweetest when it’s shared by all, but the acceptance of failure separates a great man from the rest. If you or any of your teammates fail to come up to the mark, you should take full responsibility and should not blame any individual for any small mistakes or your actions. Instead, you should focus on taking proper measures to further improve your performance.\n<h3><strong>Growth Factor</strong></h3>\nThinking of small and immediate problems is a good strategy to tackle obstacles, but you should reflect more on your actions and how they’ll carry out in the long run. The most important thing should be the productivity and wellness of your teammates and it’s important to determine if your actions aren’t further causing them stress or hurting their morale. Dedicating yourself to their professional growth and fulfillment can very well provide you with a team of dedicated professionals in turn. Don’t be hesitant to pass on your skills and information to hone newbies and the next generation of leaders.\n<h3><strong>Influencing Others</strong></h3>\nHow can you influence others and make them think that you’re someone to look up to and follow? You might be thinking that by being lenient, everyone would take you for granted and you won’t be able to issue a strong persona and thus won’t be admired. Actually, humility is often overlooked in today’s world and more importance is given to people who have a way with words instead of those who are modest. Trust me though; these are the types who won’t find their employees deeply engaged.\n<h3><strong>Know When to Take Charge and Back Out</strong></h3>\nIt’s good to take charge and head forward into the battle, but you’re not wise when you don’t know when the right time to back out is and when you should just leave things. When you’re working together as a team, you’re involving several heads in the same task and each one has their own ideas and approaches. Accept when someone comes with a better idea or is just better than you at a particular skill set. You might not always have all the answers, but just by enhancing their perspective and learning from your experiences, you can inspire others as well.\n\nGreat leaders exhibit their experience, accomplishments, and intelligence in their work by showing humility. They do not go around telling everyone repeatedly about themselves. What makes a good leader different? Not the types who like to progress by pulling the legs of others to make them fall down and lag behind. By communicating with everyone and letting them know their importance, you are also signifying that you’re open to discussions and always willing to listen and accept when you’re wrong as well.\n<div><strong>About the Author:</strong></div>\n<div></div>\n<div>Rebecca Katharine is a creative writer who writes blogs and articles while also providing <a href=\"http://www.dissertationpoint.co.uk/\" target=\"_blank\">dissertation help</a> online for learners who seek guidance. She also gives guidance online on social media.</div>', '6 Qualities of Great Leaders', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', '6-qualities-of-great-leaders', '', '', '2016-11-03 06:00:35', '2016-11-03 10:00:35', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31277', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(31305, 251, '2016-09-15 06:00:17', '2016-09-15 10:00:17', '“Be sure to schedule time every week for serendipity,” advised the conference speaker. “If you schedule it, you’ll make it happen.”\n\n“Did she say to <em>schedule</em> serendipity?” I whispered to my colleague.\n\n“Sure did.”\n\nLong a fan (and beneficiary) of the joy of accidently tripping into discoveries, the speaker’s counsel troubled me. There was no way to schedule a fortunate accidental discovery—serendipity just happened.\n<h3>Accidental discoveries</h3>\nMaybe I had missed some nuance in the definition of <span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http://www.thefreedictionary.com/serendipity\">serendipity</a></em></span>. I hadn’t. Author Horace Walpole invented the word in 1754. A Persian fairy tale, <em>The Princes of Serendip</em>, had been his inspiration. In the fairy tale, the princes “were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of.”\n\nThat confirmed my belief the speaker had it all wrong. Sadly, I mocked her advice several times.\n\nThen a serendipitous and humbling moment found me. With so many topics and issues becoming polarized, I was researching dogmatism. Sitting there, reading the word’s definition, <em>a viewpoint or system of ideas based on insufficiently examined premises</em>, my reaction to the speaker’s words about scheduling serendipity leapt into mind.\n\nBlindly accepting my stance that it was impossible to schedule serendipity as correct, I had failed to examine her meaning. I had heard her words, interpreted them with my filters, and rejected her position outright.\n<h3>Serving up humble pie</h3>\nShame on me because her advice wasn’t wrong, it was flat out brilliant.\n\nIn a world that runs on tight time schedules and where there’s a plan for everything, leaving time open for spontaneity is pure genius. Of course, you can’t will the eureka moment to happen. However, making time available to reflect and imagine increases the odds of creativity and innovation occurring.\n\nThat’s what the speaker had meant—don’t get tunnel vision from an over-packed schedule; let unpredictability point to possibility. Life is a paradoxical waltz with times of chaos <em>and</em> control, structure <em>and </em>formlessness, spontaneity <em>and </em>deliberation.\n\n<em>*sigh*</em>\n\nHow could I have been so unseeing? Psychologist <span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https://kahneman.socialpsychology.org/\">Daniel Kahneman</a></span> nailed it when he observed it was incredibly difficult for us to see our own biases. Fortunately, a bit of research rescued me from my blindness.\n\nI both love and abhor my personal teachable moments. Love them because new paths are revealed, abhor them because I need them in the first place. Perhaps I’d better start scheduling them into my calendar.\n\n&nbsp;', 'Serendipity and a Serving of Humble Pie', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'serendipity-and-a-serving-of-humble-pie', '', '', '2016-09-15 06:00:17', '2016-09-15 10:00:17', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31305', 0, 'post', '', 1),
(31309, 276, '2016-09-14 06:00:15', '2016-09-14 10:00:15', 'There is a saying that true leaders don’t create followers, but rather they develop leaders. They don’t add to the number of leaders, but multiply their constituents and are able to grow more leaders around them. Every company desires to have the formula to increase their leadership capabilities. I wish there were a secret solution. The reality is that growing leaders starts by showing people you care.\n\nWhen people know you care about them, they tend to do their best and achieve greater things in life that they otherwise never thought they could do.\n\nHow do we truly develop leaders around us? In my many years of experience in developing leaders around me, here are some of the things I learned:\n<ul>\n 	<li><em>Serve others</em> – create a culture of serving others. When you serve your people, you aim to focus on the greater good to achieve the vision. By developing more people who focus on serving others, you will grow the firm’s overall capabilities. You need to lead by example and walk the walk.</li>\n 	<li><em>Resiliency</em> – teaching people to be resilient is in itself a valuable characteristic. Teach people not to give up and continue to seek the solution for problems, because there is always a solution for every problem. You can create a community that thrives under pressure and rises to the occasion when the chips are down.</li>\n 	<li><em>Continuous growth and development</em> – aim to grow from within. The more time you spend on the right people who are doing the right job, the more they will grow and increase their capabilities. Challenge them to take on more responsibilities and think outside the box. Empower them to make decisions and hold them accountable for it.</li>\n 	<li><em>Learn from failures</em> – Learning from your failures and developing the ability to bounce back when things go wrong are important in developing leaders that are able to make it happen.</li>\n 	<li><em>Selfless</em> – being selfless does not mean that we think less of ourselves, but rather we make sure we are adequately prepared to help and serve others. It is the ability to be unselfish and focus on others.</li>\n</ul>\nWhile it is nice to say that you are developing leaders around you, you need to give them a reason to stick around, because good leaders are a hot commodity and always in demand. Therefore, developing them is one thing, but giving them the reason to stick around is equally important, because to increase your firm’s capabilities you need to grow and keep them.', 'Developing Leaders', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'developing-leaders', '', '', '2016-09-14 06:00:15', '2016-09-14 10:00:15', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31309', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(31327, 374, '2016-09-20 06:00:48', '2016-09-20 10:00:48', 'Do you find it painful to take risks? Do you lean toward playing it safe in order to avoid failure, loss, or the unknown?\n\n<a href=\"http://hustlegeneration.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Hustle</a>, a book by Neil Patel, Patrick Vlaskovits, and Jonas Koffler that has just been released contends that we can best position ourselves to overcome fear of risk by a process called hormesis.\n<blockquote>Hormesis is repeated exposures to small doses of stressors and risk which don\'t weaken but, surprisingly, strengthen our biological systems.</blockquote>\nHormesis strengthens our ability to hustle, and therefore deliver, as described in this <a href=\"http://www.rodalewellness.com/mind-spirit/why-you-need-a-daily-dose-of-pain\" target=\"_blank\">Why You Need a Daily Dose of Pain</a>.\n\nThe authors encourage you to <a href=\"https://www.amazon.com/Hustle-Power-Charge-Meaning-Momentum/dp/1623367166/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1461808765&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=hustle+jonas+koffler\" target=\"_blank\">order the book</a> to fully study the hormesis/hustle relationship.\n\nUntil you have access to the book, though, they have shared this excerpt which provides ten real-life examples you could start today in order to build up your immunity to the pain of risk.\n\nBefore you choose to get started on your pain (does that sound odd to you?!), a few comments from the authors:\n\n<em>You must make sure to build incrementally so that you can get back on your horse and not get trampled underneath. That is why we suggest a \"daily dose of pain.\"</em>\n\n<em>Look in the mirror and think to yourself, What is the smallest thing I could do today to reap a long-term hormetic benefit? All it has to be is (a) small, (b) slightly annoying or odd, and (c) gainful or promising in some way.</em>\n<h3>Ten real-life examples you could start today include:</h3>\n<ol>\n 	<li>If you\'re out of shape, try to do 10 pushups or 5 minutes of yoga every day this week.</li>\n 	<li>Know that coworker you cannot stand, the super-annoying loud-talker who won\'t leave your cubicle and constantly disrupts your work with her boring stories about her husband or her kids? Find something truly virtuous about her and compliment her sincerely.</li>\n 	<li>Do you always order the same sandwich at your favorite café? Ask the waiter to surprise you with a dealer\'s choice. The waiter chooses an entrée without informing you, and you promise yourself you will eat it and even try to taste a few specific ingredients, no matter what he chooses. (This is exactly how author Patrick Vlaskovits learned that he loves Brussels sprouts.)</li>\n 	<li>Find a different route home from work for a week straight.</li>\n 	<li>Hold a conversation with a few friends and never mention \"me\" or \"I\" or \"my.\"</li>\n 	<li>Go to a movie on a Friday night <em>by yourself</em>.</li>\n 	<li>When you find yourself listening to a friend trying to convince you of the merits of one of their ideas, resist the urge to cross your arms. (It\'s harder than you might think.)</li>\n 	<li>Learn one new word every day. And use it at least 10 times that day.</li>\n 	<li>Instead of heading straight into work, wake up an hour early an go for a walk.</li>\n 	<li>Take a walk around your neighborhood and look for three new things you haven\'t ever noticed before.</li>\n</ol>\nSomething, no matter how small a pain, is always better than nothing. The point isn\'t to punish or deny ourselves but to gently prod ourselves to grow a teeny, tiny bit every day, so that one day we\'ll be ready to save a prince or princess ourselves.\n\nAside from the hormetic benefits of small doses of pain, there is another major unseen benefit.\n\nSo tell us, are you feeling lucky, punk?\n\nThe publishers of <em>Hustle </em>have provided a copy of the book to be given away to one of our readers! To be eligible, please comment below with your thoughts about how hormesis might play a role in increasing your capacity to hustle. The giveaway closes at 5 pm ET on Friday, September 26. If you are a winner who resides outside of the US, you will be provided an electronic version of the book rather than a hard copy.\n\n<em>Editor\'s Note: very minor edits were made to the excerpt to fit editorial needs of this abridged excerpt.</em>', 'What is Hormesis and How Does it Help My Hustle?', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'what-is-hormesis-and-how-does-it-help-my-hustle', '', '', '2016-09-20 06:00:48', '2016-09-20 10:00:48', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31327', 0, 'post', '', 1),
(31350, 437, '2016-10-19 06:00:40', '2016-10-19 10:00:40', 'Self-development is more about igniting the fire from within instead of external factors. External influences only act as facilitators to the goal of development. The goal could be to quit smoking, become more available to your family, take classes to learn new skills or practice philanthropy.\n\nDevelopment encompasses factors such as how much time you are willing to dedicate to a particular task. Is it long term? How do you see yourself grow as a result of achieving that goal? The answer to these questions and other similar ones can lead you to draw a road map as to how to go about them in future.\n\nPeople consider personal development a crusade. They want to instill a particular trait in themselves by hook or by crook when they fail to realize that if they have become a chain smoker it was not overnight that this happened. It may have been peer pressure or the need to combat stress away or drive it away or heavy reliance on nicotine levels due to the nature of work over time that led them to this point. But when it comes to quitting, they want to come clean the next hour. This isn’t going to happen and will only occur in due time. The trick is to stick to a regimen by staying focused and determined that you have to call it quits. Change can be drastic but something which is deep rooted is not easy to overcome. So if you used to smoke two packs a day, start by limiting yourself to two cigarettes a day (just an example).\n\nIn the above example, you can see that to bring about growth and development you have to consider the transition a journey instead of forcing it on to yourself. Break it down into smaller bits and gradually work towards making it a whole. Usually, when you try to force things, they backfire. For instance, if you are unable to sleep at night and know that you have to wake up early tomorrow, no matter how hard you try, you will not be able to put yourself to sleep. To compel your brain you have to try other means such as listening to binaural beats in order to help you put yourself to sleep. By simply telling your brain to “go to sleep” you are actually activating the tendency of it to resist.\n\nAll in all, self-development is purely subjective. You cannot definitely label something self-development because to other people it may mean different interpretations as conveyed in my opening paragraph. If you are learning to drive a car, make sure to set aside some time for it every day. This is how you will master the art of driving or any other pursuit you seek. You can then cross off items in your quest to become better.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\nCatherine Daisy is a social media activist. Her areas of interest include writing self-help guides, training and delivering lectures on management skills as well as working for an <a href=\"http://www.uaeassignmentwriting.help/\" target=\"_blank\">assignment help service</a>.\n\n&nbsp;', 'Self Development: A Journey, Not A Crusade', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'self-development-a-journey-not-a-crusade', '', '', '2016-10-19 06:00:40', '2016-10-19 10:00:40', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31350', 0, 'post', '', 0);
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(31364, 376, '2016-09-29 06:00:06', '2016-09-29 10:00:06', 'I am slowly learning how to be effective in a much different environment than I have ever faced before ... there is some learning here, methinks.\n\nOver the long haul, I have served in leadership positions in the military, on college campuses, at corporations (both for-profit and non-profit), with volunteer organizations, and in social groups. My experience includes volunteer and paid positions at the individual contributor level, as a small-group leader/supervisor, business unit manager and director, up through senior staff level.\n\nI thought I knew organizational leadership fairly well because of the scope of my experience and the varied environments in which I have worked and developed.\n\nThe focus in all cases has been on transformation of people, processes, and organizations.\n\nHowever, I now find myself working in a highly-charged sales environment ... responsible for my own actions and my own business. This is a whole new ball game.\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong>I am a transformational guy in a transactional world.</strong></em></p>\nSome quick observations about my learning to date:\n<h3><strong>COMPLEXITY MATTERS ...</strong></h3>\nNot just about size, but also about hierarchy and lines of communication, production, and organization. Generally, as the size of the organization grows, so does the complexity. This means more opportunities for miscommunication, lack of connection, and people working at cross-purposes or at least less effectively than they could be.\n\nA second thought is that lack of complexity does not equal effectiveness. Ever work in a family-owned business? Small number of employees, intimate atmosphere, but the emotional complexity can be deep and dangerous.\n\nThis sales environment is medium-level complexity with a strong emphasis on legal processes and the involvement of a very large amount of money for most people. Complexity can be represented by more than just organizational boxes.\n\nComplexity changes our behavior and communication in some ways, but the impact of complexity appears remarkably consistent and scalable.\n<h3><strong>OTHERS MATTER ...</strong></h3>\nWho you deal with is important and this varies quite a bit too. In the military, clear lines of command and subordination, along with clear and detailed guidelines for almost every situation, exist side-by-side with the critical need to act independently when one of those situations call for it.\n\nUltimately, managing people is always an individual project, but for those within organizations, group dynamics matter.\n\nAs you move away from clear lines of authority, you increasingly encounter others who can resist, ignore, or sabotage your leadership. This exists in all organizations to some degree, but when you factor in the competitive nature of working with a whole group of self-employed folks, the questions around who has authority and how they wield that authority become more important.\n\nHowever, individual differences are always critical and we ignore the person versus the group at our peril.\n<h3><strong>LEADERS MATTER ....</strong></h3>\nLeadership is probably easier for most in large organizations, where roles and responsibilities are clearly delineated and the structures support working in teams toward commonly accepted goals. Everyone knows their place in the scheme of things. When you have the title, authority, and accountability, you can usually confidently act, knowing that you are supposed to be doing what you are doing.\n\nHowever, leadership within a group of independent and self-employed individuals is proving to be different than I have experienced.   It\'s not just about individuality or who has the authority, either. I have worked with volunteers at the local, regional, and national level at times, and volunteers are not the same as self-employed colleagues. I am slowly noting the differences and similarities, as a good life-long learner should do.\n\nMost importantly, leadership in this environment has little or nothing to do with rank, title, or the other traditional outward markers of a leader. Status is conferred based more on success in the sales arena and relates only weakly, if at all, to leadership success.\n\nSince transactions are the daily bread of our efforts, we are challenged to find a constant focused on customer service in each interaction, no matter the level of sales success each party has experienced. How does leadership manifest itself in small and big ways through the prism of these transactions?\n\nOf course, some things about leadership, such as integrity and honor, do not change, even as we move from one environment to another. The person who is honest, candid, and willing to take risks to champion the truth is always in short supply and valued by thinking people both inside and outside the organization.\n\nIf I misrepresent a property to someone or take unfair advantage in a business transaction, I am acting out of accordance with my own ethics.\n\nOther leadership traits, such as vision and strategic thinking, take on new meanings when everyone has their own personal goals and dreams. While individual efforts contribute to the agency\'s success, we are all on our own regarding establishing our goals and deciding best how to achieve them.\n\nI think leadership in this arena is leadership of the individual by personal example and influence. That\'s a lot harder than when everyone is obligated to work toward the same goals in the same way.\n<h3><strong>SO ....</strong></h3>\nObviously, these are incomplete and preliminary thoughts about leadership in a strange new world (at least to me). I plan to continue considering how my new world is the same and how it is different. I would welcome any questions or comments on my observations.', 'Stranger in a Strange Land, Indeed ...', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'stranger-in-a-strange-land-indeed', '', '', '2016-09-29 06:00:06', '2016-09-29 10:00:06', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31364', 0, 'post', '', 2),
(31381, 434, '2016-09-27 06:00:44', '2016-09-27 10:00:44', 'As part of our baseline assessments of every client, my team and I use <a href=\"http://launchbox365.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Launchbox’s</a> proprietary assessment tool, BRIDGEdex, to identify where the significant disconnects exist between millennials and managers—between employee expectations and what they are experiencing in the workplace.\n\nWe have done hundreds of these assessments with companies of all sizes nationwide, across all industries.\n\nDespite the fact that the needs of those companies differed across industries, disciplines, and departments...\n\nDespite the fact that sales culture is different from accounting, and practices within law firms or insurance companies are different from engineering or public relations firms...\n\nDespite the fact that regional differences exist—San Diego is not the same as Des Moines, which is nothing like New York City . . .\n\n<em>Despite all of these differences, we found managers’ top disconnects and frustrations with their millennials were strikingly similar across all companies regardless of location, size, or industry.</em>\n<h3>Managers’ Top 9 Disconnects / Frustrations with Their Millennials</h3>\n1. Lack of initiative and problem-solving\n2. Sense of entitlement\n3. Overly self-focused\n4. Too emotional\n5. Unrealistic advancement goals\n6. Impatient\n7. Inability to remain engaged and loyal\n8. Poor work ethic\n9. Not taking responsibility\n\nOf course, these managerial disconnects look exactly like the reasons you’ve probably read about why non-millennials hate millennials. But that hate not only creates perceptions and clouds how non-millennial managers view, treat, and lead their millennial employees, but also reveals their biggest—often unknown or unseen—challenges and weaknesses when it comes to understanding millennials.\n\nThat\'s the other thing we found: <em>While non-millennials surveyed think they are great at doing the things their millennials need, their millennials decidedly disagree.</em>\n<h3>Millennials’ Top 9 Disconnects / Frustrations with Their Managers</h3>\n1. Unavailability / too busy\n2. Lack of timely response\n3. Lack of positive feedback\n4. Lack of training / development\n5. Lack of consistent check-ins\n6. Lack of communication/ consistency\n7. Lack of transparency\n8. Ineffective business planning\n9. Lack of trust\n\nWhat does this mean? Simply put, if you think you are doing well at something and your audience thinks you are not, that disconnect is not only an organizational problem but also a personal problem that you need to solve.\n\nIf you as an individual can accept all that and own it, you will take the first step in changing your mindset and overcoming disconnects that reveal our biggest weaknesses and challenges in dealing with millennials—and in turn get them to change their mindset about you. <em>That’s how today’s companies will bridge the gap between their non-millennial leaders’ skills and perceptions and millennials’ skills and needs in order to create an engaged, productive workplace that delivers results.</em>\n\n“Wait! We went through it and so should they!” Non-millennials snap when they hear me say this. “Why should I change my work and the way I work for them? I’m not supposed to change; they are.”\n\nThat’s ridiculous. You are already so fantastic at being a leader that they need to change? It’s not “us versus them” and “if you’re not with us you’re against us.” How is that working, “us”?\n\nHow do we guide millennials to be their best selves and find their own relevance while still doing the work we need them to do? How do we create alignment between millennials’ expectations and what they are experiencing in your workplace?\n\nIt starts by changing our perspectives—with recognizing our duty to understand ourselves first and then working from the inside out and resolve these disconnects from us to them to become the best leaders we can be.\n\nNeed help getting started? Let us help you stop chasing relevance and make it happen. For more on working from the inside out, check out <a href=\"https://www.amazon.com/Chasing-Relevance-Understand-Generation-Workplace/dp/0692643257\" target=\"_blank\">Part One of Chasing Relevance: 6 Steps to Understand, Engage, and Maximize Next-Generation Leaders in the Workplace</a> TODAY.', 'Bridging the Manager/Millennial Disconnect', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'bridging-the-managermillennial-disconnect', '', '', '2016-09-27 06:00:44', '2016-09-27 10:00:44', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31381', 0, 'post', '', 1),
(31383, 408, '2016-09-26 06:00:52', '2016-09-26 10:00:52', 'Last week the CEO of Wells Fargo, a bank that’s been around since 1852, <a href=\"http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/2016/09/wells_fargo_ceo_apologizes_for_betraying_customers_trust\">testified</a> before Congress about the egregious wrong-doings committed by employees in his company all in the name of meeting sales goals. The chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., described the criminal behavior as action that led the bank to “fraudulently open millions of accounts using their customers\' funds and personal information without their permission.\" (This is yet another <a href=\"https://medium.com/@hollisthomases/would-you-upload-your-passport-to-facebook-bb97eb171947#.tpvilpl6w\">example</a> of companies taking advantage of highly sensitive personal information.) Crime exposed, the CEO, John Stumpf, apologized…but is that enough?\n\nThere are plenty of pundits predicting Stumpf’s ouster, and that may well happen, but Wells Fargo’s behavior is not isolated. It’s a symptom and sign of the times, a systemic problem of what I believe is society’s making. Repeatedly and more often, it seems, we’re seeing corporate leaders, politicians, religious heads, and others in positions of authority, power, celebrity, and guidance apologizing for either their own personal wrong-doings or those of their organizations. Recent apologies include:\n<ul>\n 	<li>Ryan Lochte</li>\n 	<li>Volkswagen</li>\n 	<li>Toshiba</li>\n 	<li>Valeant/Philidor pharmaceutical companies</li>\n 	<li>Various politicians from both sides of the aisle and at all levels of government</li>\n</ul>\n(And this list doesn’t include those who really didn’t apologize like Sepp Blatter, former FIFA president; Martin Shkreli, former CEO, Turing Pharmaceuticals; or recently ousted Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane)\n\nThese leaders – by their very positions, role models all -- stand up, say their mea culpas, and perhaps lose their jobs or fall from grace.  Even fewer stand trial or get imprisoned for their crimes. Then we all go about our days as if nothing has really happened. There’s no real impact to our lives (unless we happen to be a direct victim), there’s no real impact to the company or organization, there’s no real impact to our personal financial well-being, and there’s little that changes in our country that inhibit similar behavior in the future. We argue we don’t need to amend rules or regulations because we expect people to rise to higher standards, to police themselves.\n\nIn other words, <strong><em>we now live in an apology economy, and too many people are OK with it.</em></strong>\n\nWhy does this happen? We could blame the “too big to fail” financial crisis of 2008, but that would be untrue. This problem started long ago. Politicians have been impeached or forced to resign; moguls have been prosecuted and put in jail. There seemed to be a time when society tolerated this behavior less and demanded more from its leaders than just “I’m sorry.” We used to ban or boycott products. Yes, many suffered as a consequence of the sordid actions of the few…but that also helped apply pressure to do the right, instead of the wrong, thing. Societal mores made a difference. I may sound like an idealist (I’m unapologetically so), but we the people wield a lot more power than we give ourselves credit for… or exercise...these days.\n\nAnd yet, if we become too jaded, too blasé, too greedy, or too sullied ourselves to demand differently, can we really blame leaders for pushing the moral or legal envelope until they’re caught? Have we let the apology economy so seep into the DNA of our daily lives that it no longer matters if the most venerated leaders veer down the wrong path in pursuit of profits or power? Are we, in the dawning of the driverless vehicle, <strong>quite literally asleep at the wheel</strong>??\n\nI would love to say that I trust and rely in our leaders to actually do the right thing, but the more I see of this apology economy we live in, the less trusting I can be. I want to see our right as consumers to post honest reviews <a href=\"http://bigstory.ap.org/article/37c4692ae6fa4b04b83071f73dde6888/bills-would-defend-consumers-right-leave-bad-reviews\">defended</a>. I want to see political candidates offer more transparency and make disclosures their predecessors have made. And I want to see leaders of public corporations held accountable to their misdeeds (including the forfeiture of any golden parachutes should they or their companies be found guilty of obvious criminal or fraudulent behaviors perpetrated on their consumers).\n\nI personally do not want to see us perpetuate this apology economy. My wallet, my vote, and my voice all matter. Let me see some incorruptible leaders with courage. I’ll be much more forgiving of an “I sincerely tried but failed” apology than an apology for failing to try to do the right thing.', 'Shame On Our Apology Economy', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'shame-on-our-apology-economy', '', '', '2016-09-26 06:00:52', '2016-09-26 10:00:52', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31383', 0, 'post', '', 3),
(31391, 438, '2016-10-28 06:00:29', '2016-10-28 10:00:29', 'As an employer, you know that striking the balance between being respected and being liked is a stunningly hard task. I would like to offer you a type of management that refuses this premise entirely. The most successful employers work with all their employees, and are often seated alongside their lowest tier employees. This model completely smashes the damaging hierarchical system that most companies have.\n\nThis style has been implemented by the most innovative and forward thinking employers. This is no more evident than in the management style of <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Ma\" target=\"_blank\">Jack Ma</a>, the charismatic Chinese founder and CEO of Alibaba until 2015. Jack had this progressive message to CEO’s: ‘If you want to win in the 21st century, you have to...empower others, making sure other people are better than you are. Then you will be successful.’ This typifies the new CEO model and has brought unprecedented success for Jack Ma and Alibaba. This method of management is implemented by modern heavyweights like Google, Facebook and YouTube also, as their businesses rely massively on their employees\' new ideas on how to adapt to their target market. The beauty of this employer style is that you will hear your employees thoughts on how to improve your business as the environment will be constructive and open.\n\nThis model reinvigorates your employees as they will be able to communicate directly with you, and that gives them a sense of purpose and importance, which subsequently improves morale. Your employees will ask you questions and make conversation with you and with each other in the hope that you notice their hard work. If you listen to them and treat them with respect and dignity, you will find that they repay you in their quality and quantity of work. They will start working for <strong>you</strong> and not just a <strong>faceless</strong> company.\n\nAfter a while, you will become friendly with your employees, and you will be able to joke and laugh with them. This will directly improve the teamwork and communication of your workplace. After a while, you will be able to gauge their opinions and values; this knowledge can be used when delegating tasks and job positions to your employees. When you match their work with their interests they will give a lot more effort and enthusiasm to their job. By getting to know your staff, you will be able to understand them and see work from their perspective.\n\nThe days of separate hierarchical offices where an employee had to talk to their superior for their superior to then talk to their superior are over. You don\'t have to be young, funny or even sociable to successfully implement this modern model of managing. Many business realise that this system utilises their employees\' best abilities and creates a welcoming working environment where everyone at the business feel represented and thus improves office life ten fold.\n\nOnce you get over the hurdle of change, there really are no downsides to this method. I have seen both the employer and the employee side of this management technique and I can honestly say it is an absolute foolproof way of improving one\'s business and is an enjoyable style to work under as an employee.', 'The Case For Less Hierarchy', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'the-case-for-less-hierarchy', '', '', '2016-10-28 06:00:29', '2016-10-28 10:00:29', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31391', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(31398, 374, '2016-10-05 06:00:05', '2016-10-05 10:00:05', 'This month we are featuring Instigator <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/instigators/will-lukang/\" target=\"_blank\">Will Lukang</a>, <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">an Executive Director for a financial company and an Independent Coach with the <a href=\"http://johnmaxwellteam.com/\" target=\"_blank\">John Maxwell Team</a></span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Will was part of the original group of Lead Change Group members. </span>\n\nWill graduated from the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, Philippines with a BS in Commerce/Major in Accounting. In addition, he has an MBA in Information and Decision Technology Management from IONA College as well as a Master of Arts in Strategic Communication and Leadership from Seton Hall University.\n\nWill has over 26 years of experience in the Information Technology field. At one point in his career, he reports the strangest question he was asked in a job interview was, \"Why do you want my job?\" when he had not applied for the interviewer\'s position.\n\nThe best moment in his career occurred in 2008, when he recommended a direct report for a job within their company. The job would make the direct report Will\'s peer. He remarks, \"Learning to be unselfish and raise people around you is a challenge. It takes time for people to be comfortable in their skin and serve others.\"\n\nA leadership lesson Will learned from his first job was \"always give credit to your people.\" The best advice he\'s ever been given came from his father: treat everyone the same regardless of their social status.\n\nOn the topic of the most important qualities in leaders, Will believes that selflessness, honesty, and decisiveness are critical.\n\nWill thinks schools should teach students to think and make decisions. He says, \"We need to empower them to see solutions and make the right decisions.\"\n\nWhen asked about books he has found most helpful for his professional life, Will replied, \"<a href=\"https://www.amazon.com/Think-Grow-Rich-Napoleon-Hill/dp/1912032007/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1475002737&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=think+grow+rich\" target=\"_blank\">Think and Grow Rich</a> and <a href=\"https://www.amazon.com/21-Irrefutable-Laws-Leadership-Anniversary/dp/0785288376/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1475002774&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=21+Irrefutable+Laws+of+Leadership\" target=\"_blank\">The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership</a> were the most helpful books in my professional life.\"\n\nWhen asked the most creative solution he\'s ever seen to a problem in life or work, Will replied, \"There are many ways of solving a problem. Learning to step back and see through different lenses enables you to see various opportunities.\"\n\nIf he had to hashtag his life, Will would select #IWillAim, signifying \"I will aim to do the best I can to change the things around me to help make things better.\"\n\nOne of Will\'s favorite quotes is \"be the change you wish to see in the world\" by Mahatma Gandhi.\n\nWhen asked \"if money were no object, what would you do all day?\" he responded, \"serving and developing leaders all day. Also, setting up programs for less fortunate children to enable to change their future.\"\n\nOf his involvement in Lead Change, Will says, \"I connected with <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/instigators/mike-henry/\" target=\"_blank\">Mike Henry</a> on twitter and before you know it I was on a conference call with a group of people and co-authored a <a href=\"https://www.amazon.com/Character-Based-Leader-Instigating-Leadership-Revolution/dp/145751222X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1475001985&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=character+based+leader\" target=\"_blank\">book</a> with them. I\'m so honored to be part of this community.\"\n\nWe are so glad you made that connection with Mike Henry, Will. You\'re a valued part of our community!\n\n<em><strong>Editor\'s Note</strong> - You may ask, “How does one get chosen to be a featured Instigator?” The answer is simple. If you are already an Instigator, fill out <a href=\"https://cl182.infusionsoft.com/app/form/lcg-feature-questions\">this form</a> and continue to engage with the Lead Change Group on a regular basis. If you are not yet an Instigator, <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/join/\">sign up</a>. There are many benefits to being an Instigator – email us if you want more information.</em>\n\n<strong>Previous 2016 Featured Instigators:</strong>\n\n8/2016: <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/featured-instigator-susan-mazza/\" target=\"_blank\">Susan Mazza</a>\n\n7/2016: <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/featured-leading-voice-mike-henry-sr/\" target=\"_blank\">Mike Henry, Sr.</a>\n\n6/2016: <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/featured-leading-voice-mary-schaefer/\" target=\"_blank\">Mary Schaefer </a>\n\n5/2016: <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/featured-instigator-kevin-eikenberry/\" target=\"_blank\">Kevin Eikenberry</a>\n\n4/2016: <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/featured-leading-voice-chip-bell/\" target=\"_blank\">Chip Bell</a>\n\n3/2016: <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/featured-instigator-eunice-parisi-carew/\" target=\"_blank\">Eunice Parisi-Carew</a>\n\n2/2016: <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/featured-instigator-chris-edmonds/\" target=\"_blank\">Chris Edmonds</a>\n\n1/2016: <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/featured-instigator-marcella-bremer/\" target=\"_blank\">Marcella Bremer</a>\n\n&nbsp;', 'Featured Instigator: Will Lukang', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'featured-instigator-will-lukang', '', '', '2016-10-05 06:00:05', '2016-10-05 10:00:05', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31398', 0, 'post', '', 1),
(31406, 418, '2016-09-28 06:00:50', '2016-09-28 10:00:50', 'Let’s get one thing straight from the get-go: lose the word change “management.” You can’t manage change any more than you can manage the cycles of the tide and the phases of the moon. However, a leader can become masterful about thinking and acting in ways that are both strategic and tactical, upping the possibility for both buy in and relatively little disruption.\n\n<strong>Think:</strong> Will this change add value? Does it serve our stakeholders in the long term? Will it benefit the entire organization or only one part? For example, I was recently with a large public utility in the Midwest. After evaluating all the various operations, costs and longevity, it was determined that the nuclear plant needed to cease operations. This move will allow the utility to expand other energy resources, respond to community needs, and offer sustainability. However, it will impact a large number of employees.\n\n<strong>Act:</strong> What can be done to help those impacted by the change? What resources will be needed? Is the change so complex that we need resources for trial-and-error? Will new skills be required and therefore training is essential? Will relationships and roles change and thus need interpersonal skill development?\n\nIn the case of the utility, the organization has created a significant career center. Outreach into the surrounding communities has netted businesses looking for many of the specific skill sets. Not only are other businesses brought in to talk about what opportunities are available for displaced workers, but mentors have been set up, resume classes have been scheduled, career counseling is available. An outside firm has been engaged to help managers learn how to talk with and coach employees.\n\n<strong>THINK:</strong> What small steps can be taken to get the change moving. What are measurable goals? Have you made sure “rules” don’t hamper innovation? Change offers great opportunity to streamline, to create better processes, and to build fluid relationships and strategic alliances.\n\n<strong>ACT:</strong> Communicate and help people align. Listening is critical. Deep listening. Involve as many people as possible in sharing the why behind the change and the desired outcome. Make sure the values and the mission of the organization do NOT change. Remember to speak in plain language. Corporate speak is out.\n\nLastly, be flexible and honest enough to recognize when it is time to change again. However, frequent change, without letting the dust settle, is not only unnerving but also counter productive. It’s rather like moving the finishing line before one has a chance to savor success. Discouragement runs rampant. Enthusiasm goes down.\n\nRemember, change is but an announcement of “something.\" It is the transition to a new form that must take place and occupies people\'s minds and hearts. Trust serves as the critical underpinning for all change to be successful. The greater the trust, the easier it will be.\n\nWithout trust, frankly, you are already screwed!', 'How NOT to Screw Up Organizational Change', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'how-not-to-screw-up-organizational-change', '', '', '2016-09-28 06:00:50', '2016-09-28 10:00:50', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31406', 0, 'post', '', 2),
(31411, 273, '2016-10-21 06:00:16', '2016-10-21 10:00:16', 'After 15 years of working for other people, I quit my job—I finally realized I needed to do something on my own. I was frustrated and demoralized, my ideas were being marginalized and I wasn\'t waking up in the morning looking forward to a new day. With my wife, Paula, and our business partner at my side, I started a lecture agency, with no experience or real plan.\n\nBefore too long, other people were working for me. I wanted them to succeed and excel, to be engaged in the business and to take an active role in making it grow. Something I didn\'t experience myself.\n\nWhen, for the first time, you start your own company, you learn a lot of lessons quickly—or else you quickly fail. The first crucial lesson I learned is that it is easy to lead the wrong way.\n\nManaging and controlling every detail of what others do is not leadership. It squelches the human spirit, individual initiative and ideas, and it leaves people without a real stake in the company or themselves.\n\nWhat successful leaders do instead is establish guidelines and a moral compass by setting high standards—and then step back and lead by example, giving those guidelines and standards a chance to take root. The idea is to provide a creative atmosphere and to give everyone in the company the freedom to identify opportunities, and to make their own decisions and to take risks.\n\nOnly in this way can people have a sense of pride in their accomplishments and a claim of authorship in the organization’s success.\n\nTo pull this off, though, you must first establish an atmosphere of trust and faith. I learned this lesson by mistake. We were so excited to get our first exclusive speaker that we came to an agreement with a handshake. This was contrary to the industry practice of signing speakers to one- and two-year written contracts. This questionable decision turned out to be a defining moment for us. Our speaker could walk away from us at any time and we had to work hard to keep him happy. Immediately, this did two things. It established a bond of trust between us and the speaker, and it set an example (we can rely on each other) for our employees. For 35 years, every speaker agreement has been based on a handshake and the concept of trust, as a guiding principle, has been a foundation of our company.\n\nTo succeed, you also need a great product or service. We were not a company until we got our first speaker, and the future of our company has always depended on representing great speakers.\n\nFurther, you need an unflagging commitment to the highest quality and to a culture that embraces change. People and organizations get stale, and lose their competitive edge, when they don’t reinvent themselves and what they deliver.\n\nAnd you also have to reward people and pay them well. Employees want to feel that they have a future ahead of them. It is not only important to provide a good, creative environment in which to work but also a place where individual achievement results in individual happiness and satisfaction.\n\nTo be sure, the accomplishments of any staff may vary in frequency and magnitude—but entrepreneurial success will happen if you lead in the right way. I can’t tell you how many of the folks in my company think they are the best in the business—and they all are, in their own unique and special way. They are all passionate about what they do, which is what it takes to succeed today.\n\n<strong>ABOUT THE AUTHOR</strong>\n\nWashington DC-based Bernie Swain is co-founder of the Washington Speakers Bureau and today\'s foremost authority on the lecture industry. Over the past 35 years, Swain has represented former US Presidents, cabinet members, business executives, public figures, media leaders, and sports legends. His new book, <a href=\"bit.ly/BernieSwain\"><em>What Made Me Who I Am</em></a><em>,</em> is available everywhere.  For more, visit <a href=\"http://www.bernieswain.com/\">BernieSwain.com.</a>', 'Tapping The Entrepreneur in All of Us', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'tapping-the-entrepreneur-in-all-of-us', '', '', '2016-10-21 06:00:16', '2016-10-21 10:00:16', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31411', 0, 'post', '', 2),
(31459, 374, '2016-10-03 06:00:26', '2016-10-03 10:00:26', '<div class=\"message_content \">\n\nWe are grateful to have <a href=\"http://next-element.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Next Element</a> as our Lead Change Group sponsor for October! Next Element is a global advisory firm specializing in leadership communication. They have built an international reputation for establishing “what’s next” in the interpersonal communication field. In addition, they have enjoyed remarkable success on the world stage as Process Communication Model<sup>®</sup> leaders and pioneers.\n\nNext Element’s Leading Out of Drama<sup>®</sup> model for positive conflict is rapidly gaining traction worldwide as the next frontier for global leadership. Using this and other transformative communication strategies, Next Element equips leaders with influence to affect positive change in the environments where they are at work. Here is additional detail about their areas of work:\n\n</div>\n<h3>Next Element\'s Core Values</h3>\n<div class=\"message_content \">\n\nWhile we are excited about Next Element\'s products, we also sense a strong alignment with their core values:\n\n<strong>Compassionate Accountability</strong>, including creating environments of safety, curiosity, and consistency\n\n<strong>The Platinum Rule</strong>, including a focus on understanding individual needs\n\n<strong>Living Our Tools</strong>, incorporating positive interactions in all relationships\n\n<strong>Outcomes Measurement</strong>, emphasizing the connections between improved self-efficacy, change and achievement\n\n<strong>A Community of Support and Development</strong>, prioritizing a commitment to whole-person wellness, integrity and competence\n\n<img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-31481\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/next_element_share_02.png\" alt=\"next_element_share_02\" width=\"440\" height=\"220\" />\n<h3>The Core Values are Infused Throughout the Core Tools</h3>\n</div>\n<div class=\"message_content \">\n\n<strong>Leading Out of Drama</strong><sup>®</sup> is a curriculum which helps leaders transform the interpersonal and group dynamics that sabotage morale, engagement, and productivity.\n\n</div>\n<strong>The Drama Resilience Assessment™ (DRA™)</strong> is a confidential diagnostic tool with report and personalized action plan to help users lead out of drama.\n\n<strong>The Process Communication Model</strong><sup>®</sup> is an internationally acclaimed, highly reliable, behaviorally based communication model used ot individually tailor connection and motivation an build trust and rapport.\n\n<strong>NEOS</strong><sup>®</sup> measures changes in self-efficacy or belief in one\'s ability to respond to various life conditions. It\'s the world\'s first context-sensitive efficacy outcomes system.\n\n<strong>MyNE</strong> is a convenient, secure relationship portal for Next Element network providers. It is one of many support services Next Element offers to help build confidence and competence.\n<h3>Conflict Without Casualties</h3>\nNate Regier, CEO and Co-Founder of Next Element, has just released <a href=\"http://next-element.com/conflict-without-casualties/\" target=\"_blank\">Conflict Without Casualties</a>, a book that will transform both the way you see and feel about other people and the way you approach conflict and accountability. In it, he brings us the collective intelligence of Next Element to help readers replace the unrealistic, sometimes punishing, even crushing demands we exact on both our colleagues and loved ones with openness, resourcefulness and persistence.\n\n<img class=\"aligncenter wp-image-30994 size-medium\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Conflict-Without-Casualties-202x300.jpg\" alt=\"Conflict Without Casualties\" width=\"202\" height=\"300\" />\n<h3><strong>Conflict Isn\'t the Problem: A Webinar</strong></h3>\nOn Tuesday, October 18, at 1 pm ET, join Nate Regier and <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/instigators/becky-robinson/\" target=\"_blank\">Becky Robinson</a> to discuss Next Element\'s principles, to learn more about Conflict Without Casualties, and:\n<ul>\n 	<li>How to detect and decode drama in yourself and others.</li>\n 	<li>How conflict can be a creative force.</li>\n 	<li>Three core competencies for compassionate accountability.</li>\n 	<li>The formula for compassionate conflict.</li>\n</ul>\nTo register (it\'s free!), click <a href=\"http://weavinginfluence.com/events/conflict-isnt-the-problem-with-nate-regier/\" target=\"_blank\">here</a>.\n\n<img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-31482\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/next_element_webinar_share.png\" alt=\"next_element_webinar_share\" width=\"440\" height=\"220\" />\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Nate Regier says, \"Leading self and others out of drama with compassionate accountability starts and ends with emotional responsibility.\" We are energized by your approach, Nate and team, and excited to share the month of October with you.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Thank you again, Nate and Next Element, for your support of the Lead Change Group!</p>', 'Highlighting Our October Sponsor: Next Element', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'highlighting-our-october-sponsor-next-element', '', '', '2016-10-03 06:00:26', '2016-10-03 10:00:26', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31459', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(31487, 374, '2016-10-04 06:00:10', '2016-10-04 10:00:10', 'TRUST.\n\nMOTIVATION.\n\nCOLLABORATION.\n\nAre these the types of words that come to mind when you think about your experience of leading (or being led)?\n\nThere is plenty of leadership advice available in bookstores, online and in person. However, the kind of advice <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stephen M.R. Covey, founder of the FranklinCovey Global Speed of Trust Practice, and Art Barter, creator of the Servant Leadership Institute, are equipped to give is rare and more likely than most leadership workshops to guarantee growth of your organization (if you and your organization are willing to put in the work). </span>\n<h3>Trust Breeds Results</h3>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As Art Barter grew Datron World Communications from a $10 million company to a $200 million company in six years, he became convinced that a core leadership principle had to be serving and trusting others. He saw how distrust in a company was a waste of time and energy. He concurs with Stephen M.R. Covey: when trust goes down, processes are slower and costs go up. People spend more time double- checking work and finding faults in others. That\'s no way to get results.</span>\n<h3>Servant Leadership and the Speed of Trust</h3>\nWe are excited to help the Servant Leadership Institute get the word out about <a href=\"http://servantleadershipinstitute.cvent.com/events/servant-leadership-at-the-speed-of-trust-with-art-barter-and-stephen-m-r-covey/event-summary-9bb0c171973042cd94112c906ac39cd7.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Servant Leadership and the Speed of Trust</a> event and to offer a special promotional code for a discounted enrollment.\n\nThis half-day leadership conference will show attendees how to employ servant leadership to create and maintain a work environment that is trusting and highly motivating, where employees work collaboratively to fulfill organizations’ mission and purpose, and where people trust one another.\n<h4>Specifically, attendees will:</h4>\n<ul>\n 	<li>discover how to master the skill of engineering trust;</li>\n 	<li>learn how trust is hard, real, and quantifiable, and a function of character and competence;</li>\n 	<li>learn how servant leadership can improve employee engagement and company culture;</li>\n 	<li>discover the foundation of servant leadership;</li>\n 	<li>compare and contrast the behaviors of a servant leader; and,</li>\n 	<li>understand how behavior impacts character, relationships, and trust.</li>\n</ul>\n<strong>Here are the details:</strong>\n\n<b>WHERE:</b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Concordia University, DeNault Auditorium, 1530 Concordia West, Irvine, California 92612</span>\n\n<b>WHEN:</b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Friday, October 14, 2016, 7:15 AM - 12:45 PM</span>\n\n<b>HOW:</b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Register online</span><a href=\"http://servantleadershipinstitute.cvent.com/events/servant-leadership-at-the-speed-of-trust-with-art-barter-and-stephen-m-r-covey/event-summary-9bb0c171973042cd94112c906ac39cd7.aspx\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">here</span></a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <em>To save $100, please enter the code 100OFF at registration. This code expires October 10.</em></span>\n\n<img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-31488\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/SLI.jpeg\" alt=\"sli\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" />\n\nThe Servant Leadership Institute is recognized by SHRM to offer Professional Development Credits (PDC\'s) for the SHRM-CPSM or SHRM-SCPSM. This program is valid for 3 PDC\'s for the SHRM-CPSM or SHRM-SCPSM.\n\nThis program has been approved for 3 (General) HR Recertification credit hours toward PHR, SPHR, and GPHR recertification through the HR Certification Institute.\n<h3>Help Those You Lead Write a Different Story</h3>\nArt Barter believes that the real measure of a servant leader lies in the stories of those they have influenced. We believe that this leadership conference can help you write another critical chapter in your own story of influence. Please join the conference if you are in the area or pass this along to someone who may be interested.\n\n<img class=\"aligncenter wp-image-31490\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/pablo-SLI-october-1-2016-300x150.png\" alt=\"pablo-sli-october-1-2016\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" />', 'Servant Leadership at the Speed of Trust', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'servant-leadership-at-the-speed-of-trust', '', '', '2016-10-04 06:00:10', '2016-10-04 10:00:10', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31487', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(31510, 274, '2016-10-03 16:10:39', '2016-10-03 20:10:39', 'The Lead Change Group is thankful to <a href=\"http://www.leadershipandchangemagazine.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Leadership and Change Magazine</a> for hosting the October 2016 Leadership Development Carnival.\n\n<a href=\"https://twitter.com/MarcellaBremer\" target=\"_blank\">Marcella Bremer</a> of <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MarcellaBremer\" target=\"_blank\">Leadership and Change Magazine</a> called the October collection of posts a \"treasure chest filled with jewels, pearls, and gems that will brighten your work life.\" We agree!\n\nPlease visit the full carnival post <a href=\"http://www.leadershipandchangemagazine.com/leadership-development-carnival-october-2016/\" target=\"_blank\">here</a> to peruse all of this month\'s posts.\n\nEach of the contributors would appreciate a visit to their articles, and we would be grateful if you would share the carnival among your contacts. You can easily tweet your support by using our simple <a href=\"http://ctt.ec/JMedn\" target=\"_blank\">click to tweet</a> feature.\n\nThe Lead Change Group will be hosting the November 2016 Leadership Development Carnival so stay tuned for our call for submissions in the coming weeks. We will look forward to another tremendous month!\n\nThank you to <a href=\"http://next-element.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Next Element</a>, October Lead Change Group sponsor, for its support of this Leadership Development Carnival.', 'October 2016 Leadership Development Carnival', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'august-2016-leadership-development-carnival-2', '', '', '2016-10-03 16:10:39', '2016-10-03 20:10:39', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/august-2016-leadership-development-carnival-2/', 0, 'post', '', 0);
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(31518, 343, '2016-11-18 06:00:28', '2016-11-18 11:00:28', 'I was absolutely shocked when the CEO of a small organization told me why she couldn\'t be more effective.\n\nShe told me that she spent about 80% of her time involved in employee behavior issues which left little time for her to focus on the basic needs of the company. What added insult to her injury was that it was only a small portion (10%) of her staff members who were chewing up the majority of her time and energy.\n\nUnfortunately this type of workforce dynamic happens far more often that it should. As leaders, we should be allowing the best of employee behaviors to drive the culture and operations, and not allowing negative behaviors to drag things down.\n\nWhat this CEO needed to do what transition her focus to the core part of the staff who will produce the biggest change in culture and productivity. She needed to not focus on the detractors, but not necessarily on the top performing employees either.\n\nJeffrey J. Fox in his book, <a href=\"https://www.amazon.com/How-Become-Great-Boss-Employees/dp/0786868236\" target=\"_blank\">How To Become A Great Boss</a>, suggests that one should spend 90% of their time on their best people. While his theory on maximizing the stronger points of your top performers makes a good deal of sense, it falls short of those in the middle.\n\nThe most effective leaders will spend more time on the so-called \"passive\" employees to build a stronger team and workforce. Passive employees make up the bulk of your talent, and therefore should require the bulk of your focus.\n\nAnyone familiar with the Net Promoter Score system for customer feedback will know that there are 3 types of customers: Promoters, Detractors, and Passives. While this system measures the variety of customers exposed to your brand, it\'s also a solid classification of your employee base as well.\n\nTo define these better:\n<ul>\n 	<li><strong>Promoters</strong> - These are your most committed and engaged staff members. They get the vision, are \"all in\" and give stellar performance consistently. They will view, and speak of, the company in a more positive light and are your best ambassadors.</li>\n 	<li><strong>Detractors</strong> - These folks are truly disengaged. Many times they are just going through the motions and give lip service up front. But behind your back, they give negative vibes to your customers and a few may even resort to various methods of sabotage. Some may be actively looking to leave, but many stay on and take away from the company more than they give.</li>\n 	<li><strong>Passives</strong> - Your \"on the fence\" staff, these are people who most likely want to do a good job, but are easily swayed by whichever voice is the strongest - Promoters or Detractors. These are people truly want to do a good job, but get lost between the Promoters and the Detractors.</li>\n</ul>\nThe NPS system for customers shows 60% Detractors, 20% Passives, and 20% Promoters. In my experience, the typical workforce is about 20% Detractors, 20% Promoters, and 60% Passives.\n\nIf you want to build a truly great team and change the workplace culture with your people, you need to focus on the passives more than any other group. This is where 60% of your workforce lies, and it makes sense to focus on the largest population of your people. The following is an example that proves this.\n\nI worked for a large entertainment company and went through an internal restructuring designed to foster more front line customer service. We broke out most of my team from the other areas and hired a few from outside the company to round out the staff.\n\nWhat we got from most of the other areas were people they did not want, and we had what one supervisor said were the \"cast offs.\" We quickly discovered that many of these people never received the proper attention or training that they deserved.\n\nWe had a short period to get the team together before peak business volume. We had to rely on my top Promoters to dive in and help get operations settled, and I rallied my supervisor staff to focus on getting the Passives to learn everything they could so they had solid footing under them, as there was no time to lose.\n\nDuring this process, a number of Detractors started to pull away our focus for a variety of different reasons. We didn\'t know these folks were Detractors at the time - I had viewed that everyone needed our full attention to training and didn\'t see anyone in a negative light. But as the days went on it became evident they were pulling on the other end of the rope.\n\nThe solution? While we dealt with the Detractors firmly and fairly - some of them we groomed and some of them we \"broomed\" - we kept the focus on training our Passives. And then two things started to occur that amazed me.\n\nFirst, many of our Passive staff started to become Promoters. Because of the vested time and value we placed on them, they started to engage and were thrilled that we believed that they could contribute. No one ever took the time to build them up before. Their performance dramatically improved and our sales started to take off.\n\nBut the most amazing change to the team is we started to see some of the Detractors slide into Passive, then Promoter types. They realized that <a href=\"http://upwardsleader.com/2014/10/29/keeping-a-mission-critical-focus/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">our mission was so critical</a>, and our customers the priority, that they changed their attitudes, their behaviors, and their focus. They also, incidentally, started to feel they were missing out on some exciting things by not going \"all in.\" We were creating a dynamic and fun team, and they wanted to be a part of something big.\n\nWe set some sales and profitability records as a result of this, but the biggest achievement was in building a strong team culture by taking the lion\'s share of the staff and putting the lion\'s share of our focus into them.\n\n<strong>Leaders, set the tone for your people. Show that everyone is valued. Don\'t overlook the Passives in your organization. Or the Detractors either. Yes, you will always have some Detractors (as I did still back then), but in setting a bigger vision for the company and their role within it you will create an amazing dynamic within your team.</strong>\n\n(One note: always use wisdom and discernment from calling or labeling your people. Performance-based behaviors should never take away from the intrinsic value that anyone and everyone can bring to the organization.)', 'Passive Employees Are Your Key To Success', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'passive-employees-are-your-key-to-success', '', '', '2016-11-18 06:00:28', '2016-11-18 11:00:28', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31518', 0, 'post', '', 4),
(31521, 439, '2016-12-16 06:00:27', '2016-12-16 11:00:27', 'Leadership is a nebulous concept. I mean, we all know when we’ve got a good leader or when the person in charge doesn’t know what they’re doing. But that’s not the same as defining leadership. I mean, there are leaders that are outspoken and there are leaders who listen patiently. There are leaders who lead from the front and there are leaders who are more hands off.\n\nAll of those can be great leaders.\n\nAt the same time, there must be some concepts that unite good leaders, right? Right. Here we’re going to list some of the habits a leader must have to be able to able to be a good leader. Cultivate these and you’re <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/developing-leaders/\">cultivating a leader</a>.\n<h3>They can make decisions</h3>\nA leader that doesn’t make a decision isn’t a leader. They’re a figurehead. The very first quality that is essential for leadership is that they can, at the end of the day, make the call – whether it be right or wrong.\n\nOf course, how they arrive at that call will be very different. Some people can make calls as if they’re deciding what to order in a restaurant. Others will need to agonize, consider, weigh and repeat. The path they take will differ. What matters is that they get there (and that they do so on time).\n<h3>They know themselves</h3>\nKnow thyself might be some of the oldest advice out there (<a href=\"http://www.coastal.edu/ashes2art/delphi2/misc-essays/oracle_of_delphi.html\">the Oracle of Delphi originally said it</a>), but that does not make it any less important.\n\nIf you don’t know yourself then how are you going to know where you need help and where you should trust your own instincts? For this reason, exceptional leaders are always striving to understand themselves, to grasp their weaknesses and to utilize their strengths.\n\nIn fact, great leaders use their strengths to compensate for their weaknesses. Exceptional leaders turn their weaknesses into strengths. What do I mean with that? If a leader isn’t good at something (for example they aren’t well organized) then they will use that to bring their team together.\n\nThey will accept their weakness and work together with other members of their team to compensate for that. In this way, the team members that help them in that regard feel valued and like they’re an important part of the team. The weakness of the leader has become a strength for the team.\n<h3>They communicate well</h3>\nIn effect, communication is two separate abilities that, though interlaced, aren’t necessarily the same thing.\n\nThese are:\n<ul>\n 	<li>The ability to listen</li>\n 	<li>The ability to explain</li>\n</ul>\nThey’re equally important. After all, as a leader, you have to accept that you don’t know everything. That’s what you’ve got people for. They can tell you things, be it about the facts on the ground or how they feel about them.\n\nIf you don’t listen, you’re going to miss out on valuable information. Not just that, you’re going to end up with frustrated employees. After all, if we don’t feel like we’re being listened to, then we don’t feel our input is being valued.\n\nListening alone is not enough, however. Sometimes decisions have to be made that people do not agree with – possibly because they go against their own best interests. In moments like these, the ability to explain the why and the how of it is vitally important. That’s the only way to avoid resentment, stress, and intergroup conflict.\n<h3>They have a destination</h3>\nA great leader can’t be reactive. They have to be proactive. They have to have long-term goals, and these goals have to be inspirational.\n\nThey must have clearly defined goals on paper, so that they can share them and those that work for them can understand them.\n\nSometimes leaders seem to think that if they have a plan in their head, that’s enough. It isn’t. The actual act of writing it down is vitally important, as the act of writing them down exposes leaps of logic and mistakes in thinking that are easily overlooked when goals are just thought about. You may feel uncomfortable writing down your goals for the first time but practice is the key to improving your writing skills - be persistent and you will notice the benefits soon enough.\n<h3>They accept blame</h3>\nWhen things go wrong, an exceptional leader accepts responsibility – even if it isn’t really their fault. In this way, they shield those below them from the wrath from up high.\n\nThis is incredibly important, because only when employees feel protected do they feel capable of experimenting, coming up with new ideas and trying the new things that will make a team go from ordinary to truly exceptional.\n\nThe leader, in other words, creates a safe environment by putting themselves in the way of any negative feedback that might come the team’s way.\n<h3>They give credit where it’s due</h3>\nWhen things are done well, the leader doesn’t say \"look how well I did.\" They say \"look how well we worked together.\" This means giving credit to the people that have done well, both within the team and higher up the ladder.\n\nIt also means they take the time to recognize the contribution of every person – whether they’re loud or quiet. In fact, exceptional leaders go out of their way to make certain the quiet ones get the respect they deserve, because they know that once they’ve got the loyalty of the quiet ones and the introverts, they’ll have a loyalty that is far deeper and more meaningful.\n<h3>They have infectious passion</h3>\nPassion is an important quality in a leader, but it alone is not enough. It has to be a passion that can infect others so that they too become driven to reach the ambitions and the goals of the leader.\n\nWith infectious passion, people don’t mind working late and working hard. Without it, they’ll be spending more time watching the clock than actually doing what they’re supposed to do. With passion, people become more creative and effective.\n\nA leader must care about what they’re doing and be able to give that passion to the people that they work with so that the group can work as one, with one mindset, towards the goals of the team and of the company.\n<h3>Last words</h3>\nLeadership comes in many forms. The only time it’s great, however, is when it’s outwardly focused and the leader is able to share what they have with those around them. Great leadership is the ability to hold a group together, to motivate the different parties and avoid the strife that can tear less well-led groups apart.\n\nLeadership is prosocial. It makes people – both the leader and those that work with them – better. It advances the goals of the group and manages to turn \"me\" into \"us.\" With that, an exceptional leader can create an exceptional team. Without it, they will only ever be a group of individuals.', '7 Tips on Becoming an Exceptional Leader', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', '7-tips-on-becoming-an-exceptional-leader', '', '', '2016-12-16 06:00:27', '2016-12-16 11:00:27', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31521', 0, 'post', '', 2),
(31530, 252, '2016-10-07 06:00:36', '2016-10-07 10:00:36', 'Recognition is a tricky thing. Employee motivations can vary. The ways people want to be recognized can vary just as much.\n<h3>Know your audience</h3>\nOne sunny day several years ago I was so excited to give a co-worker a recognition award. The process involved her receiving a check, a certificate and getting her picture taken with the head honcho. Little did I know that my co-worker was horrified at the thought of having her picture taken. She disappeared down the back stairs of the building. My attempt to recognize her backfired in a big way.\n\nI’ve flubbed a few more times. I’ve also heard stories where people don’t get recognized for what’s meaningful for them. Then they get recognized for something that means nothing to them.\n<h3>Broaden your interpretation</h3>\nLet’s dig into the meaning of the root of recognition -- that is, to recognize. This can be defined as:\n<blockquote>To acknowledge the existence or validity</blockquote>\nIt’s like when you see someone in public who is vaguely familiar. It may be a former classmate or co-worker. You might greet them with, “I recognize you!” In other words, “I know you. I see you.”\n<h3>I see you</h3>\nThe need to be seen is very human. Just check David Rock’s work about human needs in social interactions. He says when we are approached our brains immediately scan for the likely outcome. Will it be a threat or a reward? (Both words are defined broadly here.)\n\nIf we apply his model, we can connect the need to be seen to our need as humans for status and relatedness. Are the people in your sphere being “seen” by you? Are you getting enough acknowledgement where you are?\n<h3>Reimagine recognition</h3>\n“To recognize” at work can look like this:\n<ul>\n 	<li>You call an employee to your office and know they might worry about it. You allay their fears if possible.</li>\n 	<li>You told a co-worker you would do something. You didn’t follow through. You acknowledge it, apologize and make it right.</li>\n 	<li>You know something you just said in that meeting puts your boss in a tight spot. You contact them as quickly as possible to give them a heads-up. You recognize the effect of your actions on another.</li>\n</ul>\nYour acknowledgement lets them know you can put yourself in their place. Taking action shows you recognize the role you can play to make the situation better for them. Bothering to take action demonstrates their “status” and “relatedness” to you, to use David Rock’s words. It creates goodwill and trust.\n<h3>Don’t underestimate the impact of making the effort \"to recognize\"</h3>\nIt was a day full of dread. It was the second time in a few years that my job was at stake during a downsizing. My boss called each of us to tell us what the process would be on notification day. He would visit each of us in our own office to tell us whether we had a job.\n\nI remember him coming in my office and shutting the door. He immediately sat down and told me that I still had a job, and then he listed the reasons he valued me and chose to keep me on.\n\nIn my 20-year corporate career I experienced 8 downsizing events. That is the only case where I remember vividly how my boss told me I still had a job.\n\nYou might think it is a peculiar view of recognition, but I felt so seen and appreciated that day. You are probably aware of these messages being delivered in thoughtless ways. I believe what my boss did that day was extraordinary, particularly under those circumstances.\n\nHe knew what was going to be on my mind, and the minds of those who lost their jobs that day. He thought through how he was going to deliver each message ahead of time.\n<h3>Recognition is more than money or an award</h3>\nYou can define what my boss did different ways, but don’t take for granted that your employees will feel “recognized” when you demonstrate you truly see them, no matter what the message. You are recognizing and preserving their dignity\n\nVisible, tangible recognition is important. Recognition and reward via financial compensation is exciting. Research also shows that the boost from a raise or promotion is short lived. Attending to your employees’ human need to be seen is one of the best investments you can make.', 'Another Way You Can Get Recognition Right', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'another-way-you-can-get-recognition-right', '', '', '2016-10-07 06:00:36', '2016-10-07 10:00:36', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31530', 0, 'post', '', 1),
(31546, 273, '2016-10-17 06:00:23', '2016-10-17 10:00:23', '<div>\n\n<em>This post is part of our 2016 Lead Change Group Guest Blogger Series. Today we are pleased to share a post from leadership coach and author Kimunya Mugo.</em>\n\nThis was completely new. Waking up every morning was a major struggle. It was like someone  glued my eyes shut every night. My mind was tired, my body wrecked and my spirit crushed.\n\n</div>\n<div></div>\n<div>\n\nFor two months, I survived through life. Even my most pleasurable activities like writing felt like swallowing. All I wanted to do was… nothing actually! It was frustrating and confusing. Let me just say I wasn\'t particularly fun to be with.\n\nAt my wits end, I began to talk about my frustration with my wife, then a few friends. One, a psychologist, gave me a damning verdict.\n\n</div>\n<div></div>\n<div>\n\n“You are experiencing burnout,” he said.\n\nWhat? I thought burnout was for stressed-out employees. I continued to lie to myself that strength and fortitude lay in me. However, my research that evening confirmed my worst fear. I was exhibiting all the <a href=\"http://www.helpguide.org/articles/stress/preventing-burnout.htm\" target=\"_blank\">classic symptoms of burnout</a>.\n\n</div>\n<div>How did I find myself in the quicksand of burnout? I had lost focus of my life\'s purpose. I had buried my head so deep into developing my business that I forgot to take care of other aspects of my life. Just then, I looked up at my whiteboard. There, glaring back at me, were the five words that summarized my purpose: Live, Love, Lead, Leverage and Legacy.</div>\n<div></div>\n&nbsp;\n<blockquote>\n<div>\"The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others.” ~ Albert Schweitzer</div></blockquote>\n<div></div>\n<div>I could not agree more with Albert Schweitzer. My focus had blurred into selfishness. And in that darkness, I had lost my purpose.</div>\n&nbsp;\n<div></div>\n<h3><b>Live</b></h3>\n<div>Real life is about the small things that, when brought together, bring us fullness. By focusing on only one area of my existence, everything else broke down. I was too busy to exercise or eat well. My alarm bells began to go off when I developed stress sores in my mouth. They were a painful reminder of how deep into the woods my life had gone.</div>\n<div><b> </b></div>\n<h3><b>Love</b></h3>\n<div>\n\nBuilding a new business is no easy feat. I spent more and more hours developing content for my blog or courses. For me, I draw a lot of energy from my family. Relating well with my wife and children invigorates me. However, I was progressively spending less time with them. My energy banks were depleted while my love for life dissipated like a mist in the sun.\n<h3><b>Lead</b></h3>\n<div>In my desire to win at my business, everything else took a break. I was so \"focused\" on myself that I forgot all about one of my key pillars: leadership. The few clients I had were not receiving the attention they required. Sometimes, I felt like my family was a bother. “Don’t they see how hard I am working to provide for them?” I lied to myself. Then I remembered a quote that sobered me up: “Whomever thinks they are leading but has no followers is only taking a walk!\"</div>\n<div></div>\n&nbsp;\n<h3><b>Leverage</b></h3>\n<div>The quality of anyone’s life is a reflection of meaningful connections with other people. So deep was I buried my busy-ness that I completely neglected to nurture those relationships. Note that I did not mention anything about networking. In reality, my business suffered. I should have focused on deepening my existing relationships. Looking back, that could have helped me deal better with my burnout.\n<br />\n<h3><b>Legacy</b></h3>\n<div>\"What am I leaving in the people I engage with?” I asked myself. If the focus in on me, then is life worth living? I’d like to believe that everything that I do has a purpose. And that is to make people’s lives better. I always want others to be inspired and grow. To help them along their journey to character and faith. And here I was messing up what I had already done by losing sight of my purpose.</div>\n<div></div>\n&nbsp;\n<blockquote>\n<div>\"Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing.”~ Thomas A. Edison</div></blockquote>\n<div></div>\n<div>As I reflect on these words, I can’t help but shudder at a life without purpose. Or a business that just drifts along in its busy-ness. Or a community that exists just because no one is rocking the boat. It was my rude awakening.</div>\n&nbsp;\n<div></div>\n<div><img class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-30262\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kimunya-mugo-e1465001861521-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"kimunya mugo\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" />Kimunya Mugo is a leadership coach, communication specialist and author. He helps motivated but overwhelmed individuals and organizations regain their purpose to lead so they can focus on what matters most to build a transformational legacy. You can follow more of Kimunya on his <a href=\"http://www.leadbychoice.co/\" target=\"_blank\">blog.</a></div>\n</div>', 'How Losing Focus Threw Me Off Track', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'how-losing-focus-threw-me-off-track', '', '', '2016-10-17 06:00:23', '2016-10-17 10:00:23', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31546', 0, 'post', '', 3),
(31550, 440, '2016-10-24 06:00:52', '2016-10-24 10:00:52', 'Conflict has a bad rap. When I ask audiences what’s the first thing that comes to mind when they hear the word “conflict,” I usually get answers like, “run away,” “somebody gets hurt,” “I hate it,” “fighting,” or “war.” Most people have negative associations with conflict, usually from personal experience. Maybe it is from growing up in a home where conflict turned nasty and people got hurt. Maybe it’s from working in environments where people use passive-aggressive tactics to get what they want when there’s conflict. Just look around our world today to see the casualties caused by negative conflict.\n\nI grew up the son of Mennonite missionary parents. Mennonites are a protestant denomination known for their work in peace and nonviolent conflict resolution. The early messages I received growing up were, “Turn the other cheek,” or “Find another way to solve your problem without resorting to violence.” My parents dedicated their lives to building more peaceful and uplifting relationships.\n\nMy formal education includes a PhD in clinical psychology, certification as a conflict mediator, and advanced training in communication models to reduce conflict. I’m no stranger to conflict having grown up in Botswana, a country neighboring South Africa during apartheid, having worked in addictions treatment and marital counseling, and having spent the past 12 years working with executive leaders who often have a very distorted view of what conflict is and how to handle it. Throughout this experience, I’ve discovered four myths about conflict resolution that can help point us to better solutions than the ones we’ve been using.\n<h3><strong>Myth # 1: Peace is the absence of conflict</strong></h3>\nDon’t confuse peace with tranquility. Don’t confuse lack of shouting with the absence of conflict. I’ve experienced many families, churches, and organizations who claim to be peaceful just because they don’t raise their voices and they “agree to disagree.” Yet the amount of violence in these communities rivals a war zone. Passive-aggressive gossip, manipulation, avoidance, withholding information, and power plays are the rules of the game.\n\nPeace is an active, dynamic, and generative process that requires healthy conflict. If peace means we are getting along, cooperating, and not hurting each other, then we can’t get there without addressing our differences and disagreements. Diversity was built into the universe from the beginning. Embracing and working with it is the only way towards peace, and this involves conflict.\n<h3><strong>Myth # 2: Conflict is destructive</strong></h3>\nIt can be, but it doesn’t have to be. Mythologist, poet, and psychologist Michael Meade believes that the purpose of conflict is to create. If we define conflict simply as a gap between what we want and what we are experiencing, then the real question becomes, “How are we going to close the gap?” The way we go about using the energy created by conflict can be destructive or constructive. Ford Motor Company used the energy of conflict during the 2009 recession to reinvent themselves and grow profits without taking bailouts. For Wells Fargo, some of the energy caused by the gap between what they were earning and what their shareholders wanted was used to illegally sign up thousands of customers for services they didn’t ask for.\n<h3><strong>Myth # 3: Conflict should be reduced, managed, avoided, or controlled</strong></h3>\nConflict generates energy. Have you ever wanted something that you didn’t have? Did you feel the energy contained in your discomfort? What did you do? Did you use that energy to work towards your goal? Have you ever solved a big problem or achieved a significant goal, and then had that anticlimactic let down? It’s because the energy of conflict was gone. The solution; set a new goal, create another gap, generate more conflict.\n\nThe problem with conflict reduction, mediation, or management philosophies is that they make conflict out to be the culprit. Conflict isn’t the problem. Conflict is the source of energy. The problem is the casualties caused when we misuse that energy. Any efforts to remove the conflict will necessarily reduce the creative potential.This is why I believe the misuse of conflict is the greatest energy crisis facing our world.\n<h3><strong>Myth # 4: Compassion leads to less conflict</strong></h3>\nMany people misunderstand compassion to be about empathy, sympathy, caring, support, and doing good for others. The Latin root of the word means “to struggle (or suffer) with.” Compassion definitely includes a heartfelt care for another; however, this caring is translated into co-suffering. Compassion means to get in the trenches with another person, suffer together, and share in the difficult responsibility of creating something amazing through conflict. Compassion does not mean doing it for them, rescuing them, or avoiding accountability.\n\nWe’ve pioneered strategies for Compassionate Accountability, the process of using conflict to create by balancing mutual accountability with dignity and respect. In our work, compassion leads to more conflict; good conflict. I believe that compassion means you care enough to engage in creative conflict with someone.\n\nDo you believe in any of these conflict resolution myths? How does it affect your ability to negotiate conflict? By challenging these myths you can begin reframing your approach to conflict and generate positive results. You don’t have to shy away from conflict. Use the energy to create something amazing today!', 'Four Myths About Conflict Resolution', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'four-myths-about-conflict-resolution', '', '', '2016-10-24 06:00:52', '2016-10-24 10:00:52', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31550', 0, 'post', '', 5),
(31552, 414, '2016-11-17 06:00:00', '2016-11-17 11:00:00', 'Leadership is putting a face to management science. A good leader is an able manager. And an able manager is someone who can recruit, hire, train, and mentor. He or she is someone who can motivate, engage, and monitor. And he or she has the ability to envision, plan, clarify, evaluate, and revise.\n\nUnfortunately, this is not what many leaders do. They are more focused on disciplining than directing, and more interested in rebuking than reinforcing. This preoccupation with <a href=\"https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/243098\">acting more like a parent</a> than a manager means that talent is not recognized, budgets go awry, and strategic alliances fail.\n\n<em><strong>It takes courage to be a leader, and it takes unusual character and intelligence to be a good one</strong></em>.\n\nWith that in mind, here are a few things that good leaders do to keep an eye on their company and guide it in the right direction:\n<h3><strong>1. Good leaders get things done.</strong></h3>\nA leader makes sure that business processes work the way they should. They ensure that each department follows best practices so that all departments can work in harmony. They make sure that marketing efforts are producing enough leads and that sales managers are converting a reasonable percentage of these leads into sales. They know if the accounting department is lowering the company’s effective tax rate by <a href=\"http://www.adp.com/solutions/large-business/services/tax-and-compliance/tax-credits.aspx\"><u>using tax credits and incentives</u></a>. They understand if Human Resources is hiring the right people, nurturing talent, and building an engaged workforce. All it takes is for a few business processes to go awry for a concatenation of problems to adversely affect a company.\n<h3><strong>2. Good leaders serve.</strong></h3>\nService runs both ways. While employees are hired to manage the diverse tasks in a business, leaders also need to serve employees to do their work well. Leaders should remove obstacles, eliminate distractions, and remove excuses. They should source resources and streamline processes. By making it easier for talent to flourish, the entire company prospers.\n<h3><strong>3. Good leaders model character.</strong></h3>\nLeaders who fail to lead are usually weakened by some personal character flaw, and these could range from philandering to misogyny and from arrogance to indecisiveness. In a leadership role, all personal idiosyncrasies are magnified and affect how a company works. It’s not enough to pose as an alpha male leader or a woman leader who can be as intractable as a man; you have to go beyond posturing. Nobody respects leaders who lack courage and vision, who can’t focus on what needs to be done or endure setbacks. Posturing is a sham, and vain leaders can’t hope to fool all employees all the time.\n<h3><strong>4. Good leaders champion their people.</strong></h3>\nA leader who does not stand up for their employees or their customers, who buckles under pressure from the board of directors to take shortcuts and pursue quick profits over long-term growth, will not win respect. By championing people who have been treated with injustice or undeserved and by fighting for ideas worth developing, a leader develops clout.\n<h3><strong>5. Good leaders are knowledgeable and experienced.</strong></h3>\nWhile it’s almost impossible to be an expert in everything, from technology to tax codes, a good leader should know enough to be able to make informed decisions. Good leaders study. They do their homework; they don’t act out of ignorance or pass the buck. They aren’t technophobes or advocates of old school methodology. They know what’s going on in their company, their industry, and in the global marketplace. They may not be subject experts in a particular aspect of a business, but they know enough to recognize foolish ideas and choose a wise course of action.\n<h3><strong>6. Good leaders talk to their people.</strong></h3>\nIt’s easy enough to hide behind a large desk in an isolated office, protected by a secretary and executing orders through senior managers, but good leaders are approachable and talk to their people. Sam Walton, for example, sat with truckers in break rooms to get a down-to-earth understanding of logistics. Ultimately, leadership is about paying attention—not only to the work that has to be done, but the people who are doing the work.\n<h3><strong>7. Good leaders are open minded.</strong></h3>\nA good leader is approachable, open, and receptive. He or she understands that change is the dynamic principle behind the universe. A fixed view of how markets work and business should run is dangerous. In a world of rapid innovation, it’s easy for a new company to become a market leader. Many leaders at the top corporations in the mobile phone market weren’t even aware that Steve Jobs’s <a href=\"https://www.wired.com/2008/01/ff-iphone/\">iPhone was revolutionary enough to blow up the wireless industry</a>. They thought the iPhone was more of a toy than a serious piece of communication technology. They were taken completely by surprise when Apple quickly assumed a dominant position in the marketplace.\n<h3><b>Mastering Management Science</b></h3>\nWhile many people aspire to be leaders, they don’t understand that it’s much more than simply taking charge of a company. There are innumerable aspects of big business that leaders need to monitor. Leadership by personality is often reckless. Good leadership calls for mastery of many aspects of management science.\n\nWhen leadership fails, it’s because the role of leader is seen as the route to power and prestige, a way to squelch critics and favor supporters. Leaders who are in it for the glory are less interested in spreadsheets and more interested in distributing communiques.\n\nLeaders who are in it for the purpose of helping grow others demonstrate these seven qualities consistently, and it shows.', '7 Qualities Of Outstanding Leaders', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', '7-qualities-of-outstanding-leaders', '', '', '2016-11-17 06:00:00', '2016-11-17 11:00:00', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31552', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(31554, 374, '2016-10-13 13:00:30', '2016-10-13 17:00:30', '“I wish I could show you, when you are lonely or in darkness, the astonishing light of your own being.” ~ Hafiz of Shiraz\n\nA story from my early adulthood:\n\nSomeone I loved, one of the first young men I had felt intensely about, had broken up with me in a rather spectacular and dramatic (to me) way. Whether or not his delivery was spectacular and dramatic, the result was that I was spectacularly and dramatically devastated. I was even more devastated when my mom said, \"it doesn\'t matter.\"\n\nBeing a mom myself now, I have a different perspective on where she was coming from. She knew that it was likely that 30 years later I would look back on the incident as less spectacular and dramatic than it was at the time. (For the record, he and I are the best of friends today.) The problem was: the sequence of events may not have mattered for the long term but at that moment, splayed out on her bed in hysterics, the immediate issue was that I felt that <strong>I did not matter</strong>.\n<h3>We All Want to Know We Matter</h3>\nCheryl Rice, creator of the <a href=\"https://youmattermarathon.com/\" target=\"_blank\">You Matter Marathon</a>, has discovered through personal experience that there is magic in connecting with friends, family, and strangers by simply sharing one card stating two words: YOU MATTER. This brief video demonstrates her vision.\n\nhttps://youtu.be/lkORrO-I8gk\n\nCheryl has created the You Matter Marathon, during which people all around the globe will each commit to distributing one \"You Matter\" card each day in November. The current participant count is up to 6000 people in 26 countries sharing 100,000+ cards.\n<h3>The Lead Change Community Discusses How to Spread the You Matter Message</h3>\nI asked around among friends, colleagues, strangers, and anyone with an opinion to find out what makes them feel they matter, or how they like to share a \"you matter\" message with those in their lives.\n\nHugs and other gestures of reassurance were popular. \"Spending time together\" also garnered a vote. And as we now know from this post, another option is giving someone a \"You Matter\" card.\n<h3>More Thoughts On Mattering</h3>\nI looked back at the writing of our Lead Change community contributors and a few passages stood out.\n\nIn his post, <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/rewards-and-recognition-done-right/\" target=\"_blank\">Rewards and Recognition Done Right</a>, <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/author/scott-mautz/\" target=\"_blank\">Scott Mautz</a> reminded: \"Odds are you will never hear people complaining that they are receiving too much recognition.\"\n\n<em>I am positive the two words and nine letters that make up the phrase \"You Matter\" are not too much recognition!</em>\n\nIn <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/creating-a-chain-reaction-of-goodness/\" target=\"_blank\">Creating a Chain Reaction of Goodness</a>, a post exploring instances when reaching out can be harder than walking away, <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/author/jane-perdue/\" target=\"_blank\">Jane Perdue</a> wrote, \"Here’s to replacing my wagging finger with grace, aiming for a reaction chain of goodness.\"\n\n<em>We would all do well to calm down our wagging fingers and be catalysts for simultaneous chains of goodness during the month of November.</em>\n\n<a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/instigators/cheryl-bachelder/\" target=\"_blank\">Cheryl Bachelder</a>, CEO of Popeye\'s Louisiana Kitchen, wrote of a <a href=\"http://cherylbachelder.com/servant-leadership/leaders-stop-look-celebrate/\" target=\"_blank\">visit she and her leadership team made to new restaurants in Indianapolis</a>. She described the happy tears in employees\' eyes as they were recognized for various achievements such as \"keeping the dining room sparkling.\" She shared, \"recognizing people’s contributions is a way to tell them that you care.\"\n\n<em>People need to know bosses (and others) care. It makes them want to keep contributing and doing their highest quality work.</em>\n<h3>To Get Involved in the You Matter Marathon</h3>\n<ul>\n 	<li>Sign up by clicking <a href=\"https://youmattermarathon.com/\" target=\"_blank\">here</a>.</li>\n 	<li>Follow the You Matter Marathon via creator Cheryl Rice on Twitter <a href=\"https://twitter.com/RiceOnLife\" target=\"_blank\">here</a>.</li>\n 	<li>Follow the You Matter Marathon via creator Cheryl Rice on Facebook <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/yourvoiceyourvision/?fref=ts\" target=\"_blank\">here</a>.</li>\n 	<li>Read more about the You Matter Marathon from Weaving Influence <a href=\"http://weavinginfluence.com/inspiration/featured-on-friday-youmatter-marathon/\" target=\"_blank\">here</a> and <a href=\"http://weavinginfluence.com/inspiration/nine-letters-two-words-one-transforming-moment/\" target=\"_blank\">here</a>.</li>\n</ul>\n<img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-31582\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/youmattermarathon_share_01.png\" alt=\"youmattermarathon_share_01\" width=\"440\" height=\"220\" />\n\nNote: I loved <a href=\"http://tinybuddha.com/blog/7-things-realize-think-dont-matter/\" target=\"_blank\"> 7 Things to Realize When You Think You Don\'t Matter</a> from <a href=\"http://tinybuddha.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Tiny Buddha</a>. It helped me frame my thinking and its opening quote seemed perfect for this post too.', 'Inspiration is in the Cards: The You Matter Marathon', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'inspiration-is-in-the-cards-the-you-matter-marathon', '', '', '2016-10-13 13:00:30', '2016-10-13 17:00:30', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31554', 0, 'post', '', 8),
(31559, 386, '2016-10-10 06:00:29', '2016-10-10 10:00:29', 'We perform our best when we are in the energy and flow of the moment. Think of a river running downhill on the side of a mountain. The water is perfectly in balance with the rocks it is flowing over and the width of the stream bed, as gravity naturally draws the stream downwards.\n\nNo matter what you are doing, it will always be better when you are tapping into your natural energy and flow. This is also true when we are leading people.\n<h3>Personal Flow</h3>\nBefore you can fully be in team flow, you need to first identify ways that work naturally to put you into the flow. Here are some activities where you can find your own flow. Next time that you are doing one of these, pay attention to where your energy levels are and how you are interacting with your environment.\n\n<strong>Commuting.</strong> Many of us have to commute to work. Turn off the radio and become aware of the traffic and people around you. See how you are in the flow of the commute or fighting it.\n\n<strong>Dinner Time.</strong> If you are in the habit of eating together as a family at dinner, note how the conversation ebbs and flows with and around you.\n\n<strong>Hiking.</strong> When hiking alone, observe when you are connected with nature and the world around you. With others, see how the conversation naturally gets quiet when you are on a tough uphill pull and how it resumes when the trail is flatter.\n\n<strong>Music.</strong> Whether listening or playing, solo or in a group, music can have a massive impact on our energy levels. See what musical activity gives you more energy and when it is easiest for you to be in tune with the music.\n\n<strong>Running.</strong> From run to run be aware of when it seems easy and effortless to be in the rhythm of your run. It can easily change by the day of the week, the time of the day, the terrain, or even who you are running with.\n\n<strong>Skiing.</strong> Whether skiing or snowboarding, you are like the water in the stream—using gravity to propel you naturally down the side of a snow covered mountain. As the terrain changes, notice when you are perfectly in the flow of the fall line versus when you are fighting the mountain.\n\n<strong>Water.</strong> Being in or on the water, whether it is swimming, sailing, paddling, or other naturally powered activities, you are forced into being in touch with the wind and wave conditions around you. Feel how your energy and relationship with nature changes as the conditions change.\n\n<strong>Yoga.</strong> Every moment in yoga (as in life) is different. When you switch from one side to another in a pose, see how it is different and how you feel the energy in your body differently.\n<h3>Leadership Flow</h3>\nBeing a great leader starts with self-awareness of when you are in your peak energy and flow. Then you can get curious about the energy and flow of the teams you are on and the people you lead. Just as you have your own natural energy and flow, discover what works best for those that you lead. Then set up your environment so that everyone is in their own natural energy and flow. Like a stream travelling downhill, when you set it up this way, everything gets easier.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_31561\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"500\"]<img class=\"wp-image-31561\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/20160805.palouse05.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" /> Dawn’s energetic light reflected from the wheat fields of the Palouse region of Washington State.[/caption]', 'Energy and Flow', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'energy-and-flow', '', '', '2016-10-10 06:00:29', '2016-10-10 10:00:29', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31559', 0, 'post', '', 0);
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(31573, 274, '2016-10-12 06:00:08', '2016-10-12 10:00:08', 'Conflict, from your home to the workplace, is inevitable. In fact, did you know that according to a Gallup Poll, negative conflict drains the U.S. economy by $350 BILLION a year in lost productivity and wasted energy?\n\nBut conflict gets a bad rap. According to Nate Regier, co-founding owner and chief executive officer of <a href=\"http://www.next-element.com/\">Next Element</a>, a global advisory firm specializing in building cultures of compassionate accountability, it shouldn’t be seen as an energy drain but as an energy source.\n\nNate’s book, <a href=\"http://next-element.com/conflict-without-casualties/\">Conflict without Casualties</a>, out next year, turns the view of conflict on its head. According to his book, instead of trying to manage or minimize conflict, people need to use it as a source of energy that spurs innovation, trust, and increased engagement.\n\nBelow, he answers some questions on how to do that:\n\n<strong>Q: You say that conflict is like energy, what do you mean by that?</strong>\n\n<strong>A: </strong>Conflict is simply the gap between what we want and what we are experiencing at any point in time. This gap generates energy because humans are highly motivated to close the gap because it isn’t comfortable. This emotional discomfort can motivate people to expend lots of energy. It’s amazing how much energy we suddenly have to work on that gap. This energy, however, isn’t always used in the healthiest ways. Sometimes it’s used destructively, and that’s called drama. Sometimes it is used constructively through healthy conflict.\n\n<strong>Q: What are the keys to having “healthy conflict”</strong><strong>? </strong>\n\n<strong>A: </strong>Three critical steps in the following order: First, be open and transparent about how you are feeling and what you want. Second, show a non-judgmental curiosity to explore options and look for creative solutions. Third, gain clarity about your boundaries and principles. In other words, what is at stake for you?\n\n<strong>Q: How do I keep myself and others from being defensive?</strong>\n\n<strong>A: </strong>Following the three steps above is a great start. In addition, here are a few do’s and dont’s:\n<ul>\n 	<li>Do share your feelings. Don’t assume you know how others feel or disregard their feelings.</li>\n 	<li>Do explain why you feel a certain way by describing the gap between what you want and what you are experiencing. Don\'t blame others for your feelings or accuse them of malicious intent.</li>\n 	<li>Do state your non-negotiable boundaries and principles. Don’t make threats or ultimatums. Don’t insult or accuse others.</li>\n 	<li>Do be patient. Don’t give up.</li>\n</ul>\n<strong>Q: What’s the secret to ensuring I don’t get the short end of the stick in a compromise?</strong>\n\n<strong>A: </strong>Most importantly, identify what emotional end state you are seeking. Focus less on the specifics of what you think others should do. Focus more on how you want to feel when it is over. Then, open your mind to creative ways to get there. Once you’ve done this, it’s much easier to compromise on the specific actions because you are honoring your emotional motive. One of the biggest barriers to healthy conflict is failure to disclose our emotional motives. Without getting these out on the table, we can’t work on the real problem.\n\n<strong>Q: Why is it important to share your emotions when engaging in conflict?</strong>\n\n<strong>A: </strong>Emotions are the primary energy source for conflict. The gap invariably generates an emotional response. Some people really struggle to identify and name their emotions during conflict. Failure to do this results in behavior and reactions that often don’t make sense to the other person, or seem out of proportion and unrealistic.\n\nA second reason to share emotions is because it sends the message that you are willing to be open, that you don’t mean any harm, and that you aren’t hiding anything. These are foundational for healthy conflict.\n\n<strong>About Dr. Nate Regier</strong>\n\nDr. Nate Regier is the co-founding owner and chief executive officer of <a href=\"http://www.next-element.com\">Next Element</a>, a global advisory firm specializing in building cultures of compassionate accountability. A former practicing psychologist, Regier is an expert in social-emotional intelligence and leadership, positive conflict, mind-body-spirit health, neuropsychology, group dynamics, interpersonal and leadership communication, executive assessment and coaching, organizational development, team building and change management. An international adviser, he is a certified Leading Out of Drama master trainer, Process Communication Model® certifying master trainer and co-developer of Next Element’s Leading Out of Drama® training and coaching. Nate has published two books: <em>Beyond Drama</em> and his latest work, <em>Conflict Without Casualties.</em>\n\n&nbsp;', 'Using Conflict for Good—a Conversation with Nate Regier', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'using-conflict-for-good-a-conversation-with-nate-regier', '', '', '2016-10-12 06:00:08', '2016-10-12 10:00:08', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31573', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(31599, 329, '2016-12-20 11:10:41', '2016-12-20 16:10:41', 'If a movie had the role of “bar” in it, Sloppy Joe’s would win the Academy Award. It is situated in bar heaven—on Duval Street in the middle of Key West, Florida. It is dark, smelly, and loud. It is no diner with a bar; it is a bar with an attitude. Its walls have no doubt eavesdropped on countless propositions, provocations and predictions. The cracked mirror over the bathroom sink has reflected many inebriated promises never kept.\n\nBut, this post is not about this still-popular bar. It is about one of its most famous frequent visitors in the 1930’s and 40’s—Ernest Hemingway. Even today Sloppy Joe’s sponsors a “Papa Hemingway Look-alike” contest.\n\nErnest Hemingway was one of this country’s greatest novelists. At least one of his many classics—<strong>The Old Man and the Sea</strong>, <strong>The Sun Also Rises</strong>, <strong>A Farewell to Arms</strong>, <strong>For Whom the Bell</strong> <strong>Tolls</strong>, etc.—is required reading for most students. Not only did he win the Nobel Prize for literature and the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, many of his novels were transformed into blockbuster movies. But, the content of his compelling stories did not just come from his vivid imagination. They came from Sloppy Joe’s.\n\nHemingway spent most his evenings at the lively bar listening to the stories of sailors and fishermen. His astute snooping gave him powerfully realistic content. His presence no doubt stirred animation in the storytelling; his participation likely made the teller of the tales feel celebrated and valued. “Being present,” said Marriott CEO Bill Marriott in a meeting I attended with him, “Is not to make associates happier; it is to make leaders smarter.”\n\nBut, Hemingway did not just take his stories home late at night to sleep them away along with his too-many Scotches. Hemingway rose most mornings to write from 9am until 2pm or 800 words, whichever came first. It was insight set free through discipline and application. Good leaders know; great leaders act on what they know.\n<h3><strong>Leadership is Command Presence</strong></h3>\n“You can pretend to care, you cannot pretend to be there,” wrote Texas Bix Bender in his book <a href=\"https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Squat-Your-Spurs-Cowboys/dp/142360699X\" target=\"_blank\"><strong><em>Don’t Squat With Yer Spurs On!</em></strong></a>\n\nBender was describing a vital feature of leadership—command presence. People who spend more than twenty minutes in the military know the power of command presence. Officer school candidates are drilled on the power and practice of the manner of a leader—focused, attentive, and engaged. Command presence is not about control, it is about connection; it is not about power, it is about partnership. Leaders with command presence convey character. They are all about spirit…that is, being, not just doing. They focus on being there, everywhere, not in absentia. And, when they are there, they are <em>all</em> there…focused, attentive and engaged.\n\nGreat leaders prefer the employee cafeteria air better than the atmosphere on mahogany row. They hunt for genuine encounters. They upset the pristine and proper by inviting vocal customers to boardroom meetings. They spend time in the field and on the floor where the action is lively, not in carefully contrived meetings where the action is limp. They thrive on keeping things genuine and vibrant.\n\n<strong>Leadership is Being Spirit-Full</strong>\n\nLeadership is the act of influencing another to achieve important goals. It is not about rank or authority. Ask any parent frustrated by a resistant child; authority is the last resort of the inept. Leadership is about being--the conveyance of a clear and present spirit. “You don’t have to know that Susan is the leader,” a manager said of his leader. “You can feel it the second she walks into the room. There is a warm connection that reaches out of who she is and just pulls you right in. Some people might call it charisma, I call it assertive caring.”\n\nSpirit-full leaders let go of <em>proving</em> who they are in exchange for <em>being</em> who they are. They are givers whose curious interest in others drives them to be completely absorbed in whoever is on the other end of their conversations. They are patient listeners super eager to learn, not anxious listeners restless to make a point. They show awe in others with the same unabashed innocence of a child at the zoo for the first time.\n\nGreat leaders are passion givers. Just like Mickey Mouse “on stage” at Disney World or Lady Gaga “in concert,” they show their excitement with the moment and their optimism for the future regardless how much sleep they got the evening before or their worry over hiccups in the balance sheet. Great leaders are pathfinders who light the way with their positive faith. They would rather facilitate than challenge. They cultivate confidence rather than breed caution.\n\n<u></u><strong>Leadership is Being There…All There</strong>\n\nLeaders are present. They don’t just lead by wandering around; they lead by staying engaged. They don’t just know the facts and figures; they know the stories and struggles. Because they make it their business to do their homework on customers and associates, they can affirm on sight without benefit of cue card or staff whispers. They call associates at home to congratulate them on something important to the associate. They thank customers for their business with sincerity and obvious gratitude. They hold meetings on the turf of others.\n\nGreat leaders bring a perpetual energy and intensity to every encounter. They are always wide-awake. When it comes to their role, they are never lazy, disinterested or indifferent. They care enough to bring their very best. They show up in life with “completed staff work.”\n\n<u></u>Hemingway used the crucible of a noisy, animated bar as the place to learn. But, he did not show up for a brew and quiet observation.  He engaged, he prodded, he cajoled, and most of all he listened.  “When people talk,” wrote Hemingway, “listen completely. Most people never listen.”\n\nYour Sloppy Joe’s might be the break room, in other units’ meetings, doing ride-alongs with field people, or sit-alongs with contact center operators. Create a setting for dramatic listening and lavish understanding. And, like Hemingway at the typewriter, turn it into astute execution that reflects your learned insight and informed wisdom.', 'Leading From &quot;Sloppy Joe&#039;s&quot;', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'leading-from-sloppy-joes', '', '', '2016-12-20 11:10:41', '2016-12-20 16:10:41', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31599', 0, 'post', '', 1),
(31601, 441, '2016-10-18 06:00:33', '2016-10-18 10:00:33', 'Polarization of historic proportions, racial divide, technological challenges and globalization—we are all experiencing stress and uncertainty in our volatile, complex and uncertain environment. Closed-mindedness and miscommunication are at the heart of this uncertainty causing damage to relationships, bottom lines and lives. What are leaders to do? Across organizations, more continues to be required with less resources and the need for influencing and collaboration increases while the time to do so seems to diminish.\n\nAs an executive coach, I had the opportunity to interview colleagues and direct reports of an executive I was coaching in a major organization. The team members were under quite a bit of distress with large changes in technology and challenging deadlines to satisfy client commitments. Their leader, Jeff, whom I was coaching, told me that he could not understand the mistakes his team and their reports made. He was frustrated and desired a higher level of quality control and closer adherence to deadlines. His team members seemed exhausted and overwhelmed by expectations. They felt they were being held accountable for work that other departments needed to do and they were stressed by the project management systems in place.\n\nI learned that Jeff, the leader I was coaching, had many strengths including great knowledge of his industry and political savvy with clients and those above him. However, his stress and demands were causing a domino effect of dissatisfaction and a negative climate. People felt afraid and could not see options. Deadlines loomed and many felt trapped and overwhelmed. Many contemplated leaving their positions and some had already done so.\n\nI reminded Jeff that emotions are contagious and his judgment and anger only promulgated the stressful climate. As a leader, he needed to create a positive climate where team members could be open to options, build alignment and develop shared solutions. Brain research is demonstrating that when we experience judgment and stress the amygdala part of the brain is activated and we react and become protective. In fact, in this state, we are more focused on surviving and don’t have access to creative and innovative ideas for change. However, when we can be more mindful and shift into using a different part of our brain, we experience more expansiveness and are open to more possibilities and innovation.\n\nMy client took on the responsibility of shifting into what I call an open mindset and creating more of an oasis type environment with his team. It was not an easy transition; however, with some support, he began to relax more and be more open to his team. My client recognized that he had been closed and more directive and saw the consequences.\n\nWe began by having him notice what he was experiencing in his body when he was closed and judgmental toward his team. He felt a tightness in his stomach and chest and could hear himself saying “they are never going to get it” and worse. He used these cues to signal that he was in the desert of judgment and closed-minded. He would then take a breath and shift to being more open. He recalled times when he felt more expansive when he was in nature and engaging in sports like fishing. With practice, he became more adept at shifting to being open-minded. When he adopted this open mindset being more curious and understanding and engaged in conversations with his team, he could see a ripple effect with his team members. He was able to listen and be more empathetic and engage in what I call \"<a href=\"http://potentials.com/services/open-minded-conversations-oasis/\" target=\"_blank\">OASIS conversations</a>\" where together they were able to understand multiple perspectives, find common ground and create shared agreements.\n\nWhile there were still strong demands to meet client needs, Jeff created a more positive environment with his team who did so with their teams.The team members had more energy for collaborating with different departments and Jeff’s changes impacted the organization and ultimately clients too.\n\nSo what can a leader do in stressful situations? He or she can start with working to become more aware and learn how to shift from closed-mindedness and judgment to being open-minded and thus opening other minds and creating more positive relationships and productive environments.\n\nDo you know your signal when you are closed and in judgment and how to shift to being open?', 'Are You Open-Minded?', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'are-you-open-minded', '', '', '2016-10-18 06:00:33', '2016-10-18 10:00:33', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31601', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(31603, 273, '2016-10-31 06:00:58', '2016-10-31 10:00:58', 'The CEO is only one person. He or she can set the strategic direction, sign off on policies and plans, and encourage a professional and productive atmosphere, but significant change is implemented by managers and employees often far removed from the CEO’s corner office. If managers and employees do not embrace proposed change, it will not happen as planned. After defining direction and plans, the challenge is having changes implemented efficiently and productively.\n\nI was hired as CEO of one of Australia’s largest property companies. The company was losing more than $10 million a month and running out of cash. We needed to implement change fast, and I was an outsider – the only American in an Australian company. I knew what needed to be done: reduce operating costs, exit money losing businesses, and implement programs to accelerate revenues from more profitable business lines. But if I ordered such plans to be implemented, there would be no “buy in,” and the plans would not be implemented successfully. Employee morale would decline leading to a loss in productivity at the same time we needed greater productivity.\n\nWe started weekly senior management meetings with more frequent committee meetings focused first on defining a mission statement and near term objectives. What did we do well, where did we have competitive advantage, where should we concentrate limited time and resources? Everything was shared with the managers including cash flow forecasts. We developed a mission statement and objectives, and every senior manager took ownership.\n\nWe then went to the employees, and I hosted employee-wide, town-hall style meetings. What were our greatest challenges and how did we plan to meet them? Why couldn’t we conduct business as usual? If we implemented changes, what were the prospects for growth and future success? Follow-up meetings were held every month to report on the company’s progress. It helped that we served food and drinks at the meetings, assuring good attendance even from those with initially lesser interest.\n\nWe did sell some businesses, we streamlined operations, and we invested in more productive parts of the business. Within a year, the company turned profitable. A confidential employee survey disclosed that prior to the engagement strategy, the company was rated in the lowest 3% of companies surveyed for employee satisfaction. After implementing the engagement strategy, the company was rated in the top 25% of all companies surveyed.\n\n<strong>ABOUT THE AUTHOR</strong>\n\nScott Ma<img class=\"alignleft wp-image-31604 size-thumbnail\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Scott-MacDonald-Author-Photo-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"scott-macdonald-author-photo\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" />cDonald’s new book, <em>Saving Investa; How an ex-factory worker helped save one of Australia’s iconic companies</em>, will be released worldwide on November 1, 2016.  Scott has been CEO or President of several companies and is considered a corporate turnaround expert.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;', 'The Need for Employee and Management Buy-In When Implementing Change', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'the-need-for-employee-and-management-buy-in-when-implementing-change', '', '', '2016-10-31 06:00:58', '2016-10-31 10:00:58', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31603', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(31613, 276, '2016-10-14 06:00:51', '2016-10-14 10:00:51', 'With the demand to do more with less, we are asking a lot from our people to do the same amount of work. That means we look for efficient ways of getting things done and doing more to fill the gaps that were left by their peers that left or were let go. Leaders are presented a great challenge to continue to lead their people and meet business goals. Therefore it is important for the leaders to show appreciation for their people by recognizing them for their contributions.\n\nThe question is: How appreciated do you feel at your workplace? This is an important question because not all employees respond to a cookie-cutter recognition and demonstration of appreciation. According to 12 employee appreciation posts, 39% of employees feel underappreciated at work, with 77% reporting that they would work harder if they felt better recognized. Eighty-nine percent of employers assume that their employees leave for more money elsewhere, but only 12% of employees actually earn more from their next company.\n\nIn my search to learn more about the topic of appreciation, I found Paul White’s 5 Languages of Appreciation and was intrigued.   I decided to take that course, I learned that appreciation is not a touchy warm relationship, nor it is verbal praise, and it is not always done through words. It was an eye opener to learn that inasmuch as we want to recognize or reward our people, we need to learn how they prefer to be rewarded.\n\nWhy is it important to reward our employees? It is important to reward our employees because it has a direct impact on team performance. Rewarding your employees will improve retention and reduce absenteeism. With the positive impact, it can create a great work environment that can help retain our employees.  So, how should we recognize our employees and make and impact?   There are five ways of doing this, but it is important to learn what is the preference of your employee. Here are the five ways of recognizing our employees:\n<ul>\n 	<li>Words of affirmation – this is verbal affirmation. Either one-on-one or praise in front of everyone. Written communication and public affirmation</li>\n 	<li>Quality time – spending time with the person either on a project or group activities</li>\n 	<li>Act of service – showing appreciation through your actions</li>\n 	<li>Tangible gifts – meaningful gifts like team lunch or corporate products</li>\n 	<li>Physical touch – this is the least favorable one. Especially with HR mandates. I would not recommend this.</li>\n</ul>\nLearning the five ways of showing appreciation, I would like to shift my focus on learning more about your people, on their preferences, be it one-on-one or group/public setting. We have to keep in mind that recognition is an important part in creating a cohesive organization that can elevate its performance, especially during challenging times. As a leader, you need to think what is best suited for your team and make sure you recognize your people and let them know you care. Remember that people matter, because people are your most valuable asset.', 'Appreciation', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'appreciation', '', '', '2016-10-14 06:00:51', '2016-10-14 10:00:51', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31613', 0, 'post', '', 2),
(31654, 442, '2016-12-07 06:00:45', '2016-12-07 11:00:45', 'The MBA has become a touchy subject with a lot of young entrepreneurs figuring out the next step in life. <a href=\"https://www.ft.com/content/d86935bc-73ea-11e4-82a6-00144feabdc0\">This article</a> may have put it best, theorizing that the MBA is \"losing its magic.\" Specifically, the reference was to the notion that an advanced degree in business would (magically) lead to better career opportunities; the more you study, the more you eventually earn.\n\nThat idea has been proven false in recent years. We\'ve reached a point at which only the very best MBA programs can virtually guarantee a high return on investment. However, as alluded to in the aforementioned article, there are plenty of reasons beyond \"magical\" career opportunities that might still motivate a student to pursue an MBA. These include acquiring new skills, enjoying a learning opportunity, and networking.\n\nBut what about where entrepreneurs are concerned? Or, specifically, young women entrepreneurs, of which there are more and more these days? For people who fit this description, the conventional perks of the MBA may indeed be obsolete. There are, however,  some other benefits that make it worthwhile to at least consider the degree.\n<ul>\n 	<li><strong>Exposure To <a href=\"http://nymag.com/thecut/2013/09/how-do-you-change-a-bro-dominated-culture.html\" target=\"_blank\">\"Bro\" Culture</a></strong> - This isn\'t the most scientific benefit, but it\'s one that was mentioned in a <a href=\"http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2014/08/22/five-reasons-women-should-get-mbas/#1604c63f4c36\">Forbes write-up</a> of reasons women should get the MBA, and it does make sense. There\'s a certain hyper-masculine, fraternity-like \"bro\" culture in business school and in business environments, and the process of obtaining an MBA can expose a female entrepreneur to that culture. Simply put, it\'s good practice for navigating a professional landscape that can be somewhat obnoxious, and you won\'t find the practice elsewhere.</li>\n 	<li><strong>Learning To Focus On Results</strong> - It\'s an interesting point made in the same Forbes write-up cited above with regard to bro culture. The idea is that in the high-speed, competitive environment of business school, you\'ll learn that \"done is better than perfect.\" That may sound like a lazy lesson, but the world of business is results-driven. Perfection is great, but only as icing on the cake of a completed effort. This is a vital lesson for any entrepreneur, given that any start-up can fizzle out as a result of the futile chase for perfection.</li>\n 	<li><strong>Outlining Your Experiences and Goals</strong> - There is a surprising task that a number of ambitious entrepreneurs won\'t necessarily take the time to do without school structure. It\'s emphasized by one <a href=\"http://menlocoaching.com/\">coaching platform</a>, where numerous testimonials from MBA students refer to a self-reflection process. They discuss how they learned to analyze their own experiences, articulate their strengths and weaknesses, and outline their goals moving forward. This sort of process is just easier to come by in an educational environment, and it can be invaluable in helping you decide what kind of entrepreneur you want to be—and how you\'ll get there.</li>\n 	<li><strong>Receiving the Classroom Specifics</strong> - MBA conversations have become so focused on intangible benefits and return-on-investment that you can actually easily forget that you\'ll be taking classes. You may learn anything from how to balance a budget to how to structure a payroll, among other tasks. These are things that even driven, brilliant entrepreneurs can\'t simply understand through intuition or instinct, and while they can be learned independently, business school is there for a reason.</li>\n</ul>\nThere are negatives of the MBA as well, to be sure. But these benefits can be of great assistance to any woman seeking to become an entrepreneur.', 'Should Female Entrepreneurs Obtain MBAs?', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'should-female-entrepreneurs-obtain-mbas', '', '', '2016-12-07 06:00:45', '2016-12-07 11:00:45', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31654', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(31671, 443, '2016-12-12 06:00:49', '2016-12-12 11:00:49', 'You are in a leadership position, so you know that you have several duties to perform. And one of them is to improve your employees’ quality of work and life.\n\nYes, you read it correctly: their quality of life as well.\n\nMany leaders will fail in this matter, as they think that they only have to care about what happens in the workplace. They do their best when it comes to delegating and supervising, and that is it.\n\nIf you want to be considered as a true leader, you will have to do much more. Not just because someone said to do more, but because <a href=\"https://www.recruiter.com/i/unhappy-employees-why-you-need-to-care/\">stressed and unhappy employees</a> won’t deliver the best results.\n<h3>Here are six ways you can help your team improve their quality of life:</h3>\n<strong>Don’t micromanage</strong>\n\nMicromanagement is the sin of many leaders. Still, it is a very typical behaviour, in particular among those who have just gotten their first leadership position. They don’t know well enough what is their business and what is not. Plus, they fear that they will be held accountable for every small thing that happens so they believe that they need to know and be part of everything.\n\nIf you suffer from micromanagement, set yourself free, and your team as well. It defies the purpose of having a team if you have to be everywhere. Plus, your employees won’t feel like they are being respected as professionals when you micromanage. Nobody wants to have someone watching over their shoulders on a daily basis. It is stressful and counterproductive.\n\n<strong>Don’t share unnecessary matters with your staff</strong>\n\nThe chain of command comes with a filter for information. That doesn’t mean you should hide relevant matters from your staff. However, they don’t need to know everything that is going on in the company before it is necessary.\n\nMost of the time, oversharing can only bring uncertainty as your staff members expect you to mention only what is crucial. For instance, they will think that if you are telling them about bad financial figures, it is because it is time to look for a new job. And one of them might get a great offer, causing you to lose a talent for no reason.\n\n<strong>Give them plenty of feedback</strong>\n\nAnother thing that employees depend on is feedback. They need to know if you are happy with their services, what they should improve, and what you expect from them. Failing to provide feedback will make them feel uneasy or too comfortable, and you don’t want either to happen.\n\nYou need to learn the best way to give feedback, assessing both positive and negative topics. You already know that shouting after a mistake about their incompetence is a poor choice, but that is just the beginning. In addition, don\'t forget to hold meetings specifically for feedback.\n\n<strong>Find the best way to motivate them</strong>\n\nEach person is different, but there are several ways that you can <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/how-to-motivate-your-team-why-your-employee-perk-wont-work/\">motivate your team</a>. Feedback, as mentioned above, is one of them. Another one is starting with your own motivation, as they won’t feel engaged in the task if you aren’t.\n\nNobody is expecting you to become a cheerleader, but you should routinely encourage them to do their best. Find out what they need to feel motivated and make it happen. You will see their productivity increasing in no time.\n\n<strong>Give them clear goals to pursue</strong>\n\nOne of the leading causes of stress at work (and in life) is having no goals to pursue. Or having goals but no idea why they are relevant. You will help people see their objectives clearly and teach them how to structure and maintain a schedule that supports their journey.\n\n<strong>Get to know them as a person</strong>\n\nGet to know each one of your employees personally. It is a shame when a manager has no idea if their secretary is married or if she or he has any children. You should also keep their birthdays in your schedule, and make sure that you know where they are going on holidays.\n\nAbove all, you should be aware of any personal needs that they might have. If they, or a member of their family, are ill, you should be prepared to do your best to accommodate what they need during these unforeseen circumstances.\n\n<strong>The bottom line</strong>\n\nThere you go, six ways that leaders can improve their quality of work and life for their employees. As you can see, they don’t require any paperwork or extra budget, only that you adjust your behavior and routine.\n\nThey will improve your company’s results for sure, so make the most of them.', '6 Ways Leaders Can Improve Employees’ Quality of Work and Life', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', '6-ways-leaders-can-improve-employees-quality-of-work-and-life', '', '', '2016-12-12 06:00:49', '2016-12-12 11:00:49', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31671', 0, 'post', '', 1),
(31693, 408, '2016-10-25 06:00:44', '2016-10-25 10:00:44', 'Respect. It’s such a simple word that carries so much power. It commands: “Respect commands itself and it can neither be given nor withheld when it is due.” (Eldridge Cleaver). It empowers: “We confide in our strength, without boasting of it; we respect that of others, without fearing it.” (Thomas Jefferson) It elevates: “We must build a new world, a far better world - one in which the eternal dignity of man is respected.” (Harry S. Truman) It validates: “Probably no greater honor can come to any man than the respect of his colleagues” (Cary Grant). And yet, where has respect gone today, particularly when it comes to those in or seeking positions of leadership?\n\nTo this question, let me direct you to some other worthy quotes: “Men are respectable only as they respect” (Ralph Waldo Emerson); “Respect yourself if you would have others respect you” (Baltasar Gracián); and, “If you have some respect for people as they are, you can be more effective in helping them to become better than they are” (John W. Gardner). Isn’t this last quote the whole point of leadership?\n\nLast month I explored a topic – the overuse of apologizing – in my “<a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/shame-on-our-apology-economy/\">Shame On Our Apology Economy</a>” post which I feel is related to the topic of respect and leadership. Regardless of someone’s “leadership” position, I find it hard to respect them if their rhetoric is either a series of apologies or if they’re apologizing for something that’s really, truly egregious.\n<h3><strong>Valued More Than Respect?</strong></h3>\nWhen it comes to respect, some people feel that it must be earned while others feel it should be a given, an attribute to be lost based on behavior and attitude. I suppose I fall into the latter camp:  I try to give people – all people – the benefit of the doubt and treat them as if they’re deserving and worthy of my respect. I’m in no way perfect, but I do try to adhere to a Golden Rule philosophy. Or, to invoke another relevant quote, “Respect for ourselves guides our morals; respect for others guides our manners” (Laurence Sterne).\n\nMany of today’s leaders or heir apparent leaders seem to have lost their way, though, when it comes to respect. Whereas respect used to be a pinnacle, a cornerstone of importance, now it’s only lip service. What’s more valued? Let’s create a shortlist:\n<ul>\n 	<li>Power</li>\n 	<li>Money</li>\n 	<li>Fear</li>\n 	<li>Appearance</li>\n 	<li>Ego</li>\n</ul>\nPerhaps any or some these appeal to the individual cultivating them, but what do they foster in the individuals they seek to lead? Perhaps the loyalty and commitment of a few with similar value sets, but most of these drivers backfire eventually, especially if followers benefit from little to none of the same. Nor can a “leader” maintain control or sustain an entity if those they’re leading can find what they require elsewhere, particularly at a place with a leader who truly respects them and their contributions. Pity the leader who tries to govern a body of people who disrespect him or her.\n\nHuman beings must feel self-respect for themselves, too. It’s just part of the human condition. People who do not feel self-respect cannot sustain that situation in perpetuity. They will feel the need to flee, avoid, or hide the more they feel dismissed for their own self-worth. People who “check out,” even if they don’t physically flee, are as minimally productive as possible. And how is a “leader” truly leading when he or she engenders little from the organization’s people than the very minimum they can give?\n\nIn other words, when it comes to leadership, respect really is a two-way street. To be an effective leader, you need to give respect <em>to be </em>respected, and from my vantage point, the leader should set the example every single day.\n\n<em>When it comes to enabling change, respect is an important topic. Here on Lead Change Group, others have also written about the topic of respect and leadership. Please </em><a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/?s=respect\"><em>read more here</em></a><em>.</em>', 'The Two-Way Street of Leadership and Respect', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'the-two-way-street-of-leadership-and-respect', '', '', '2016-10-25 06:00:44', '2016-10-25 10:00:44', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31693', 0, 'post', '', 6),
(31723, 434, '2016-10-26 06:00:16', '2016-10-26 10:00:16', 'How do I engage the next genera­tion of employees and customers? That’s the question I get asked most these days.\n\nFine, I’m paraphrasing. What I really get is “$$##@! %^&amp;$#! millennials what the $#@!# *&amp;^%$! hell?”\n\nTo which I reply, “So what you’re asking is, ‘How will you empower your team to deliver value and results to you as a leader, and to themselves, the company, and your customers?’”\n\n“Yes . . . I guess.”\n\n“So what are <em>you</em> going to do about it?”\n\nTo which I get one of the three following three responses. Which one sounds like you?\n<ul>\n 	<li>(Okay, let me know how that works for you.)</li>\n</ul>\n<ul>\n 	<li><em>Wait and see. </em>(You’re like people who think they don’t need insurance because they’re healthy. Even if millennials are not the majority of your employees, they are or will soon be your customers.)</li>\n 	<li><em> </em><em>Act! </em>(Okay, good! You are like the people I love to work with.)</li>\n</ul>\nActing starts with shifting <em>our</em> mindsets, not theirs, and trusting ourselves. When we shift our focus to connecting and delivering value to others, we win with our clients, employees, spouses, partners, kids ... we become guides and mentors of the next generation and ourselves. That’s how we bridge the gap between generations in the workplace.\n\nAnd at <a href=\"http://launchbox365.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Launchbox</a>, B.R.I.D.G.E. is also an acronym for our overlapping and integrated six-step plan that unleashes the power of <strong>you</strong> to understand your own relevance—to address disconnects and become completely relevant as a guide, mentor, and leader with and to millennials:\n<ul>\n 	<li><strong>(B)UST MYTHS</strong> to identify and break through underlying assumptions about employees that create barriers by not making those assumptions when dealing with other generations.</li>\n</ul>\n<ul>\n 	<li>Create (<strong>R)EAL-DEAL AUTHENTIC</strong>, caring relationships with your team by connecting authentically and creating real emotional connections, showing genuine interest and caring for others, and sharing your friggin’ self.</li>\n</ul>\n<ul>\n 	<li>Demonstrate an “(<strong>I) OWN IT</strong>” mindset that forces you to be personally accountable and responsible for driving results by understanding your strengths and your story, taking personal ownership for what and how things happen to you, and having personal accountability</li>\n</ul>\n<ul>\n 	<li><strong>(D)ELIVER VALUE</strong> through understanding, mentorship, and coaching of others by <em>making it about others</em> – remembering you are not the hero of your own story.</li>\n</ul>\n<ul>\n 	<li>Keep <strong>(G)OALS IN MIND</strong> based on a shared and embraced vision by creating a shared vision, shared purpose, and shared goals that align those of individuals, the team, and the company.</li>\n</ul>\n<ul>\n 	<li><strong>(E)MPOWER SUCCESS</strong> through leveraging strengths, paving the road to success, and giving feedback and recognition the right way.</li>\n</ul>\nWhen you B.R.I.D.G.E. the gap, you build genuine and caring relationships that increase engagement, productivity, innovation, results, and profits to empower you and your people to connect, mentor, lead, motivate, and add value at the highest levels.\n\nB.R.I.D.G.E. the gap and you’ll have the right tools and skills to be a better manager and to develop your millennial employees for the benefit of the company. You’ll also have a more connected, productive, fun, enjoyable, and significant professional and home life.\n\nDon’t be fooled by the apparent simplicity of those six steps. B.R.I.D.G.E. is easy to say but hard to do. Or as my former boss in the auto business told me, “Dan, it’s all simple; it just ain’t easy.”\n\nTo get started in the right direction, all you have to do is what my bosses in that auto business asked me to do: <em>show up</em>. Show up and do what needs to be done on your end to B.R.I.D.G.E. the gap with your people and write new rules for the workplace of the future. Yes, you—<em>you </em>need to show up and show how much you care.Not just for a day. But sustainably for months and years for everyone your life touches—not just millennials.\n\nThat’s how you find your own relevance and create great relationships.\n\n<em>What are you going to do right now to create and empower the next generation of leaders? How can you become one yourself and be their guide? </em>\n\n<strong>Need help answering these questions and getting started? </strong>Let us help you stop chasing relevance and make it happen. For more on the power of relationships, check out Part One of <a href=\"https://www.amazon.com/Chasing-Relevance-Understand-Generation-Workplace/dp/0692643257\"><em>Chasing Relevance: 6 Steps to Understand, Engage, and Maximize Next-Generation Leaders in the Workplace</em> TODAY.</a>', '6 Steps to B.R.I.D.G.E. the Gap and Find Relevance in the Workplace and Marketplace', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', '6-steps-to-b-r-i-d-g-e-the-gap-and-find-relevance-in-the-workplace-and-marketplace', '', '', '2016-10-26 06:00:16', '2016-10-26 10:00:16', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31723', 0, 'post', '', 1),
(31725, 434, '2016-11-23 06:00:51', '2016-11-23 11:00:51', 'My teenage son Matt had bonked a big test, part of his ongoing prob­lems with homework and tests. And I was pissed off beyond belief. I was done with the games. I told him “the party was %$#@! over!” That I owned him now. That rules would be put in place to deal with this once and for all.\n\nMatt responded with typical witty bewilderment but seemed to understand things were a little different. And you know what? Damned if he didn’t start to turn his grades around. We got really positive descriptions of his efforts and successes from his teachers, and the tone of our conversa­tions started to change.\n\nAfter a period of sustained success, Matt called me at the office and asked for some privileges back. I congratulated him and told him that I was so proud of him. But I also told him that now I knew how smart he really was and could be, it was game on for him. He needed to continue to perform well in school.\n\nThat’s when Matt asked me, “Dad, is this a good call or a bad call?\n\n“What do you think?”\n\n“I am not sure. That’s why I’m asking.”\n\n“Well, you turned around your grades, you are capable and smart, and your dad is now going to help make sure that you are successful. Is that good or bad? You get to choose.”\n\n“I’m gonna go with a good call.”\n\nMy son is infinitely wise . . .\n\nAnd there you have it: A story about choice that could be applied to how to interpret news and situations as good or bad, or choosing your mindset and understanding situations at work as positive or negative. That’s what stories have the power to do.\n\nThe power of this storytelling should be familiar to all of us. From cave drawings to hieroglyphics to the oral traditions of Native Americans to the Bible to Shakespeare to <em>Charlotte’s Web</em>, human history has long known the power of storytelling. Which is why I believe <em>everyone </em>in business must be in what Seth Godin calls the “story business” for us to be our best.\n\nBecause building and maintaining relationships requires us to tell our stories.\n\nIt doesn’t matter what business you are in or how charming you are. But if you want your next-generation leaders to understand this, you’ll need to show most of them what a gift being in the story business can be. You’ll need to own and share your stories at the deepest levels as a kind of calling card for finding relevance.\n\nBut let’s be honest: this isn’t easy to do well, let alone genuinely. Storytelling is difficult and sometimes even uncomfortable. It is not what we’ve been taught to do, and it is hard—just like the relationships they are trying to help create. Which is why most of us really suck at telling our sto­ries.\n\nActually, it is appalling how bad people are at telling their stories, let alone connecting them to what they do. We can’t even tell our stories to ourselves in the mirror, let alone one-on-one or god forbid to a group or audience. After all, fear of public speaking ranks higher than death in most surveys. So we can’t tell our stories and fear telling them more than death . . . how the heck are we going to connect?\n\nI used to suck at telling my story for the same reason most people do: I was never taught to focus on the importance of <em>my </em>story. Not at home. Not in elementary school through high school and into college and graduate school. Not in the workplace.\n\nThis is why we constantly work on stories with mil­lennials and non-millennials at keynotes, workshops, through coaching, and in our software platform at <a href=\"https://launchbox365.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Launchbox</a>. We start with three simple questions designed to be asked and answered quickly:\n<ul>\n 	<li><strong>Who am I? </strong>Where was I born? Where do I come from? Who is my family? What is my background—my family identity? What am I grateful for? What and who have made me who I am?</li>\n</ul>\n<ul>\n 	<li><strong>What is my experience? </strong>What work have I done? What am I inspired and motivated by? What am I passionate for and about? What have I had to overcome, and what are my tri­umphs?</li>\n</ul>\n<ul>\n 	<li><strong>What value do I bring? </strong>What am I good at? What are my special skills? What has made me unique and special? Why do people love me, and what do I do to maintain that? What kind of attitude do I have? What can I do for others? What about me makes me successful that is not about my technical experience?</li>\n</ul>\nGo ahead and answer these questions and use them to craft stories that bring the things that happen to you in life <em>to life</em>. Use them to share your strengths, skills, passions, and values, show how you live them, and connect them to what you do and can offer to others. Use them to own who you are and forge genuine connections with others that lead to results.\n\n<strong>Need help getting started?</strong>Let us help you stop chasing relevance and make it happen. For more on working from the inside out, check out Part One of <a href=\"https://www.amazon.com/Chasing-Relevance-Understand-Generation-Workplace/dp/0692643257\">Chasing Relevance: 6 Steps to Understand, Engage, and Maximize Next-Generation Leaders in the Workplace.</a>', '3 Storytelling Questions Most People Can’t Answer to Make a Connection', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', '3-storytelling-questions-most-people-cant-answer-to-make-a-connection', '', '', '2016-11-23 06:00:51', '2016-11-23 11:00:51', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31725', 0, 'post', '', 1);
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(31739, 374, '2016-11-02 06:00:37', '2016-11-02 10:00:37', 'This month we are featuring Instigator <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/instigators/ann-van-eron/\" target=\"_blank\">Ann Van Eron</a>, founder and principal of <a href=\"http://potentials.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Potentials</a>, a global executive coaching and organization development consulting firm. She is the author or co-author of several books including her latest, <a href=\"https://www.amazon.com/OASIS-Conversations-Leading-Maximize-Potential/dp/0997513608/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1476932029&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=ann+van+eron\" target=\"_blank\">Oasis Conversations: Leading With an Open Mindset to Maximize Potential</a>.\n\nAnn studied psychology at Georgetown University and has a doctorate in organization psychology from Columbia University. Her post-doctorate work in individual and group process is from the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland. She is a certified Master Coach with the International Coach Federation. She is certified as a somatic coach with the Strozzi Institute and is a co-active coach with The Coaches Training Institute. She considers herself an avid learner and has studied many areas including mindfulness.\n\nAfter college, Ann worked with a group that provided workshops and coaching. She then worked with a Fortune 50 company and learned how to manage and lead areas, eventually becoming a corporate officer. She founded her consulting firm, Potentials, when she started her doctorate. She worked with teams and supported organizations in creating inclusive and respectful cultures. She expanded to offering executive coaching and teaching others to be coaches. Ann tells us, \"I have worked all over the world with a wide range of organizations offering leadership and team coaching, organization development and leadership development. I love the work and making a difference.\"\n\nThe best moments in her career have occurred due to the leadership program she developed based on the OASIS process for open-minded conversations. Ann shares, \"I have facilitated the program all over the world and taught others to facilitate the coaching based program. People have shifted in how they interact and have said their lives are better. The first time I was in a different country working with a multicultural group teaching the program, and influencing the organization, I knew I was doing my life work. I continue to be excited by the work.\"\n\nWhen asked about a leadership lesson Ann learned from her first job, Ann replied \"I started work in my early teens and learned how to work with a diverse group of ages, styles and ethnicities. I became a manager and trainer and learned how to work with everyone.\"\n\nWe learned from Ann that a rough start to a job interview <strong>can </strong>end up having a positive outcome. Her explanation: \"I was interviewed by a cross functional team of employees who were appointed. They asked me if I could help to get the management team out. I suggested that we focus on creating dialogue. Otherwise a precedent would be set and it would be costly. I worked with them and facilitated open minded dialogue. The culture shifted and it was a rewarding project.\"\n\nThe best advice she\'s ever been given was the paradoxical theory of change which involves noticing the current state and being with what is. This stance with compassion supports being with resistance.\n\nOn the topic of the most important qualities in leaders, Ann believes that leaders need to be self aware and aware of the needs of others and the environment. She goes on: \"Leaders should identify compelling visions and offer support to others. They need to be authentic and focused on being of service. They need to be strong communicators and to recognize success.\"\n\nAnn thinks students in school should learn the skills of empathy, listening, finding common ground and agreements. By doing so, they would enhance their awareness and ability to live and work with others.\n\nWhen asked about books she has found most helpful for her professional life, Ann replied, \"It is hard to identify one, so many have been critical. Daniel Goleman\'s <a href=\"http://www.danielgoleman.info/purchase/\" target=\"_blank\">books on Emotional Intelligence and Social Intelligence</a> have been inspiring. I also appreciated the practical nature of Covey\'s <a href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/1476740054/ref=tmm_hrd_new_olp_0?ie=UTF8&amp;condition=new&amp;qid=&amp;sr=\" target=\"_blank\">Seven Habits of Highly Effective People</a>.\"\n\nWhen asked the most creative solution she\'s ever seen to a problem in life or work, Ann replied, \"I have seen amazing shifts in teams and organizations when people can be open to \'what is\' and assume positive intent. When people shift from judgment to curiosity and compassion, solutions become apparent. I see this effect when two colleagues have made assumptions about one another and when there is similar strife between functions.\"\n\nWhen asked what hashtag she would apply to her life, Ann offered several suggestions, including #OASISConversations, #OpenMindset, and #AssumePositiveIntent. To find out some of the others, why don\'t you start a dialogue with her via her Twitter account, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/AnnVanEron\" target=\"_blank\">@annvaneron</a>?\n\nOne of Ann\'s favorite quotes is \"To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life\" by Robert Louis Stevenson.\n\nWhen asked \"if money were no object, what would you do all day?\" she responded, \"I would share the open mindset and skills for impactful conversations to leaders, coaches, families and students. With compassion and curiosity and dialogue, many challenges can be addressed. I love what I do and I would work to expand the impact.\"\n\nOf her involvement in Lead Change, Ann says, \"As an organization development and leadership development consultant I am interested in thought leadership to support leaders and organizations. I learned from colleagues that LeadChange is a great resource. Some of the authors and change experts that I respect are a part of the group.\"\n\nThe group is all the better for having you a part of the community, Ann. We are grateful to have you among us!\n\n<em><strong>Editor\'s Note</strong> - You may ask, “How does one get chosen to be a featured Instigator?” The answer is simple. If you are already an Instigator, fill out <a href=\"https://cl182.infusionsoft.com/app/form/lcg-feature-questions\">this form</a> and continue to engage with the Lead Change Group on a regular basis. If you are not yet an Instigator, <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/join/\">sign up</a>. There are many benefits to being an Instigator – email us if you want more information.</em>\n\n<strong>Previous 2016 Featured Instigators:</strong>\n\n10/2016: <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/featured-instigator-will-lukang/\" target=\"_blank\">Will Lukang</a>\n\n8/2016: <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/featured-instigator-susan-mazza/\" target=\"_blank\">Susan Mazza</a>\n\n7/2016: <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/featured-leading-voice-mike-henry-sr/\" target=\"_blank\">Mike Henry, Sr.</a>\n\n6/2016: <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/featured-leading-voice-mary-schaefer/\" target=\"_blank\">Mary Schaefer </a>\n\n5/2016: <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/featured-instigator-kevin-eikenberry/\" target=\"_blank\">Kevin Eikenberry</a>\n\n4/2016: <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/featured-leading-voice-chip-bell/\" target=\"_blank\">Chip Bell</a>\n\n3/2016: <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/featured-instigator-eunice-parisi-carew/\" target=\"_blank\">Eunice Parisi-Carew</a>\n\n2/2016: <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/featured-instigator-chris-edmonds/\" target=\"_blank\">Chris Edmonds</a>\n\n1/2016: <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/featured-instigator-marcella-bremer/\" target=\"_blank\">Marcella Bremer</a>\n\n&nbsp;', 'Featured Instigator: Ann Van Eron', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'featured-instigator-ann-van-eron', '', '', '2016-11-02 06:00:37', '2016-11-02 10:00:37', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31739', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(31741, 374, '2016-11-01 06:00:26', '2016-11-01 10:00:26', '<div class=\"message_content \">\n\nWe are thrilled to have the <a href=\"http://www.remoteleadershipinstitute.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Remote Leadership Institute</a> as our Lead Change Group sponsor for November! The Remote Leadership Institute (RLI) helps remote leaders succeed in a virtual workplace. The RLI team believes that what successful leaders must do hasn’t changed over the years. What’s changed is how they must do it. While technology has made it easier than ever to stay connected, it has also made the leader’s job that much more complex. RLI<em> </em>exists to help organizations and leaders understand and succeed despite these changes.\n<h3>Going to War Against the Email Monster</h3>\nAlthough RLI has many great initiatives underway such as their <a href=\"http://www.remoteleadershipinstitute.com/the-certificate-series/\" target=\"_blank\">Remote Leadership Certificate series</a>, they want the Lead Change Group community to join them front and center in the war against the email monster!\n\nRLI asks, \"Considering it’s [email] used more than any other single communication tool (other than our own voices), it must be incredibly popular, right?\"\n\n<em>We can hear you shaking your head \"no\" behind your screen. </em>\n\nA majority of people hate email. Factors like this led RLI to lead the charge against it:\n<ul>\n 	<li>There are 2.9 billion email accounts on the planet.</li>\n 	<li>Worldwide, there are an estimated 210 billion email messages (personal and work-related) sent each day.</li>\n 	<li>Approximately 78% of those messages are considered “spam” or unwelcome marketing.</li>\n 	<li>The average office email account receives 122 emails a day.</li>\n 	<li>The average email “inbox” contains 125 messages at any given time.</li>\n 	<li>The top three complaints of office workers, according to multiple studies are:\n<ul>\n 	<li>The volume of email received at work</li>\n 	<li>The lack of productivity due to constant interruptions and demands of email</li>\n 	<li>The amount of time spent on email outside agreed-upon working hours</li>\n</ul>\n</li>\n 	<li>The average white-collar worker spends between one-third to one-half of the day in email- related activities.</li>\n 	<li>83% of workers say their job would be “impossible” without email, so it’s not like it’s going away any time soon.</li>\n</ul>\nRLI realizes just how damaging email can be to our productivity and success. That\'s why they created a white paper, <em>Stop Email Overload: 3 Simple Steps to Tame the Email Monster!</em> that will provide you:\n<ul>\n 	<li>Simple, efficient, and valuable techniques for organization email</li>\n 	<li>How to write clear, concise, and effective emails</li>\n 	<li>And much more!</li>\n</ul>\nGetting the white paper is as simple as clicking <a href=\"http://www.remoteleadershipinstitute.com/what-happened-to-email/\" target=\"_blank\">here</a>.\n<h3><a href=\"http://www.remoteleadershipinstitute.com/what-happened-to-email/\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-31767 aligncenter\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/remote_leadership_report_sponsorship_300x199.jpg\" alt=\"remote_leadership_report_sponsorship_300x199\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a></h3>\n<h3>More about the Remote Leadership Institute</h3>\nOnce you\'ve got that email monster tamed, we do encourage you to explore RLI\'s other offerings. In addition to the Remote Leadership Certificate series mentioned above, their virtual instructor-led courses include <a href=\"http://www.remoteleadershipinstitute.com/events/create-manage-remote-teams/\" target=\"_blank\">How to Create and Manage Remote Teams</a>, <a href=\"http://www.remoteleadershipinstitute.com/events/remote-goal-setting-accountability/\" target=\"_blank\">Goal Setting and Accountability for Remote Teams</a>, and <a href=\"http://www.remoteleadershipinstitute.com/events/effective-remote-coaching-feedback/\" target=\"_blank\">Coaching and Feedback from a Distance</a>. Many of these courses qualify for PDUs from the <a href=\"http://www.pmi.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Project Management Institute</a> and/or Continuing Education Credits for organizations like the <a href=\"https://www.shrm.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Society for Human Resource Management</a>. RLI also brings their coursework to organizations when that is the best fit.\n\nYou can find RLI via their <a href=\"http://www.remoteleadershipinstitute.com/\" target=\"_blank\">website</a>, on Twitter as <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LeadingRemotely\" target=\"_blank\">@leadingremotely</a>, on <a href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/company/remote-leadership-institute\" target=\"_blank\">LinkedIn</a>, and on <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/kevineikenberrygroup/?fref=ts\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook</a>.\n\nThank you again, Remote Leadership Institute, for your support of the Lead Change Group!\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"></p>\n\n</div>', 'Highlighting Our November Sponsor: Remote Leadership Institute', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'highlighting-our-october-sponsor-next-element-2', '', '', '2016-11-01 06:00:26', '2016-11-01 10:00:26', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/highlighting-our-october-sponsor-next-element-2/', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(31783, 428, '2016-12-13 06:00:57', '2016-12-13 11:00:57', 'Although peer groups can be extremely useful, they aren\'t very good at helping leaders improve their competencies. Groups can help spur strategic thinking, offer some perspective, and provide the opportunity to help others. But they can\'t develop leadership effectiveness. Here\'s why...\n<h3>Leadership Competencies are Developed, Not Trained</h3>\nThe first issue relates to the fact that leadership competencies are developed, not trained. It takes regular focus to break ineffective habits and form new, effective ones. Meeting once a month in a round-table setting with big-picture discussions just can\'t address someone\'s specific development needs.\n<h3>Peer Groups Don\'t Assess Strengths and Weaknesses of Individuals Well</h3>\nThe second issue relates to assessment. Peer groups aren\'t designed to assess the leadership strengths and weaknesses of individual members. That, coupled with the fact that most of us are poor at assessing the quality of our abilities, makes leadership development in a peer group pretty much impossible. (A good example of how poor we are at self-assessment is the fact that I\'ve never met an executive who thought they were a poor leader. Yet, we all know executives who ARE poor leaders!)\n<h3>Blind Spots are an Issue</h3>\nThe third issue relates to blind spots. We all have them regardless of experience, intelligence and/or education. Peer groups can help point out strategic blind spots, but aren\'t very good at pointing out leadership blind spots. It really takes someone working closely, one-on-one with a leader to identify them and bring them to light.\n<h3>The Challenge of Improving Personal Productivity</h3>\nA fourth reason that peer groups aren\'t effective at leadership development relates to personal productivity. Group discussions can be good for high-level topics pertaining to business strategies, but they don\'t lend themselves to improving day-to-day functioning. Leaders need objective input from someone who has insight into how they function at work.\n<h3>Executives Need Unbiased Confidants</h3>\nAnd a fifth issue in which peer groups fall short with respect to leadership development relates to the need for an executive to have an unbiased confidant - someone with whom they can vent, admit fears and insecurities, and generally open up to. A peer group setting is simply inappropriate for that.\n<h3>Finding the Best Course</h3>\nWhat then, is the best course of action for leadership development? It used to be mentoring by fellow executives - getting insights and guidance from someone in the company who could share the benefit of their years of experience. Unfortunately, because of cost-cutting and increased work load, those days are gone.\n\nInstead, most executives turn to executive coaching to provide the assessment, insight, and guidance needed. Peer groups have their place, but for personal development, one-on-one work is the most effective.\n\nIf you\'d like help in developing your leadership effectiveness and would find a confidential sounding board useful, please give us a call at 503-928-7685.', 'Leadership Effectiveness Can&#039;t Be Improved by Peer Groups', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'leadership-effectiveness-cant-be-improved-by-peer-groups', '', '', '2016-12-13 06:00:57', '2016-12-13 11:00:57', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31783', 0, 'post', '', 2),
(31788, 274, '2016-11-07 06:00:29', '2016-11-07 11:00:29', 'Welcome to the November 2016 edition of the Leadership Development Carnival!\n\nAs I was reviewing this month\'s submissions to the Leadership Development Carnival, I was wishing we could all get together in a room to exchange these ideas more deeply and directly. As everyone in the US gears up to put the closing moments on a divisive political season tomorrow, I am heartened to be reminded how many great leaders there are out there, committed to helping one another be more effective and more true to themselves. Thank you all.\n\nThe Lead Change Group would like to thank the <a href=\"http://www.remoteleadershipinstitute.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Remote Leadership Institute (RLI)</a> for sponsoring the Lead Change Group (including this carnival) for November 2016. Learn more about RLI <a href=\"http://www.remoteleadershipinstitute.com/\" target=\"_blank\">here</a>.\n<h3>Let\'s Get Started</h3>\n<strong>Anne Perschel</strong> of <a href=\"http://germaneconsulting.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Germane Coaching and Consulting</a> submitted <a href=\"http://germaneconsulting.com/real-leaders-apologize/\" target=\"_blank\">How Real Leaders Apologize and Mean It</a>. Anne summarizes, \"Real leaders don’t apologize AS IF they mean it. They actually mean it because they are empathetic. Empathy is the first of four elements in a genuine apology.\" Follow Anne on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/bizshrink\" target=\"_blank\">@bizshrink</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Beth Beutler</strong> of <a href=\"http://www.bethbeutler.com/\" target=\"_blank\">H.O.P.E. Unlimited</a> provided <a href=\"http://www.bethbeutler.com/faster-colleague/\" target=\"_blank\">How to Get Along with the Colleague Who is Faster Than You</a>. Beth recaps, \"Do you sometimes have to work with a colleague whose pace is faster than yours? Beth Beutler gives some techniques for navigating swift waters in business relationships.\" Find Beth on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/bethbeutler\" target=\"_blank\">@bethbeutler</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Chris Edmonds</strong> of the <a href=\"http://drivingresultsthroughculture.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Purposeful Culture Group</a> contributed <a href=\"http://drivingresultsthroughculture.com/culture-leadership-charge-be-present/\" target=\"_blank\">Culture Leadership Charge: Be Present</a>. In this post, Chris charges leaders with the importance of being fully present, so they don’t send a message of “you’re not that important.” Follow Chris on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/scedmonds\" target=\"_blank\">@scedmonds</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<div class=\"divide\">\n\n<strong>Dan McCarthy</strong> of <a href=\"http://www.greatleadershipbydan.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Great Leadership</a> provided <a href=\"http://www.greatleadershipbydan.com/2016/10/leaders-should-define-more-than.html\" target=\"_blank\">Leaders Should Define More Than the Mountain Top, but Less Than the Whole Plan</a>. Dan recaps, \"When it comes to defining their vision, leaders tend to fall into two camps. Camp one can clearly articulate a mountain top they want to reach, but create zero clarity on how they’re going to get to that mountain top. Camp two has their mountain top defined and they also have a step-by-step guide to get from where they are today (base camp) to their mountain top. Both camps fail to create sustained motivation in their people. Guest author Hamish Knox explains why.\" Locate Dan on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/greatleadership\" target=\"_blank\">@greatleadership</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Dana Theus</strong> of <a href=\"http://inpowercoaching.com/\" target=\"_blank\">InPower Coaching</a> contributed <a href=\"http://inpowercoaching.com/dear-dana-workplace-advice-new-team-dealing-workplace-bullying-colleague/\" target=\"_blank\">Dear Dana Workplace Advice: New To the Team And Dealing With Workplace Bullying By A Colleague</a>. Dana writes, \"Dear Dana, I recently joined a new team and one of my colleagues is treating me like the hired help! I’m not sure what to do since I am new on the team and don’t want to get a reputation early on for being difficult or refusing to do work. Help! — Signed, Between a rock and a hard place in Iowa.\" Find Dana on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/DanaTheus\" target=\"_blank\">@DanaTheus</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>David Dye</strong> of <a href=\"http://trailblazeinc.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Trailblaze</a> submitted <a href=\"http://trailblazeinc.com/how-to-lead-when-it-looks-impossible/\" target=\"_blank\">How to Lead When It Looks Impossible</a>. David summarizes, \"Every leader faces challenges that look impossible. David offers encouragement and practical next steps based on a recent mountain he and Karin Hurt climbed.\" Follow David on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/davidmdye\" target=\"_blank\">@davidmdye</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>David Grossman </strong>of <a href=\"http://www.yourthoughtpartner.com/\" target=\"_blank\">The Grossman Group</a> shared <a href=\"http://www.yourthoughtpartner.com/blog/bid/38853/the-7-requirements-of-a-strategic-messaging-methodology\" target=\"_blank\">7 Requirements of a Strategic Messaging Methodology</a>. David writes, \"What is a Strategic Messaging Methodology, and what can it do for you, your leaders, and your organization? Simply put, it’s a process that helps you think strategically about how you develop your story, drive alignment, and tell it powerfully—whether it’s a large organizational story or whether you want to <a href=\"http://www.yourthoughtpartner.com/change-management\" target=\"_blank\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=http://www.yourthoughtpartner.com/change-management&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1478188589259000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHpJw1yVCTxLhLgV13ned_ieszjEQ\"><b>communicate change</b></a> inside your organization. \" Discover David on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ThoughtPartner\" target=\"_blank\">@thoughtpartner</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Evan Sinar</strong> of <a href=\"http://www.ddiworld.com/home?lang=en-US\" target=\"_blank\">Development Dimensions International (DDI)</a> provided <a href=\"http://www.bethbeutler.com/why-ive-cut-back-on-working-at-coffee-shops/http://www.bethbeutler.com/why-ive-cut-back-on-working-at-coffee-shops/\" target=\"_blank\">LeaderPulse: The 5 Most Valuable Gifts Most Leaders Aren\'t Getting</a>. Evan recaps, \"If you missed Boss’s Day last month, it’s never too late for employees to recognize their life-changing leaders. We looked to our research to come up with five less common, but more valuable gifts.\" Find Evan on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/EvanSinar\" target=\"_blank\">@evansinar</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Jill Malleck</strong> of <a href=\"http://epiphanyatwork.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Epiphany at Work</a> contributed <a href=\"https://epiphanyatwork.com/told-think-now/\" target=\"_blank\">They Told You What They Think of You, Now What?</a>. Jill shares, \"Getting 360 degree feedback anonymously can be overwhelming and cause anxiety. Jill explains how you can pluck out the meaningful messages and take positive action.\" Find Jill on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/epiphanyatwork\" target=\"_blank\">@epiphanyatwork</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Jesse Lyn Stoner</strong> of the <a href=\"http://seapointcenter.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Seapoint Center</a> shared <a href=\"http://seapointcenter.com/7-fail-safe-steps-to-increase-responsibility/\" target=\"_blank\"> 7 Fail-Safe Steps to Increase Responsibility and Develop Your Team </a>. Jesse Lyn recaps, \"If you’re not offering your people the opportunity to grow – to increase their responsibility and learn new skills – you are going to lose them. But increasing responsibility without also delegating authority is a recipe for disaster. And simply delegating is not always the answer either.\" Follow Jesse Lyn on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JesseLynStoner\" target=\"_blank\">@JesseLynStoner</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Jim Taggart</strong> of <a href=\"https://changingwinds.wordpress.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Changing Winds</a> provided <a href=\"https://changingwinds.wordpress.com/2016/10/16/samsungs-failed-executive-leadership/\" target=\"_blank\">Samsung\'s Failed Executive Leadership</a>. Jim shares, \"Being the top leader of an organization, whether in the public or private sphere, is no easy task. What’s more appropriately called executive managerial leadership (as opposed to the overused, feel good term “leadership”), those at the helm of companies or government agencies have huge responsibilities.\" Find Jim on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/72keys\" target=\"_blank\">@72keys</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Joel Garfinkle</strong> of the <a href=\"http://careeradvancementblog.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Career Advancement Blog</a> submitted <a href=\"http://careeradvancementblog.com/developing-personal-brand\" target=\"_blank\">5-Step Plan to Developing Your Personal Brand</a>. Joel recaps: \"Have you developed your personal brand? No? Then it\'s no surprise that you\'re not moving up in your career. Implement this 5-step plan for career advancement.\" Discover Joel on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JoelGarfinkle\" target=\"_blank\">@JoelGarfinkle</a>.\n\n</div>\n<strong>John Hunter</strong> of the <a href=\"http://management.curiouscatblog.net/\" target=\"_blank\">Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog</a> shared <a href=\"http://management.curiouscatblog.net/2016/10/19/bell-labs-designing-a-new-phone-system-using-idealized-design/\" target=\"_blank\">Bell Labs Designing a New Phone System Using Idealized Design</a>. John summarizes, \"The basic idea of idealized design is to create a new design for a product, service or the organization based on what is feasible today (but without being limited by the constraints of the existing state). Then, use that ideal to guide you as you figure out a plan to move from the existing state to that idealized design.\" Find John on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/curiouscat_com\" target=\"_blank\">@curiouscat_com</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\">\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Jon Mertz</strong> of <a href=\"https://www.thindifference.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Thin Difference</a> contributed <a href=\"https://www.thindifference.com/2016/10/discontentment-great-leadership-challenge/\" target=\"_blank\">Discontentment: A Great Leadership Challenge</a>. Jon shares, \"Discontentment seems to be reaching epidemic proportions. What can we do as leaders to begin to unravel it? \" Follow Jon on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ThinDifference\" target=\"_blank\">@thindifference</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Jon Verbeck</strong> of <a href=\"http://www.jonverbeck.com/\" target=\"_blank\">JonVerbeck.com</a> provided <a href=\"http://www.jonverbeck.com/dashboard-may-important-part-company-vehicle/\" target=\"_blank\">The Dashboard May be the Most Important Part of Your Company Vehicle</a>. In this post, Virtual CFO Jon Verbeck explains the important parts of a financial dashboard for your company. Find Jon on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/jonverbeck1\" target=\"_blank\">@jonverbeck1</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Julie Winkle-Giulioni </strong>of <a href=\"http://www.juliewinklegiulioni.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Julie Winkle-Giulioni</a> provided <a href=\"http://smartbrief.com/original/2016/10/whoa-what-are-todays-most-common-leadership-mistakes\" target=\"_blank\">Whoa! What are today\'s most common leadership mistakes?</a> Julie recaps, \"As counterintuitive as it may seem, well-meaning leaders undermine staff development - and ultimately results - not because they are doing too little but because they are doing too much.\" Find Julie on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/julie_wg\" target=\"_blank\">@julie_wg</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Karin Hurt </strong>of <a href=\"http://letsgrowleaders.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Let\'s Grow Leaders</a> contributed <a href=\"http://letsgrowleaders.com/winning-well/7-things-your-high-performing-employees-long-to-hear-you-say/\" target=\"_blank\">7 Things Your High-Performance Employees Long to Hear You Say</a>. Karin recaps, \"Your high-performing employees never seem like the MIT (Most Important Thing), but the truth is, when I meet with them and ask what they need, I hear about things they long for from their boss.\" Follow Karin on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LetsGrowLeaders\" target=\"_blank\">@letsgrowleaders</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Lisa Kohn </strong>of <a href=\"http://chatsworthconsulting.com/thoughtful-leaders/\" target=\"_blank\">Thoughtful Leaders</a> contributed <a href=\"http://chatsworthconsulting.com/2016/08/15/are-you-really-a-leader-an-easy-way-to-tell-2/\" target=\"_blank\">Four Key Steps to Being, and Getting More Done</a>. Lisa shares why we need to spend at least as much time “being” as “doing,” and how to do this in our too-busy world. Follow Lisa on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ThoughtfulLdrs\" target=\"_blank\">@thoughtfulldrs</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Marcella Bremer</strong> of <a href=\"http://www.leadershipandchangemagazine.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Leadership and Change Magazine</a> provided <a href=\"http://www.leadershipandchangemagazine.com/the-power-of-less-get-more-done/\" target=\"_blank\">The Power of Less: Get More Done</a>. Marcella recaps, \"I love Leo Babauta\'s message from The Power Of Less. It sounds so simple, but it\'s easier said than done: Identify the essential and eliminate the rest. If you spread yourself too thin; it dilutes your power and effectiveness. Do you do little of too many things? Or do you focus on just one big goal?\" Find Marcella on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MarcellaBremer\" target=\"_blank\">@marcellabremer</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Mary Jo Asmus </strong>of <a href=\"http://www.aspire-cs.com/need-really-listen/\" target=\"_blank\">Aspire Collaborative Services LLC</a> submitted <a href=\"http://www.aspire-cs.com/do-less-and-be-more-of-a-leader/\" target=\"_blank\">Do Less and Be More of a Leader</a>. Mary Jo summarizes, \"Being a people leader requires you to shift your mindset into knowing who you are and developing yourself within that framework.\" Follow Mary Jo on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/mjasmus\" target=\"_blank\">@mjasmus</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Mary Ila Ward </strong>of <a href=\"http://horizonpointconsulting.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Horizon Point Consulting</a> contributed <a href=\"http://horizonpointconsulting.com/blog3/item/leaders-and-runners-dont-run-the-race-alone/\" target=\"_blank\">Leaders and Runners, Don’t Run the Race Alone</a>. She recaps, \"In \'Leaders and Runners, Don\'t Run the Race Alone,\' Mary Ila encourages leaders to arm themselves with a wingman or wingwoman and provides tips on how leaders can gain \'wing strength,\' emphasizing that \'All runners, and leaders, especially those out for the long haul, need a wingman.\'\" Discover Mary Ila on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MaryIlaWard\" target=\"_blank\">@maryilaward</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Michael Lee Stallard </strong>of <a href=\"http://www.michaelleestallard.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Michael Lee Stallard</a> submitted <a href=\"http://connectionculture.com/finish-2016-strong/\" target=\"_blank\">Finish 2016 Strong: Refocus, Reconnect, Reenergize </a>. Michael shares, \"With 2016 rapidly drawing to a close, now is the time to establish your plan to finish the year strong. Michael Stallard shares advice for leaders on meeting year-end goals.\" Follow Michael on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/michaelstallard\" target=\"_blank\">@michaelstallard</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Miki Saxon</strong> of <a href=\"http://mappingcompanysuccess.com/\" target=\"_blank\">MAPping Company Success</a> contributed <a href=\"http://mappingcompanysuccess.com/2016/10/golden-oldies-customer-service-week-2016/\" target=\"_blank\">Golden Oldie: Customer Service Week 2016</a>. Miki writes, \"There is much talk, and even some action, about \"enhancing customer experience,\" but, when you\'re a line manager, who exactly are your customers?\" Discover Miki on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/OptionSanity\" target=\"_blank\">@optionsanity</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Neal Burgis</strong> of <a href=\"http://www.successful-solutions.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Burgis Successful Solutions</a> submitted <a href=\"http://www.successful-solutions.com/2016/10/28/leaders-start-viewing-setbacks-as-opportunities/\" target=\"_blank\">Leaders, Start Viewing Setbacks as Opportunities</a>. Neal recaps, \"Too many leaders get flustered when a business setback occurs. You need to take a step back and look at what happened and take action to move forward.\" Find Neal on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Exec_Solutions\" target=\"_blank\">@exec_solutions</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Paul LaRue </strong>of <a href=\"https://upwardsleader.com/\" target=\"_blank\">The UPwards Leader</a> contributed <a href=\"https://upwardsleader.com/2016/10/24/how-to-lead-with-a-sandbox-culture/\" target=\"_blank\">How To Lead With A Sandbox Culture</a>. Paul summarizes, \"Striking a balance between cultural and operational parameters that allows your employees room to innovate is always a challenge. Thinking of it as a sandbox in a playground will help that balance.\" Follow Paul on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/paul_larue\" target=\"_blank\">@paul_larue</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Randy Conley</strong> of <a href=\"http://leadingwithtrust.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Leading With Trust</a> shared <a href=\"https://leadingwithtrust.com/2016/10/16/10-ways-leaders-can-easily-build-trust-with-their-new-teams/\" target=\"_blank\">10 Ways Leaders Can Easily Build Trust with Their New Teams</a>. Randy writes, \"Trust doesn’t \'just happen\' by accident. It takes intentional effort and leaders need to have a specific game plan to establish and nurture trust in relationships. Randy Conley offers advice from the trenches in this post.\" Find Randy on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/RandyConley\" target=\"_blank\">@randyconley</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Shelley Row</strong> of <a href=\"http://www.shelleyrow.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Shelley Row</a> submitted <a href=\"http://www.shelleyrow.com/pushing-a-wheel-chair-lessons-in-servant-leadership/\" target=\"_blank\">Pushing a Wheel Chair: Lessons in Servant Leadership</a>. In this piece, Shelley shared lessons learned about servant leadership as she took on caregiving responsibilities for her husband.\" Discover Shelley on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ShelleyRow\" target=\"_blank\">@shelleyrow</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Susan Mazza</strong> of <a href=\"http://randomactsofleadership.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Random Acts of Leadership</a> provided <a href=\"http://randomactsofleadership.com/i-choose-to-honor-you/\" target=\"_blank\">I Choose to Honor You</a>. Susan explains, \"If we truly want to be constructive participants and collaborators in our democracy, we need to bring a better spirit to our conversations with each other. We need to start talking with one another about the things that are hard to talk about, to engage in conversations with people who do not look or think like us, so we can learn. We need to be far more curious and much more discerning about what we believe and what we think we know, and seek truth rather than assume we are being told the truth.\" Follow Susan on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/SusanMazza\" target=\"_blank\">@susanmazza</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Tanveer Naseer</strong> of <a href=\"http://tanveernaseer.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Tanveer Naseer</a> submitted <a href=\"http://www.tanveernaseer.com/the-importance-of-gratitude-in-leadership/\" target=\"_blank\">Why Expressing Gratitude Through Our Leadership Matters</a>. Tanveer explains the post is, \"A look at how expressing gratitude can help leaders bring out the best in those they lead and drive their organizations to succeed.\" Discover Tanveer on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TanveerNaseer\" target=\"_blank\">@tanveernaseer</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<strong>Wally Bock</strong> of <a href=\"http://www.threestarleadership.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Three Star Leadership</a> submitted <a href=\"http://www.threestarleadership.com/life/thoughts-on-retirement-and-purpose\" target=\"_blank\">Thoughts on Retirement and Purpose</a>. Wally recaps, \"People need a purpose. Without purpose, there’s not much reason to get up in the morning.\" Find Wally on Twitter at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/wallybock\" target=\"_blank\">@wallybock</a>.\n<div class=\"divide\">\n<div class=\"divide\"></div>\n<em>Thank you to everyone who submitted articles for this month\'s carnival! If you would like to be on the distribution list for submission calls, please contact Paula Kiger (paula @ weavinginfluence (dot) com)!</em>\n\n</div>\n</div>', 'November 2016 Leadership Development Carnival', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'november-2016-leadership-development-carnival', '', '', '2016-11-07 06:00:29', '2016-11-07 11:00:29', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/september-2016-leadership-development-carnival/', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(31833, 273, '2016-11-04 06:00:06', '2016-11-04 10:00:06', '<em>This post is a part of our 2016 Lead Change Group Guest Blogger Series. Today we are pleased to share a guest post from Joshua Lee Henry from <a title=\"Advancing the Kingdom to Transform Society\" href=\"http://joshualeehenry.com/\" rel=\"home\">Advancing the Kingdom to Transform Society</a>.</em>\n\nIn her bestselling book <em>Mindset –The New Psychology of Success: How We Can Learn to Fulfill Our Potential</em> (Ballantine Books, 2007), author and Stanford professor, Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., compares and contrasts what she calls a “fixed-mindset” with that of a “growth-mindset.\" While the former is closed off to new ideas and contains thought patterns that keep people stuck in their old ways, the latter is open to fresh ideas, seeks out new perspectives and understanding, and is receptive to learning opportunities. Her thesis is that people who proactively cultivate a growth-mindset achieve a greater degree of success and a deeper meaning of fulfillment in all areas of life, including business, career development, education, parenting, and other social relationships. Again, this is due to their openness to challenge, the embracing of change, seeking out new experiences, and a striving for continual learning, all characteristics that accompany a growth-mindset.\n\nProfessor Dweck, though perhaps most well-known for this topic among her academic circles, is not the first person to suggest such a concept. Though her research certainly adds an enormous amount of credibility to her claims, others before her have arrived at the same verdict. These include W. Clement Stone, the author and former publisher of <em>Success Unlimited Magazine; </em>popular radio personality Earl Nightingale; billionaire entrepreneur Paul J. Meyer; Og Mandino, the author of the classic book, <em>The Greatest Salesman in the World</em> (Bantam, 1983); motivational legend Zig Ziglar; and co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul® series, Mark Victor Hansen. All have advocated for the paradigm of a growth mindset, especially in relation to the power of goal setting.\n\nNot only are all these men giants in the field of motivation, self-help, and personal development, they are all also successful businessmen. In fact, the success they achieved through their own personal production and sales training, along with their promotion of goal setting with a growth mindset, made them leaders in business and proved their principles worked. Their growth clearly set their practices apart from others. Their business success built the foundation for their public speaking and publishing platforms.\n\nDan Sullivan, cofounder and president of The Strategic Coach, Inc. in the newly revised, second edition of his bestselling book <em>The Laws of Lifetime Growth</em> (Berrett-Koehler, 2016) explains “Growth is a fundamental desire of all human beings. No matter what kinds of goals you have or what you strive for, whatever you want to see in your life that’s not there now is about growth. Growth is at the root of everything that gives us a feeling of accomplishment, satisfaction, meaning, and progress… Growth is a mindset” (pg. 1). Dan and his co-author, Catherine Nomura, then outline their Ten Laws of Lifetime Growth as follows:\n<h3><strong>The Ten Laws of Lifetime Growth:</strong></h3>\n<ol>\n 	<li><em> Always Make Your Future Bigger Than Your Past </em></li>\n 	<li><em> </em><em>Always Make Your Learning Greater Than Your Experience</em></li>\n 	<li><em> </em><em>Always Make Your Contribution Bigger Than Your Reward</em></li>\n 	<li><em> </em><em>Always Make Your Performance Greater Than Your Applause</em></li>\n 	<li><em> </em><em>Always Make Your Gratitude Greater Than Your Success</em></li>\n 	<li><em> </em><em>Always Make Your Enjoyment Greater Than Your Effort</em></li>\n 	<li><em> </em><em>Always Make Your Cooperation Greater Than Your Status</em></li>\n 	<li><em> </em><em>Always Make Your Confidence Greater Than Your Comfort</em></li>\n 	<li><em> </em><em>Always Make Your Purpose Greater Than Your Money</em></li>\n 	<li><em> </em><em>Always Make Your Questions Bigger Than Your Answers</em></li>\n</ol>\nIn a previous guest post for the Lead Change Group, <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/lead-change-like-a-slinky/\">Change is like a Slinky® Go from Sinking to Succeeding in Creating Significant Change for Your Life and Work</a>, I discussed the six phases of successful change navigation. But while change doesn’t always equal growth, growth always equals change. It is impossible to both change and remain the same. A transformation must occur. For the improvement of a situation, a shift in attitude or perspective, whether a physical alteration or an organizational pivot, something old must stop and/or something new must begin.\n\nThis is the elementary truth of all goal achievement and any behavioral modification whether personal or professional. This is the basic logic Einstein had in defining insanity; i.e., doing the same thing but expecting different results. I like the way Jim Rohn, the great business philosopher, used to say it, “If you want to have more, you have to become more.” These insights from Professor Dweck and the Strategic Coach Dan Sullivan, all point to the same conclusion that was so simply articulated by the late Jim Rohn: “Success is something you attract by the person you became.”\n\nHow you become a successful person is the driving desire of a growth-mindset.\n\n<strong><img class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-29217\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/joshua-lee-henry-two-120x150.png\" alt=\"joshua lee henry two\" width=\"120\" height=\"150\" /></strong>\n\n<strong>Joshua Lee Henry </strong>is the Director of Coaching on Purpose, a biblically-based leadership development consultancy that operates as a “BAM” –business as mission, organization. Coaching on Purpose is also a Zig Ziglar Legacy Certified training program that specializes in teaching ministry principles for the marketplace. He is also a published author, conference speaker, and corporate trainer.', 'Your Success Key to Maximizing Potential and Improving Performance', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'your-success-key-to-maximizing-potential-and-improving-performance', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:00:06', '2016-11-04 10:00:06', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31833', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(31836, 252, '2016-11-08 06:00:30', '2016-11-08 11:00:30', 'I was sitting in the waiting room at my doctor’s office. A twenty-something woman was at the desk making her next appointment for a checkup. She said it had to be at the beginning or end of the day because of her job.\n\nShe must have been acquainted with the person behind the desk because they asked what she was working at. She responded that she was (I didn’t hear it), even though she double-majored in journalism and communications, minoring in business. She said she really didn’t know what she wanted to do, or <em>could</em> do with all that.\n\nShe said she loved to draw. Someone mentioned art therapy. She then said, somewhat forlornly, “But then I would have to go back to school…”\n\nShe went on to say her mother was a nurse. She wondered if she should just go into a conventional occupation and get it over with. Someone behind the desk said, “Yeah, that’s understandable.”\n\nI could no longer stay seated. I walked up to her and said, “This is none of my business, but you have a right to do what you love.”\n\nI didn’t know what kind of response I would get. I’m always prepared that I may have overstepped. Thankfully her face brightened. She must have thanked me 5 times before she left the office. She was smiling ear-to-ear.\n<h3><strong>Purpose is apparently a popular thing.</strong></h3>\nI went on with my appointment and didn’t think about it again. As I left the office, one of the workers behind the counter whispered to me, “You know what you said to that woman? Is it possible to do what you love? Are you a coach? Can people actually find their purpose?” [NOTE: I’m not making this up.]\n\nAnother employee walked up. We were silent. He looked at both of us. He said, “Are you talking about careers?” Hmmmm. I don’t remember him being there when I spoke to the young woman. The staff must have already talked.\n\nThe woman behind the desk went on to tell me about the two prestigious degrees she achieved. She is in her late 30’s or early 40s. She still didn’t know what to do with those degrees.\n\nThe look on her face broke my heart. There was such longing.\n\nWe talked about meaning in work. Conceivably you can find meaning no matter what you do for work. (I once knew a TSA employee who found her work deeply meaningful, but that\'s a story for another time.) If that doesn\'t cut it for you, you explore and discover.\n<h3><strong>What YOU want matters.</strong></h3>\n<blockquote><em>“You can fail at what you don\'t want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.” – Jim Carrey</em></blockquote>\nYou have a right to follow what is written on your heart. You would not have the desire or interest if there weren’t something there for you. In most cases, it is not a pipe dream. You are not just fooling yourself.\n\nSociety, families, and practical concerns can lead you to put your desires and dreams on the sidelines. In some cases this conditioning is so strong, you doesn’t even know what you <em>really</em> want — what makes your heart sing.\n\nLook for what interests you, even slightly. Check it out and see where it leads you. It’s like a treasure hunt.\n<h3>Our collective gifts are essential for our world to thrive.</h3>\nWe are here to do more than work to survive. We all have a skill, a quality, a passion, a project, or a dream <strong>that is meant to gift the planet</strong>. Give yourself permission to seek yours out. Don’t you want to be smiling ear-to-ear like the woman I met today? Take a step in the direction of your dream. You never know what might rise up to meet you that leads you to touch others\' lives profoundly, and is deeply satisfying for you at the same time.', 'Why Your Gift to the Planet Matters', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'why-your-gift-to-the-planet-matters', '', '', '2016-11-08 06:00:30', '2016-11-08 11:00:30', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31836', 0, 'post', '', 0);
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(31855, 441, '2016-11-21 06:00:33', '2016-11-21 11:00:33', 'There is a lot of uncertainty these days with political polarization of historic proportions, a surge in racial violence, and technological and global developments impacting organizations. In order to manage and protect ourselves, it is easy to become defensive and judgmental. Closed-mindedness, miscommunication and misunderstanding are at the heart of the uncertainty hurting relationships, bottom lines and lives. We need to engage in open-minded conversations that lead to empathy and insight to reach beneficial agreements and solutions.\n\nA lot of energy is wasted because we misunderstand each other, make uninformed judgments and have difficulty coming to agreements—causing both relationships and results to suffer. For most of us, communicating with others is one of the most challenging aspects of our professional and personal lives.\n\nWe each need to make it our intention to adapt an open mindset where we are open to and appreciate “what is” and what’s unfolding as well as being optimistic about what is possible. This involves having an open mind (curious), open heart (compassionate), opengut (courageous), and open hands (welcoming and non-judgmental). It is useful to assume positive intent and recognize that it is human to be seeing things differently based on our experiences. With openness and curiosity we can find ways of addressing issues together. If we continue to make others wrong, we have little chance of being innovative and creating new solutions together.\n\nYou can develop an open mindset by asking, “Am I open?” or “Am I experiencing an oasis?” When we become aware, we can shift from an activated amygdala—fight or flight—response to activating a different part of our brain where we see more possibilities. You will physically experience an expansive welcoming state. We know that emotions are contagious and that your open mindset will spread and support creating a positive environment.\n\nWith an open-minded stance you can engage in a conversation that will create understanding and agreement on solutions.\n\nOASIS is an acronym for moves or steps to ensure positive and productive conversations.\n<ul>\n 	<li><em><strong>O- Observations:</strong> </em>Identify the observation or facts separating them from your assumptions or thoughts</li>\n 	<li><em><strong>A- Awareness:</strong> </em>Notice your assumptions, emotions and background or expectations that influence your view of the situation</li>\n 	<li><em><strong>S- Shift (to being open):</strong></em> When you notice your judgments, stop, step back and shift to being open and curious about the other person’s perspective</li>\n 	<li><em><strong>I-Importance:</strong> </em>Now that you are open, focus on what is important to the other, you and to both of you. This involves giving empathy, asking questions and focused listening</li>\n 	<li><em><strong>S-Solution:</strong> </em>Given what is important to all involved, explore options and agree on possible solutions. Make commitments on who will do what and when</li>\n</ul>\nThe OASIS process has been tested all over the world and is what we do naturally in positive and productive interactions. The key is to remember to make it your intention to assume positive intent and to create an open environment for creating understanding and agreement together.', 'Cultivate an Open Mindset', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'cultivate-an-open-mindset', '', '', '2016-11-21 06:00:33', '2016-11-21 11:00:33', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31855', 0, 'post', '', 1),
(31857, 418, '2016-11-22 06:00:07', '2016-11-22 11:00:07', 'If you face disengaged employees, low productivity, low morale, and trying to get teams to do more with less: listen up! This elementary school teacher is turning the tables on traditional thinking and in the process, modeling steps that can also get results with an adult workforce.\n\n<em><strong>Scenario:</strong> </em>She is given an under-resourced fourth grade in one of the lowest performing districts in the state. (We are keeping her anonymous to protect the confidentiality of her class. For the sake of this article, let us call her Ms. Resilient or Ms. R.)\n\nShe arrives and is greeted with no books, no lesson plans, not enough desks, no technology, no school-wide systems, not even a schedule for the day. This is nine days before the start of the school year. Her children come from homes where they have experienced significant trauma and anger bubbles below the surface. Many come from homes headed by single mothers  and a number live in homeless shelters.\n\n<em>And you think <strong>you</strong> have challenges!</em>\n\nNow, in her third year at this school, Ms. R has achieved amazing results. During her first year, her class won the perfect attendance award twice and now she has one of the highest attendance and lowest tardy rates in the school. Children make signs about how they love math. The fourth grade classroom is self-managed and each child has a 30-minute period in which they quietly “work in their office.\"\n\nShe achieves this by concentrating NOT on the best bulletin boards but rather starting the year with a blank room. She asks students what they want their new home to look like and what jobs are needed to make this “team\" successful. Ms. R has them fill out job applications and teaches them about the job interview process. This allows the children to identify and voice their contributions from day one. (By extension, consider the <a href=\"http://www.personneltoday.com/hr/self-selection-systems-aid-staff-retention/\" target=\"_blank\">self-selection process</a> found in companies like <a href=\"http://www.zappos.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Zappos</a> and <a href=\"https://www.gore.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Gore</a>.)\n<h3><strong>This Is How She Does It</strong></h3>\n<em><strong>Belief precedes behavior</strong></em>\n\nMs. R practices intelligent optimism. She reframes how she views the children and sees them not as unreachable and violent but rather as youngsters crying out for help. She literally calls them scholars and has them in groups with college names: Bucknell, Harvard, Yale and more. She teaches them college-ready words and shows them pictures of her graduate school classroom so they can see what it looks like to engage in a college-level discussion. Their vocabulary has improved and-so has their posture! (Think of the correlation between posture and confidence.)\n\nShe believes in them and tells them that. She shows them that they are better than they think and they respond. The old adage is “I’ll believe it when I see it.” Ms. R. states, “I believe it and now I am seeing it.”\n\nDoesn’t happen overnight but she is tenacious. She and the children celebrate small wins that are adding up to big gains.\n\nHow are you seeing your employees? Do you believe they have untapped abilities? Do you point out small wins or only failures?\n\n<em><strong>Love conquers fear</strong></em>\n\nAt the end of every school day, she tells her 30 nine-year olds that she loves them. In a trauma-prone home environment created by lack of food, an absent parent, and sometimes domestic violence, LOVE is not a common word.\n\nGiven the fast-paced work environment that demands productivity, “love” would not be a word tossed around. And yet, Tim Sanders, when he was Chief Solutions Officer at Yahoo,  advocated that business love meant sharing everything you know, helping people make connections, and being interested in the well-being and growth of others. In short: Knowledge. Network and Compassion can win the day.\n\n<em><strong>Family matters</strong></em>\n\nNo one comes into a schoolroom or workplace and leaves the “family” behind. Even some knowledge of “the family” opens the door to compassion and caring. Ms. R. has home-visited every household that will accept her—some 90%. When she visits, it’s not to report on the child but rather to talk to the parent about what their life is like. She asks to see family pictures, to hear family stories. Children show her their bedroom. And—despite the extreme poverty—the family inevitably invites her to a dinner. She accepts.\n\n“When the child sees me with his mom, he knows we are working together. It is a subtle bond that makes a difference,” asserts Ms. R.  Sometimes, she takes the parent to McDonalds where the atmosphere is unconstrained. Other teachers refuse to do this intense work. But Ms. R. is reaping the benefit of a united front to serve the student.\n\nIn businesses, I have seen managers inquire about employees’ children, their after-work activities, their parents, their spouses. The intention is to discover the whole person and not just the information on a resume. One manager sends notes of congratulations or gratitude to employees’ homes. Family does matter.\n\n<em><strong>Personal accountability trumps punishment</strong></em>\n\nIn traditional school settings, an unruly child is often taken out of the classroom, sent home, or  punished in some other way. Not so in Ms. R’s classroom. Over time, she has taught the children how to think as a community with everyone taking personal responsibility for what they do and how each students choices impact the others.  The “community” creates its own standard of behavior. There’s an imaginary “tool box” for helping students who struggle the most in the classroom. The students and Ms. R. take responsibility for aiding each other.\n\nImagine a work team determining how they want to interact with each other and what is the best supportive behavior. Imagine a team looking at what creates trust and what breaks it, how to have conflict without blowing the team apart, and how to hold self and each other accountable. This is exactly what Ms. R. does.\n\n<em><strong>Age does not always equate with wisdom</strong></em>\n\nMs. R has been asked to give presentations at Harvard\'s School of Education. She hesitated at first because the teachers around her often were horrified by her methods that were getting results over the way-we’ve-always-done-it mentality. But she relented because, as she insisted, “I know we can make this work!”\n\nSurprise: she is only 24 years old with a degree in sociology. Her youth, unbiased perspective, and enthusiasm are creating an amazing result for a school that had little hope. In fact, she is planning a field trip to take her children to the mill that once served the town. Right now, she is working on raising $2,500 for four field trips.\n\n“I want to create a year’round experience for students from poor immigrant families to understand the rich, hard-working immigrant history of their industrial city and to feel proud of their community.”\n\nWhat millennials do you need to heed?  Do you seek out young employees who have a fresh perspective and a new way of creating a culture that glows with engagement, positivity, and promise?  Perhaps, like Ms. R., you will find an old soul in a young body. This fourth grade class might really hold the answer.\n\n<img class=\"aligncenter wp-image-31859\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/IMG_6125.jpeg\" alt=\"img_6125\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" />\n\nPS: Small wonder she was the district’s youngest ever “teacher-of-the-year” finalist.\n\n&nbsp;', 'Business Leaders Need This Fourth Grade Teacher', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'business-leaders-need-this-fourth-grade-teacher', '', '', '2016-11-22 06:00:07', '2016-11-22 11:00:07', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31857', 0, 'post', '', 14),
(31861, 391, '2016-11-16 06:00:39', '2016-11-16 11:00:39', 'Do you think that you matter at work? What do you think the majority will answer...?\n\nIn November, the <a href=\"https://youmattermarathon.com/\" target=\"_blank\">You Matter Marathon</a> is being held, when participants hand out one You Matter card to one person a day to remind people that they matter. It\'s a beautiful initiative, of course, but let\'s think about what this implies. It means that many people need to be reminded that they matter.\n\nI guess this is a consequence of our wealthy and individualistic culture. Everyone is busy, in a hurry, making money (or trying hard to) and pursuing their own goals, purpose, happiness, and success. Most of us enjoy more personal freedom and autonomy than our parents and ancestors experienced. We are free to choose our spouses, careers, house, car, and president - of course within practical boundaries, but still. We are entitled to our lifestyle and opinions. We don\'t have to keep up with the Joneses anymore if we don\'t choose to. We can close the door behind us, settle on the couch and watch our personal Netflix channels. We are fed and free - and tired, lonely, bored, and stuck.\n\nWithout nosy neighbors, prying family members and gossiping communities - we may be left wondering if we matter at all. To whom do we matter?\n<h3>Do you matter?</h3>\nEven if you matter at home (which I hope is obvious), how\'s that at work? Thinking of the infamous Gallup survey scores that claim that only 32% of US employees are engaged at work (Gallup data, January 2016) - I suppose the majority feel that they don\'t matter at work.\n\nWhat\'s it like, to not matter? It may arouse anger, grief, fear, hopelessness, helplessness or indifference. But what it does not arouse is enthusiasm, energy, creativity, goodwill, engagement, resourcefulness, going the extra mile, being customer-oriented, feeling patient, compassionate, kind, or serving, contributing, and collaborating.\n\nDo our organizations do well with anger, grief, fear, hopelessness, helplessness or indifference? And our staff?\n\nLet\'s not spell out the answer, but return to my first question. Do you think that you matter at work? Seriously? Are all readers leaders - who naturally assume that they matter to their teams? Are you part of those engaged 32% professionals while the 68% others can\'t be bothered to read this blog because they don\'t matter and it doesn\'t matter?\n<h3>Do your coworkers matter?</h3>\nIn the same line of questioning: Do you think that your coworkers and direct reports think that they matter at work? Are the 32% happily-engaged-people working on your team? Or might there be people who think they don\'t really matter at work?\n\nThe wonderful thing is that every person matters to the whole - even if they don\'t think so. But that\'s a systemic and philosophical argument that I won\'t get into now. The point is that people see and believe that they matter. That\'s the key to getting unstuck and accessing those states of enthusiasm, energy, creativity, productivity, and collaboration.\n<h3>How you matter - no permission required</h3>\nReceiving a You Matter card must be heartwarming - but there\'s much more that people need at work. The magic is that you can give it to them, regardless of your formal position or role. The minute you understand that You Matter you can start making a positive difference to others.\n\nHow do you show people they matter?\n<ul>\n 	<li>By giving them attention - so people feel that they are seen. Even simple eye-contact can open up a new world</li>\n 	<li>By asking genuine questions and listening to the answers - so they feel heard and respected</li>\n 	<li>By asking what they\'d like to do, or change - so they feel empowered to action</li>\n 	<li>By supporting their chosen actions - so they feel they belong to the (your) team</li>\n 	<li>By asking if they\'re open to feedback - so they feel that you care and you support them</li>\n 	<li>By asking if they need anything - so you can get them coffee or practical help</li>\n</ul>\nIs this difficult? Not really but it can be when you\'re busy on autopilot. Is it time-consuming? Not really when you think of the engagement and achievements you may set in motion... Is it something you need permission to do? Of course not. You hand out the present of your attention any way that fits you.\n\nIt may take nanoseconds to make eye contact with the receptionist. It takes 2 minutes to get the secretary a coffee. Your smile can light up a room - and your meeting will go differently - especially if you master the art of asking questions to learn (instead of questions to find the culprit or demonstrate your importance).\n\nThe best part? It will make <strong>you</strong> feel that <strong>you</strong> matter. And that won\'t be just a feeling - but a fact.\n\nWhat do you think? Do you matter? Do your coworkers matter? With what actions do you convey the You Matter message?', 'You Matter - Regardless of Your Position', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'you-matter-regardless-of-your-position', '', '', '2016-11-16 06:00:39', '2016-11-16 11:00:39', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31861', 0, 'post', '', 2),
(31889, 416, '2016-11-15 06:00:59', '2016-11-15 11:00:59', 'The face of business has changed. You may have employees working globally, doing business with people from other regions or countries, or you might be relocating executives across cultures. The fact is, global business is the new norm. And the ability for individuals to work effectively together across borders and time zones has become critical to business success.\n\nEven more, we have a moral and ethical business obligation to be savvy in how the world works. By this, I mean being aware of the nuances of political systems, cultural norms, and psychological mindsets of whom we do business with and for. Without this savviness, we have little ability to truly understand the world and what it needs to run successfully. Still, <a href=\"http://www.trainingmag.com/content/global-leadership-survey-all-around-leadership\">studies</a> show that leadership programs are failing at preparing future leaders with the skills needed to excel in today’s global business world.\n\nWhat these programs are lacking are the tools necessary for employees and organizations to cultivate a <a href=\"http://lamsonconsulting.com/coaching/creating-global-mindset/\">global mindset</a>. Global mindset is truly having the desire, knowledge, and skills to operate effectively in business today. One needs to know how to negotiate with vendors, sell to customers, and lead productive teamwork across regions – often in multiple countries at the same time. A global mindset is a critical skill parallel to legal, marketing, sales, or strategy. Its training isn’t an optional area of casual interest for employees. It fills a strategic tactical need of operating in today’s business setting. We need to take it as seriously as we do other business operations.\n\nStudy upon study has come out stating that the number one agenda item for today’s corporate leaders is finding talent with a global mindset. By cultivating a true global mindset, individuals working around the world will be able to:\n<ul>\n 	<li>Assess new markets</li>\n 	<li>Understand customer behavior</li>\n 	<li>Negotiate with vendors</li>\n 	<li>Secure contracts and commitment</li>\n 	<li>Navigate cultural nuances</li>\n 	<li>Build long-term business relationships</li>\n 	<li>Run complex projects</li>\n 	<li>Manage high-performing teams</li>\n</ul>\nWhile achieving a global mindset is a journey, there are simple ways you can start on that path. Here are four tips to get you started on expanding your bottom line and…your mind:\n\n<strong>Get off your computer and get on a plane. </strong>As much as we might like to believe that the internet makes experiences like “study abroad” unnecessary, this kind of enriching experience is invaluable in understanding how cultural differences shapes business and purchasing decisions. Opening your own mind to the differences in cultures will help you understand what kind of perspectives you might encounter in global expansion, international sales negotiations or hiring discussions for a new regional vice president.\n\n<strong>Pursue global mindset at every level of the business. </strong>While making global mindset a priority starts with upper management, executive staff aren’t the only people involved in implementing it across a company. Personnel in human resources, public relations, and corporate communications support those executive leaders. Making global mindset a priority for the entire staff, not just those who often travel internationally, will ensure that both everyday and long-term actions of the business are sensitive to the needs of other cultures.\n\n<strong>Play memory. </strong>If you’re working in a new, specific, region of the world, get online and <strong>memorize five facts about the country or culture</strong><strong>. </strong>When interacting with colleagues or business partners, use those facts as ice-breakers. In new sales or vendor meetings, you’ll be seen as credible. And by showing an effort to learn about their culture, you’ll gain respect and show genuine interest in your new associates.\n\n<strong>Share your experiences.</strong> When you travel, read global news and books, or watch international films, tell your friends, families and co-workers about it. It will get them excited to learn more about the world. People exposed to distant cultures and new ideas tend to appreciate the importance of a global mindset.\n\nAre you—and your employee—ready to go global? You can find out by taking the Global Mindset Inventory (GMI) assessment. The GMI measures Intellectual, Psychological and Social Capital to reveal both strengths and areas for development. GMI also coaches individual assessment-takers to interpret their results and create a plan of action. You can learn more about the GMI <a href=\"http://lamsonconsulting.com/coaching/creating-global-mindset/\">here</a>.\n\nDeveloping global mindset isn’t only a business benefit; the growth and enrichment that comes with cross-cultural experiences can be as personally rewarding as it is professionally.', '4 Ways to a Better Bottom Line', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', '4-ways-to-a-better-bottom-line', '', '', '2016-11-15 06:00:59', '2016-11-15 11:00:59', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31889', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(31891, 251, '2016-11-10 06:00:35', '2016-11-10 11:00:35', 'Being a leader and an elephant pooper scooper have more in common than we might think. A new president-elect was elected two days ago; and, because the impacts of external events have a way of slipping into the workplace, it’s likely you manage an employee or two who’s unhappy with the election results. His or her discontent is infecting the work environment. As leaders, it’s time to pick up the pooper scooper, embrace Abraham Lincoln’s words “with malice toward none and charity for all,” and get to work.\n\nTwenty-one months (yep, that’s how long this election has been going on) is a long time for once unthinkable, out-of-bounds notions and behaviors to move from the fringe to the norm. Now legitimized, these ideas rub against someone’s differing perceptions, values, or goals, which prompts them to champion the virtue of <em>their</em> position. The workplace result? Conflict. <a href=\"https://www.cpp.com/pdfs/CPP_Global_Human_Capital_Report_Workplace_Conflict.pdf\">Research</a> from CPP, Inc. shows employees spend anywhere from two to six hours a week dealing with conflict at work. Ugh.\n\nAs leaders, our job here is two-fold. We must act and avoid making the mistake of treating conflict as a life-or-death scourge to be stamped out. Differences, and the conflict they spawn, aren’t a dangerous deficiency or adversary to be overcome. Rather, they’re rich with opportunity.\n<blockquote>As a team leader, one must realize the paradox that surrounds conflict. The team needs to embrace conflict as a means of generating and evaluating ideas. While at the same time, it must shy away from it to prevent frustration or alienation. The biggest challenge for the team leader is figuring out how to balance these two factors. ~Erich Brockmann, professor</blockquote>\nAs leaders, it’s our job to:\n<ul>\n 	<li>Steer conflict from dysfunctional to functional, from destructive to constructive, from disregard to respect—all in pursuit of healthy conflict that facilitates innovation and openness.</li>\n 	<li>Assist people in dealing with issues as well as helping them remember the lessons learned in childhood about sharing and handling disappointment because rarely do we get 100 percent of what we want.</li>\n 	<li>Acknowledge inequity and injustice, frame solutions that draw from both poles contributing to the conflict, and assist people in recognizing there’s always a greater good that transcends individual wants and wishes.</li>\n 	<li>Weave connection and humanize the difference. “The other” has a name, a face, and feelings, too.</li>\n 	<li>Build an environment where it’s OK to disagree, but it’s not OK to fail to listen and learn, or label “the other” as being wrong.</li>\n</ul>\n<blockquote>All legislation, all government, all society is formed upon the principle of mutual concession, politeness, comity, courtesy; upon these, everything is based. ~Henry Clay, 19<sup>th</sup> century lawyer and statesman</blockquote>\nSometimes the contents of the pooper scooper get heavy and smelly. However, that’s when we—if we want to call ourselves leaders—do our best, and most meaningful, work.', 'Leadership, Healing and Pooper Scoopers', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'leadership-healing-and-pooper-scoopers', '', '', '2016-11-10 06:00:35', '2016-11-10 11:00:35', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31891', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(31904, 329, '2017-02-21 06:00:20', '2017-02-21 11:00:20', 'They were children of the depression!  My parents worried that the late 1920 and ‘30’s would return.  So, my siblings and I got docked our allowance every time a light was left on in our bedroom at super time.  We ate every piece of a cut-up chicken, including the back and neck.  We could not throw away a piece of notebook paper if it was used only on one side.  We heard way too many sacrificial stories of “walking to school for miles in the snow uphill…both ways.”  It was mental “residue” left over in my parents’ minds from their “traumatic” childhoods.\n\nBusiness is still experiencing a bad case of post-recession “traumatic residue.”  During the 2007-2009 recession, employees were subjected to major layoffs, deep budget cuts, and frugality that would make a Scrooge look like a philanthropist.  Employees experienced deep-seated anxiety that the next round of layoffs would have their name on the list.  So, employees learned ways to cope.  The “residue” side of a normal and predictable survival behavior made total sense.  But, ultimately it takes a toll on organizational success and growth.\n\nTwo criteria typically put an employee at the top of the “cut” list—screw-ups and slackers.  The screw-ups were the folks who made repeated mistakes.  They were often the employees who should have never been hired in the first place.  But, they could sometimes include brave souls who took a risk in pursuit of a worthy vision that unfortunately yielded disappointing results.  The slackers were the sleep-walking employees who did just enough to get by.  They kept one eye on the time clock and were quick to complain if asked to do anything that smacked of extra.\n\nEmployees prone to error and employees who just get by are clearly drains on the organization’s capacity for success.  And, as an adversary economy put a squeeze on razor thin margins, retaining deadheads and deadwoods was a luxury no organization could afford.  But now fast forward well beyond the recession of eight years ago.  There is a more insidious byproduct of “traumatic residue” that can have long-term unfortunate consequences. Lodged in the DNA of some organizations, “traumatic residue” can elevate “risk averse” and “looking busy” to a performing art.\n<h3><strong>Perfecting the Fine Art of “Shake and Fake”</strong></h3>\nRisk aversive behavior, emanating from a reluctance to make any type of mistake that might cause any adverse attention, gives rise to a corporate game of “shake and fake.”  “Shake and bake” is a folksy label for plan and execute. “Shake and fake,” on the other hand, is characterized as enthusiastic and passionate verbiage around a bold idea but with absolutely no intention of implementation.  The objective is to sound bold without actually being bold.\n\nThere are numerous ways this game is played. Project sub-teams are organized around the bold idea. Meetings are long on plans and proposals; but, short on “to do’s.”  Consultants are sometimes called in to do another study, obviously complete with a report that must be reviewed and discussed. Best practice field trips are organized.  In the end, the effort dies as another “big deal” change effort takes its place enabling the “shake and fake” ritual to start all over again.  No one ever actually pulls the trigger and kicks off anything that could result in an outcome for which someone could be held accountable.\n<h3><strong>Polishing the Image of Hard Work</strong></h3>\nThe “Look busy” is what we formerly chastised as the “activity trap.”  The objective is to convince everyone that you are “up to your eyeballs” in work.  There is a lot of “alligator-killing” but no much “swamp drainage.”  Requests are made for reports followed by meetings to discuss that report.  In fact, meeting-mania is one of the characteristic forms of “Look Busy.”  When you hear someone bragging about being double or triple-booked, you are probably looking at a “make work” mentality.\n\nThis game comes complete with the illusion of being very, very harried.  Game players often put in long hours fiddling with form and then complain about how hard they are working.  “I can never get caught up” or “I’m just covered up” pepper their break room diatribes. While the speed and convenience of email is a boon to communications, this game player takes emails to another level.  It is important everyone be included in an email string so all will know who is important and so very busy.  Again, little is being achieved but enormous time and energy is being expended.\n<h3><strong>Great Leaders Insist on “Getting Off the Log”</strong></h3>\nThree frogs sat on a log in the edge of the swamp.  One decided to jump in.  How many frogs are now on the log?  Nope, there are still three.  Deciding and doing is not the same thing.\n\nIn a progressive, growth-oriented world, people judge your position by the one you take, not by the one you propose.  Until you execute, all decisions are just plain old intentions.   In the end, all the planning and preparing is just “getting ready to.”  Execution—putting skin in the game--is the true test of commitment.  “I believe, I support, I approve” are weasel words unless they are coupled with visible demonstration.\n\nGreat leaders know that nothing changes, improves, grows or progresses until someone executes.  Such leaders do not allow meetings to plan meetings.  They insist meetings have an advance agenda with clear meeting objectives and that meetings end with actions assigned to people who commit to execute something by the next gathering. They require tangible, irrefutable evidence that promised results have been accomplished.\n<h3><strong>Great Leaders Rely on Trust-Building Accountability</strong></h3>\nGreat leaders set clear expectations.  They know “buy-in” is vital to delivering the expected results so they hold expectations-setting conversations to gain agreement on the achievability of performance outcomes.  Great leaders know feedback is crucial to a successful outcome. They insist on regular touch points and “check in” conversations to examine the path traveled to date (versus plan) and settle on course corrections to ensure arrival at the future state. Think of these “check in” conversations as a GPS guiding performance to a new destination.\n\nEmployees trust leaders when leaders are fair and consistent. They realize when results are less than expected there ought to be consequences. They also presume there will be good consequences for exceeding expectations. When either fails to be delivered the trust between employee and leader is weakened.\n\n“Shake and Fake” and “Looking Busy” are understandable reactions to an oppressive economic era that creates underemployment and long job searches following layoffs. But, the time has come to help employees break out of their protective game playing and focus on productivity, achievement, and growth.  It is time for leaders to “<em>change</em> the people” or “change the <em>people</em>.”  And, those who insist on playing it safe (a.k.a., taking up space for high performers) need to be given an opportunity to find employment elsewhere.', 'Leaders: Stop Traumatic Residue!', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'leaders-stop-traumatic-residue', '', '', '2017-02-21 06:00:20', '2017-02-21 11:00:20', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31904', 0, 'post', '', 1),
(31906, 276, '2016-11-14 06:00:20', '2016-11-14 11:00:20', 'Being a leader may sound glamorous, but the reality is it is a lot of work. While a leader’s prior performance is an indication of their capability, having new constituents means that they need to prove themselves again.  The leader needs to work hard to earn the trust and respect of their people.\n\nWhile one can say, \"I’ve done all the work and made it ... why do I need to prove myself again?\", it is necessary because it is a new relationship and therefore they need to get to know one another. In many respects, it resets you, motivating you to work hard again to demonstrate that you deserve to lead them and help them achieve things that they otherwise cannot achieve themselves.\n<h3>Here are some of the ways to earn your stripes:</h3>\n<ul>\n 	<li>Seek to understand your people – set up up one-on-one meeting opportunities and coffee corners to engage your people</li>\n 	<li>Listen first – listen to your people and let them know that you care about them</li>\n 	<li>Lead by example – do not ask others to do what you won’t do. Lead them through the journey and bring your people along</li>\n 	<li>Recognize and reward – celebrate success and recognize your people for the work that they do; let them know you care</li>\n 	<li>Work among them – get involved and go to their workspaces. Engage them and get to know them.</li>\n 	<li>Always be there for them – when things are not going well, don’t leave your people and always be there for them.</li>\n</ul>\nThe prestige of leadership comes with hard work. If you’re willing to do the work, you can connect with many people and expand your reach. Don’t underestimate the power of connecting and getting to know your constituents.  Work hard and earn your stripes. When you do it right, you’ll feel good about your impact to your people.', 'Earning Your Stripes', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'earning-your-stripes', '', '', '2016-11-14 06:00:20', '2016-11-14 11:00:20', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31906', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(31919, 444, '2016-12-19 06:00:00', '2016-12-19 11:00:00', 'Your remote team is the future of your business. Not long ago, the workforce was entirely dependent on an office. This point was the only place where the employees could access vital job-related files and collaborate as a united team. However, everything changed with the advent of the Internet. With every passing day, there are fewer and fewer reasons to sustain an office administration. This is how remote employees have become a common phenomenon. Employers no longer have to take the space factor into consideration when making hiring decisions. However, they have to deal with leading an invisible presence towards success. With that in mind, let’s see how leaders can integrate their remote teams into the culture of the company.\n<h3>Define your Expectations</h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The only uncertainty factor surrounding the status of a remote team is the lack of face to face communication. Unlike a manager who supervises work consistently, a leader needs his or her team to grow together. Employees have to unlock new knowledge and skills to become better than the previous day.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">This is why it is important to design a <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/how-to-lead-from-expectations/\">list of expectations</a> on a monthly basis. A clear path of measurable objectives with their stakes increased periodically is enough to keep them on track. If they don’t achieve these expectations, you can schedule an online chat to figure out what happened. Based on this discussion, you can easily understand if the objectives are too high and they need a readjustment. On the other hand, a leader will know if the employee is taking too much advantage of this remote status.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">If you were clear about your expectations and your team’s benefits and responsibilities, the factor of remote working would not work against you anymore. Also, putting the focus on improvement and not on the number of worked hours is a good move. This change will encourage your employees to concentrate on productivity and not just making themselves busy with routine tasks.</p>\n\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\">Decide their Availability</h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Even though they work remotely, the purpose of having a team is to work together. And you can’t achieve that if all your employees have flexible but unsynchronized work schedules. When an important issue is at hand, you need your entire team to discuss the matter and find a solution.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">There might be some objections against defining a strict schedule for remote jobs. After all, flexibility is what makes such work opportunities so exciting. However, without discipline, you can’t guide your fleet towards the same major goal. Besides, there are a lot of other perks left to contribute to the “dream job” image. Your employees can still travel the world while working, avoid stressful daily commuting, design their office the way they want it and have access to a <a href=\"http://www.highersalary.com/\">higher salary</a>.</p>\n\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\">Schedule Frequent Meetings</h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">With so many project management platforms on the market, like <a href=\"https://app.asana.com/\">Asana</a>, <a href=\"https://slack.com/\">Slack</a> or <a href=\"https://trello.com/\">Trello</a>, it is easy for everybody to collaborate with one another. But it’s not always about work. Knowing what your colleagues are doing is not exactly the same as knowing their personalities. In case this factor is left out of the equation, you will not have the right adhesive to create a culture that promotes loyalty, personal development, and success.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">So, you should open up channels of social interactions too. A great way to start this is to schedule frequent chats. You can do them every Friday when people usually have fewer tasks to do and more time to think about the hobbies they are going to pursue during weekends. Encourage topic conversations that enable them to get to know each other and see what makes their hearts sing.</p>\n\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\">Organize Team Building Events</h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Team building gatherings are definitely worth the expenses, such as flights, accommodations, and team activities. In just several days, you can achieve what two months of office time won’t accomplish. You get to get the team members together and socialize face to face. The comfortable environment will eliminate the stiffness of a business meeting. Without the presence of obligations and responsibilities, the employees will be able to talk about their passion for their work.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http://www.forbes.com/sites/brianscudamore/2016/03/09/why-team-building-is-the-most-important-investment-youll-make/\">Team building activities are generally a good investment</a> because they succeed in changing different characters into one homogeneous team. Interacting together outside of work schedules will create a long lasting mark. Whenever problems arise, your team will know better how to mobilize itself to solve the situation in due time.</p>\n\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\">Offer Constant Feedback</h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">One of the reasons employees like to work in an office is that they get recognition for their work. Also, when they are not doing so great, their leaders, colleagues or managers can help them in real time. This benefit should be recreated for your remote teams also.  A survey discovered that <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/appreciation/\">77% of employees would work harder</a> if they received more feedback from management.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">When there’s no one around you to tell you how you are doing, you lose perspective and become chaotic in your work. This is why it is important to implement a rigorous feedback system. It is important to let your employees know their strong points and the skills they can work on.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The option to hide behind an invisibility cloak can be the fault of a leader too. When there’s no communication between management and employees for a long period of time, the connection can be easily lost. You should create a feedback system to assess the performance of your remote team. This means that your attention will be needed at the end of every project. If the results are outstanding, don’t let them speak for themselves, but give your input and send honest congratulations. On the other hand, when the outcome doesn’t reach the targets, you should concentrate on sending detailed, productive feedback.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">All in all, the remote team is one important step into the future. The space limits are no longer relevant in the age of technology. All leaders should make this change to the benefit of their company. Once a proper digital environment is designed and secured, an invisible team will be a win for both parties.</p>', 'How to Be a Top Leader for your Remote Team', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'how-to-be-a-top-leader-for-your-remote-team', '', '', '2016-12-19 06:00:00', '2016-12-19 11:00:00', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31919', 0, 'post', '', 2),
(31952, 376, '2016-11-28 06:00:23', '2016-11-28 11:00:23', 'When I was a young lad growing up in the Heartlands, I felt the days were almost never-ending, especially in the summer. The available time stretched infinitely off toward the horizon and I often wondered how I would fill all that time. As I grew, I learned some great things about time.\n\nOur perception of time changes as we grow. As an adolescent, only the part of day-time that involved farm work or schoolwork remained apparently never-ending. All other time, even those long, dark winter nights, definitely had a shelf-life and I increasingly felt as though I was running out of what used to be a never-ending commodity.\n\nAs an adult, this perception has continued to constrain my feelings about the availability of time. I have been ruled by clocks and stop-watches, growing increasingly aware that time is slipping away and I am not using it as I might or as I ought.\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong><em>\"I need more time\"</em></strong></p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong><em>\"I do not have enough time\"</em></strong></p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong><em>\"I have too much to do to plan it out\"</em></strong></p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong><em>\"I need (deserve) a break\"</em></strong></p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong><em>\"I will do this first because a) I like doing it or b) I do it well\"</em></strong></p>\nThese are some of the many things I now find myself saying more often and often as time goes by. You might notice that some of these revolve around whining about not having enough time, while others focus on rationalizing spending my time doing what I want, rather than what I ought.\n\nOne thing I realize now:  Time is a gift which I am not using effectively.\n\nIt occurs to me that three elements need to be considered here:\n<h3><strong>CHOICES</strong></h3>\nAs many have observed, everything we do is a choice, which is always at least a decision to go one way and not another, to do one thing and not something else, to be or not to be. Even the act of avoiding making that decision is a choice in itself.\n\nWe cannot escape making choices and we will not thrive until we make choices that involve three elements:\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong><em>Quality</em> </strong>- the decision should be one that makes our world better for us and for others.</p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong><em>Valor</em> </strong>- the best choice is seldom the easiest or least risky choice.</p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong><em>Focus</em> </strong>- A choice should be specific and point a clear way from where we are to where we want to be, even if measured in inches at a time.</p>\n\n<h3><strong>MOTIVATION</strong></h3>\nMotivation is about influencing yourself and others to do things. Much of how we decide what to do when making all those choices is driven by two things:  Urgency and Importance.\n\nMost of us are familiar with <a href=\"http://www.planetofsuccess.com/blog/2015/stephen-coveys-time-management-matrix-explained/\">Stephen Covey\'s matrix</a> for determining the relative urgency and importance of things which confront us. We probably have all seen some variation of the graph which plots the strength of urgency versus the strength of importance for a task, resulting in a neat little four-square chart. However, did you know that <a href=\"https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_91.htm\">Dwight Eisenhower</a> had the idea long before Covey?\n\nRegardless of who identified these two critical elements, the simple question you need to ask yourself is this:\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><em>Am I driven by the Urgent or the Important?</em></strong></p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Most of us might respond here with \"maybe, sometimes ...\" to signify that our environment may influence how well we balance urgency and importance in our daily decision-making.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The reality is that sometimes the urgent must be primary ... anyone who has experienced the unexpected illness of a loved one knows this. However, the important must be addressed consistently or your life will become a dizzying lurch from one crisis to the next.</p>\n\n<h3><strong>PLANNING</strong></h3>\nIf you make solid choices and are properly motivated, planning becomes just a functional aspect of moving on down the road.\n\nIf you have not mastered either of the first two elements or have not done them well, planning is a real drag and unproductive to boot.\n\nPlanning is what you do when you have made choices based on your best thinking around the ideal combination of urgent and important tasks for YOU.\n\n<em>Note:  There is probably little in this post that is new or revealing to most of you. I wrote it because I need to consider these questions about time, my perceived lack of it, and what I need to consider to use it more effectively.</em>', 'A Timely Reflection', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'a-timely-reflection', '', '', '2016-11-28 06:00:23', '2016-11-28 11:00:23', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31952', 0, 'post', '', 4);
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(31958, 408, '2016-11-30 06:00:00', '2016-11-30 11:00:00', 'I recently attended a thought-provoking <a href=\"http://technical.ly/delaware/2016/11/11/stratfi-futurist-jim-lee/\">presentation</a> about the future of work by futurist Jim H. Lee. During the presentation, he referred to a growing workforce condition he calls the “donut hole,” a situation that has been created by the desire and need for aging Boomers to work longer. As Boomers stay put in their positions, Lee explained, there is little room left for Gen Xrs to move up, so instead they move on to other jobs or start their own businesses. Meanwhile, younger new hires from the Millennial generation, while capable, still lack the experience, skills, and information that one acquires over time. While Millennials still get up-to-speed, Lee says the gaping hole left by the exodus of unfulfilled GenX workers will cause a lot of “organizational amnesia” in the years ahead. Coping through the growth of this donut hole means that “everyone will be living just a little closer to the edge.”\n\nThis donut hole problem really resonated with me, probably because of my focus on reinvention, and I feel like I’m seeing or hearing evidence of this “living on the edge” in an even more magnified way.\n<h3><strong>Not All Boomers are so Lucky</strong></h3>\nJim Lee’s conclusions about Boomers staying in the workforce longer concurs with research I’ve previously found. In my February 2015 piece, “<a href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-common-conditions-career-reinvention-hollis-thomases\">5 Common Conditions of Career Reinvention</a>,” I cite similar findings from a Stanford Longevity Study. But Boomers, too, aren’t necessarily staying put in their existing jobs. Many choose to leave and start their own businesses, and a 2014 study by Merrill Lynch found that more than half of pre-retirees have already expressed an interest in pursuing a different line of work prior to reaching full-time retirement.\n\nAll this insight, however, refers to Boomers who are still fortunate enough to have a job and who can make choices about whether to stay in their current role or leave. On the flip side, however, I see Boomers who have already been downsized or laid off and who therefore have no choice. These Boomers – and others over the age of 50 -- find themselves living even closer to the edge of the donut hole. For those who choose to seek another job rather than strike out on their own, they find a rude awakening. Why?\n<ul>\n 	<li>The job market and finding employment isn’t what it was 25+ years ago when they may have last sought a job;</li>\n 	<li>The job finding and application process has been completely <a href=\"http://www.reinventionworks.com/why-todays-hiring-process-favors-no-one-except-recruiters/\">disrupted</a> by the Internet;</li>\n 	<li>There are many over the age of 50 who have expressed to me they feel victims of ageism, and that their opportunities for new employment are extremely limited.</li>\n 	<li>Many of these displaced Boomers suddenly find themselves working the gig economy, a situation they’re ill-prepared for. And, unlike gig economy-engaged Millennials doing so by work-life balance choice, these Boomers are not at all happy to be “Giggers.”</li>\n</ul>\nIf other Boomers have heard similar concerns expressed by their contemporaries, no wonder they’re holding onto their current jobs for dear life. And of course, to Jim Lee’s point, this leaves less opportunities for GenXrs to advance their careers either so they’re more apt to leave, too, and so the donut hole grows bigger faster.\n<h3><strong>A Solution</strong></h3>\nSomehow, this problem seems ripe for a solution, and I can’t help but be reminded of the situation I faced nearly 20 years ago when I founded my last company, an online advertising and marketing agency. Back then, there were literally zero people educated or trained in online marketing and advertising. If I wanted to grow my business, I realized I was going to have to train my workforce from the ground up. Knowing that I would stand a better chance if I at least could tap into a collective of people who were already online and familiar with the Internet, I decided to source stay-at-home mothers who were active on Internet mommy message boards and discussion lists. I created training modules and went about recruiting, qualifying, and teaching online marketing skills to women who were eager to be able to make a living from their homes. I called this new workforce “My Mommies,” and I went on to win a <a href=\"http://cnnfn.cnn.com/2000/12/14/cashflow/q_jane_smart/\">prestigious award</a> for this at-the-time groundbreaking virtual workforce solution.\n\nSo, when I now encounter all of these extremely talented, experienced, motivated, and yet displaced and struggling older workers, I can’t help but think, “Wow, they would really be useful in companies suffering from organizational amnesia caused by a growing donut hole. How can we re-apply this pool of human capital’s skills in new and advantageous ways?”\n\nI believe there’s a way, and since I tend to be action-oriented problem-solver rather than a prognosticator, I’ve gone to work on this. I am excited about the possible solutions that lie ahead.', 'Solving for the Growing Workforce &quot;Donut Hole&quot;', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'solving-for-the-growing-workforce-donut-hole', '', '', '2016-11-30 06:00:00', '2016-11-30 11:00:00', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31958', 0, 'post', '', 3),
(31967, 381, '2016-12-05 06:00:55', '2016-12-05 11:00:55', '<em>How to get more work done without really trying.</em> Now there’s a topic I could put my bookmark in!\n\nPerusing the bookshelves at my local Barnes &amp; Noble, I pulled out a shiny red-covered book and stared at the imprint in the yellow circle cutout. “Stop the busywork, and start the work that matters.\" To be fair, I feel like I must give credit to the book title, <a href=\"https://www.amazon.com/Do-More-Great-Work-Busywork/dp/0761156445\" target=\"_blank\">Do More Great Work</a>, but this is not a review of the book. The sub-title, though, has a powerful parallel to The Graceful No. To get more work done, be productive with the time we have, and consistently stay on top of our workloads, we have to develop a proper mindset with practical habits. If we are going to stop one thing to start another, we must say \"no\" to that thing so we can say \"yes\" to something better.\n\nIs there a secret formula to the Graceful No?\n\nRecently, I was at a family gathering. I looked on, intrigued, as two fathers tried to coax their pre-school aged sons into modeling good behavior, with only marginal success. Their key word was, ‘No!” followed by certifiable dissatisfaction with the results. Reminiscent of that season of my own life, I asked, “Don’t you wish you could say yes more than you say no?” I knew the answer even before it came. We grow weary of the constant, “Don’t do that,\" “Stop it,\" and “No.\" When can we say “yes”?\n\nThat made me think. There’s a progression through those first growing pains of independence when our short term destinies are determined for us. Toddlers, curious about the world around them, courageously reach out to new experiences and hear the word \"no\" a lot! Somewhere along the line, though, we become adults, immersed in community, where we interact with others, become interdependent and seem to have a whimsical attraction to the word \"yes.\"\n\nDo you recognize yourself in any of these statements?\n\n“Sure. I’ll help with that.”\n\n“Give me a call I’ll stop by and go over it with you.”\n\n“You need 6 dozen cookies? No problem, I’ll fire up the oven.”\n\n“I can drive the kids. I wasn’t doing anything except staying home and relaxing this weekend anyway.”\n\nThere is powerful potential in having partners, buddies, co-workers, and comrades to share the work. We have the ability to choose for ourselves and assume we are free to decide yes or decide no. Why then do we so often feel that we can’t say no? In fact, we are compelled to say \"yes\" frequently! I could be wrong, but I’m going to throw this out there: Sometimes we need a remedy for the Obsessed Yes. Is there a prescription for the Graceful No?\n<h3>When your heart says no, why does your mind say yes?</h3>\nIt might have a lot to do with mindset. If your mindset is empathy, helping, serving, caring, or valuing others, there could be a strong tendency to gravitate toward \"yes\" as your default. Many of us know what it’s like to need extra support on a project and what it feels like to be on overload with no assistance available. When a colleague asks for help, it’s like we have the answer “YES” emblazoned on our foreheads. We become a likely target for the “Ask me” campaign. How can you be a thoughtful, supportive teammate, friend or partner and still remain true to yourself and your aspirations, if you say no? At your next opportunity, give yourself time to contemplate whether your answer should be yes or should it be no. When your heart says no and your mind says yes, there is conflict. Consider if the right answer is yes or if you should say a Graceful No.\n<h3>Getting to the Graceful No</h3>\nIn organizations, there may be no choice of assignment. You might not have the luxury of decision. These ideas are touchpoints for when you <strong>do </strong>have the option to decide.\n\n<strong>Time</strong> – Ask yourself: Do I have the time or must I make time to assure my contribution is high caliber?\n\n<em>Is your own schedule fluid enough to take on more work? Consider how much added time you will need to dedicate for the duration of this extra project work.</em>\n\n<strong>Talent</strong> – Ask yourself: If I say yes, will it move me toward my purpose or is this a distraction?\n\n<em>Do the tasks you are asked to perform align with your talents? Are your skills valuable to the project?</em>\n\n<strong>Fit</strong> – Ask yourself: Am I the best person for the task?\n\n<em>Is this project a good fit with your current contributions? Are there connecting points where your current work and the added work would augment each other?</em>\n\n<strong>Benefit</strong> – Ask yourself: Are there future benefits that could be discovered if I do this work?\n\n<em>Are there unknowns you could explore that would uncover new knowledge that would be beneficial to the organization?</em>\n\n<strong>Desire</strong> – Ask yourself: Will this activity bring me joy?\n\n<em>Do you want to assume this extra work because you have a genuine interest in it? Perhaps it’s an area of interest that you know could be advantageous in the short term with potential for long-term rewards.</em>\n\nWe all want to say yes freely and often. We value our co-workers, colleagues, and friends, therefore when they ask for help, we want to volunteer our support. The key is knowing when to use our Best Yes or Graceful No. It’s an exercise in both logistics and character, but using these guidelines will help activate the right version of your truth.', 'The Graceful No', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'the-graceful-no', '', '', '2016-12-05 06:00:55', '2016-12-05 11:00:55', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31967', 0, 'post', '', 2),
(31987, 386, '2016-11-29 06:00:16', '2016-11-29 11:00:16', '<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Lead Change Group was founded to bring together those voices who believe in personal growth and leadership. While most of us know each other virtually, we rarely get the opportunity to connect, either virtually or in person. I have been very fortunate in the past twelve months to connect face-to-face with three other Lead Change Group instigators. </span>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">S. Chris Edmonds</span></h3>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A year ago, I made the decision to go to Denver, CO to meet </span><a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/instigators/chris-edmonds/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">S. Chris Edmonds</span></a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. I had read Chris’s book, </span><a href=\"https://www.amazon.com/Culture-Engine-Framework-Inspiring-Transforming-ebook/dp/B00MG2KN3O/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Culture Engine</span></a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and we had spoken about it via email and on the phone, yet I wanted more. We met for lunch with the “Denver Tweeps,\" a group of active social media leaders who meet once a month in the Denver area. That was a chance to strengthen my relationship with Chris, while forging new relationships with other thought leaders.</span>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">David Dye</span></h3>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On that same trip to Denver, I was lucky to squeeze in a lunch with </span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/instigators/david-dye/\">David Dye</a>,</span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> who returned to Denver the day before I had to leave. While in person connections require more logistics, the richness of the conversation more than compensates for the extra planning. David and I dove deep and shared about our life experiences. There is only so much you can do with a 500-750 word blog post. A 90-minute lunch let David and I know each other at much more personal level. Such concentrated time together in person allowed us to connect more intensively, allowing our relationship to move forward from a place of deep grounding.</span>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Karin Hurt</span></h3>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After knowing </span><a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/instigators/karin-hurt/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Karin Hurt</span></a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> online for a few years, we got to meet for the first time when David Dye and she were presenting at the National Speakers Association Influence 2016 conference in Phoenix. I attended their talk on the ups and downs of co-writing a book together, showcasing the result, their new book </span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"http://winningwellbook.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Winning Well</a>.</span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We got to spend time together, but where I connected most was with Karin’s son Seb. He was attending NSA where they had a magician stream for the youth attendees. Seb tried several of his newly learned magic tricks on me. Even when they didn’t work, he never lost his cool and kept going—a lesson every speaker needs to learn and keep learning. What connected me to Karin was our deep commitment to our children.</span>\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_31988\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"300\"]<img class=\"size-medium wp-image-31988\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/David-Greer-David-Dye-Karin-Hurt-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Meeting Karin Hurt and David Dye.\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /> Meeting Karin Hurt and David Dye.[/caption]\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Connecting Your Dots</span></h3>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Face-to-face conversations help us realize where we have amazing alignment of our values. While our message, audience, and styles of creating change in the world may be different, when our values are aligned we know that we are all pulling together in the same direction.</span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our writing for the Lead Change Group is meant to inspire and connect those of us who believe our future is one of change led by personal leadership in every walk of life and organization. You can connect via the writing in our blog posts or by reaching out to any one of us to have a conversation about leadership. Best of all is when we find ways to spend time together face-to-face so that we can have the critical conversations that let each of us create the change we are bringing to the world.</span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Who can you connect with today to magnify the dots of your journey?</span>\n\n&nbsp;', 'Connecting the Dots', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'connecting-the-dots', '', '', '2016-11-29 06:00:16', '2016-11-29 11:00:16', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=31987', 0, 'post', '', 4),
(32011, 374, '2016-12-02 06:00:37', '2016-12-02 11:00:37', 'This month we are featuring Instigator <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/instigators/eileen-mcdargh/\" target=\"_blank\">Eileen McDargh</a>, CEO and Chief Energy Officer of The Resiliency Group and a motivational speaker who calls herself a hope merchant and truth teller. Focusing on resiliency, Eileen has found great synergy with health care audiences and long term care, educators (as an award-winning educator, she went from teaching kids to grown-ups—who are still like kids), and women’s leadership groups.\n\nEileen has a BA in Speech Communication from the University of Florida and did graduate work at the University of California, Irvine.\n\nCareer wise, Eileen taught everything from preschool to adults at a rural community school, was the Director of Marketing at Amelia Island Plantation, served as the Corporate Communications Manager for a health care company, became a public relations consultant handling multinational accounts for a PR agency and then, as she puts it, \"I HAD it. I quit and never looked back. That was 36 years ago!\"\n\nWhen Eileen reflects on her best professional moments, she talks about leaving a stage and feeling a deep connection with the audience. She found it intensely gratifying to know her presence mattered. She continues, \"It was also wonderful to receive the Speaker Hall of Fame award from my peers. The reasons are obvious but the best part was saying thank you on stage to people whom I dearly love.\"\n\nWhen asked about a leadership lesson she learned from her first job, Eileen replied \"I think I learned what not to do: treat employees like slaves. Micromanage. Watch their every move. Make sure you are brusque, don\'t ever smile, and for Pete\'s sake ... NEVER say thank you. Once I left that store as a clerk, I never walked back in again and discouraged everyone I knew from going there. I was only 16 but I KNEW better.\"\n\nThe best advice Eileen has ever been given was: Life is precious. Don\'t miss it.\n\nOn the topic of the most important qualities in leaders, Eileen believes that leaders must be honest and have the abilities to deeply listen and clearly communicate, along with the willingness to admit error. They should demonstrate their integrity through their words and deeds.\n\nWhen asked about a subject that is not currently taught universally in school but should be, Eileen commented on the importance of education about ethics.\n\nOn the topic of books she has found most helpful for her professional life, Eileen replied, \"I love Jesse Lyn Stoner\'s book, <a href=\"https://www.amazon.com/Steam-Ahead-Unleash-Power-Vision/dp/1605098752/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1480521551&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=full+steam+ahead\" target=\"_blank\">Full Steam Ahead!</a>. Also, <a href=\"https://www.amazon.com/Gift-50th-Anniversary-Anne-Morrow-Lindbergh/dp/0679732411/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1480521594&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=gift+from+the+sea\" target=\"_blank\">Gift from the Sea</a> by Anne Morrow Lindbergh remains a steady favorite.\"\n\nOne of Eileen\'s favorite quotes is \"If not you, who? And if not now, when?\" The source of this saying is uncertain, but it motivates and inspires nonetheless.\n\nIn response to the question \"if money were no object, what would you do all day?\" she responded, \"I\'d be outside. I\'d play with children. I\'d write. I\'d take Spanish lessons. And I would travel and produce a reality show called \"Our World and Welcome to it\" featuring all the GOOD things people are doing.\"\n\nWhen asked what hashtag she would apply to her life, Eileen suggested two choices:  #MakeADifference and #LifeIsAJoyfulJourney\n\nYou make a difference and bring joy to our community, Eileen. We appreciate having you among us!\n\n<em><strong>Editor\'s Note</strong> - You may ask, “How does one get chosen to be a featured Instigator?” The answer is simple. If you are already an Instigator, fill out <a href=\"https://cl182.infusionsoft.com/app/form/lcg-feature-questions\">this form</a> and continue to engage with the Lead Change Group on a regular basis. If you are not yet an Instigator, <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/join/\">sign up</a>. There are many benefits to being an Instigator – email us if you want more information.</em>\n\n<strong>Previous 2016 Featured Instigators:</strong>\n\n11/2016: <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/featured-instigator-ann-van-eron/\" target=\"_blank\">Ann Van Eron</a>\n\n10/2016: <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/featured-instigator-will-lukang/\" target=\"_blank\">Will Lukang</a>\n\n8/2016: <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/featured-instigator-susan-mazza/\" target=\"_blank\">Susan Mazza</a>\n\n7/2016: <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/featured-leading-voice-mike-henry-sr/\" target=\"_blank\">Mike Henry, Sr.</a>\n\n6/2016: <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/featured-leading-voice-mary-schaefer/\" target=\"_blank\">Mary Schaefer </a>\n\n5/2016: <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/featured-instigator-kevin-eikenberry/\" target=\"_blank\">Kevin Eikenberry</a>\n\n4/2016: <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/featured-leading-voice-chip-bell/\" target=\"_blank\">Chip Bell</a>\n\n3/2016: <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/featured-instigator-eunice-parisi-carew/\" target=\"_blank\">Eunice Parisi-Carew</a>\n\n2/2016: <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/featured-instigator-chris-edmonds/\" target=\"_blank\">Chris Edmonds</a>\n\n1/2016: <a href=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/featured-instigator-marcella-bremer/\" target=\"_blank\">Marcella Bremer</a>\n\n&nbsp;', 'Featured Instigator: Eileen McDargh', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'featured-instigator-eileen-mcdargh', '', '', '2016-12-02 06:00:37', '2016-12-02 11:00:37', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/featured-instigator-ann-van-eron-2/', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(32015, 374, '2016-12-01 06:00:26', '2016-12-01 11:00:26', '<div class=\"message_content \">\n\nWe are grateful to have the <a href=\"http://www.servantleadershipinstitute.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Servant Leadership Institute</a> as our Lead Change Group sponsor for December! The Servant Leadership Institute (SLI) exists to inspire and equip leaders to find meaning and purpose in their work, foster an environment of trust and respect at all levels in an organization, and achieve success. SLI offers a refreshing \"others first\" mindset.\n<h3>Get Inspired with Servant Leadership</h3>\nTransforming your organization into a serve-first culture is a journey, and you\'ll need inspiration along the way. That\'s why SLI offers free webinars and podcasts. In addition, SLI has curated or written a number of leadership books.\n\nSLI\'s <strong>webinars </strong>are designed to show you how to put servant leader behaviors into practice. You can watch an SLI webinar live or view a past webinar. <strong>  </strong>\n\nSLI\'s<strong> podcasts</strong> provide opportunities to listen to interviews of leading business professionals as they discuss how Servant Leadership implementation is the key to changing today\'s business landscape.\n\nThrough<strong> hands-on learning</strong> facilitated by SLI trainers, participants get equipped with tools and strategies that are proven to increase leadership effectiveness and help achieve better results.\n\nSLI\'s annual conferences are energizing two-day events that include internationally renowned speakers, interactive workshops, and roundtable discussions. Learn more about current conference offerings via <a href=\"http://servantleadershipinstitute.cvent.com/events/servant-leadership-conference-2017-san-diego-the-music-of-servant-leadership/event-summary-48b16700cccf428aae8de0bf6c350b24.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">this link</a>.\n<h3><strong>Speakers Bureau</strong></h3>\nLarge or small, local or distant, profit or non-profit – SLI offers inspiring servant leadership keynote presentations focused on the practices and principles of servant leadership that are customized to your audience.\n<h3><strong>Other Resources</strong></h3>\nCheck out SLI\'s <a href=\"http://www.servantleadershipinstitute.com/resource-center/\"><strong>Resource Center</strong></a> and <a href=\"http://www.servantleadershipinstitute.com/the-blog/\"><strong>Blog</strong></a> for the latest in servant leadership articles, videos, and more.\n\nSLI\'s online <a href=\"http://www.servantleadershipinstitute.com/store/\"><strong>Store</strong></a> carries books, booklets, and other tools to further build your leadership tool kit.\n\nWhile you\'re visiting the store, make sure and take a look at Farmer Able, the most recent addition. In this leadership fable about servant leadership transforming organizations and people from the inside out, the pigs run the farm!\n\n</div>\nAs SLI shares regarding the book, \"So begins the story of Farmer Able. Everyone on his farm—people and animals alike—are downright downtrodden by him. He’s overbearing and compulsively obsessed with profits and productivity. He’s a typical top-down, power-based manager, forever tallying production numbers in his well-worn ledgers. But the more he pushes the hoofs and horns and humans, the more they dig in their heels. That is until one day when he hears a mysterious wind that whispers: “It’s not all about me.” Can he turn things around and begin attending to the needs of those on his farm, thus improving their attitudes and productivity?\n\n<em>Farmer Able </em>is an engaging parable that entertains as it enlightens. It reveals a profound truth about the dysfunction in organizations and how dramatic improvements can be made when leaders liberate employees to operate at their fullest potential and discover the significance in their work.\"\n\nLearn more about Farmer Able at its site by clicking <a href=\"http://www.farmerable.com/\" target=\"_blank\">here</a>.\n\n<em>Everyone who comments on this post by Friday, December 2, will be entered to win a copy of Farmer Able!</em>\n\n<img class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-31930\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Farmer-Able-195x300.jpg\" alt=\"farmer-able\" width=\"195\" height=\"300\" />\n<div class=\"message_content \">\n<h3>More about the Servant Leadership Institute</h3>\nThroughout this month of sponsorship, we are happy to help SLI introduce its new look. Here\'s the revised logo, bringing a fresh appearance to an established and trustworthy entity:\n\n<img class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-32009\" src=\"http://leadchangegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/SLI_logo_BlueRed-2-300x118.png\" alt=\"sli_logo_bluered-2\" width=\"300\" height=\"118\" />\n\nYou can find SLI via their <a href=\"http://www.servantleadershipinstitute.com/\" target=\"_blank\">website</a>, on Twitter as <a href=\"https://twitter.com/SLILead\" target=\"_blank\">@SLILead</a>, on <a href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/company/3280165?trk=tyah&amp;trkInfo=clickedVertical%3Acompany%2CclickedEntityId%3A3280165%2Cidx%3A3-3-8%2CtarId%3A1480531795171%2Ctas%3Aservant\" target=\"_blank\">LinkedIn</a>, and on <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/ServantLeaders/?fref=ts\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook</a>.\n\nThank you again, Servant Leadership Institute, for your support of the Lead Change Group!\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"></p>\n\n</div>', 'Highlighting Our December Sponsor: Servant Leadership Institute', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'highlighting-our-december-sponsor-servant-leadership-institute', '', '', '2016-12-01 06:00:26', '2016-12-01 11:00:26', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/highlighting-our-november-sponsor-remote-leadership-institute/', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(32052, 323, '2017-02-03 06:00:13', '2017-02-03 11:00:13', 'It was 1994 and I was in Indiana, attending the National Thespian Convention with my high school theater mates. We were losing ourselves in plays and musicals from some of the nation\'s best.\n\n\"Please excuse our mess, we\'re remodeling.\"\n\nThis line had just been spoken by the actor playing Mr. Mushnik, a main character in the musical production of <em>Little Shop of Horrors</em>.\n\nOnly, there was a problem. That line was not in the script. It was not part of the play. Those words should never have been spoken.\n\nSo why were they?\n\nBecause the show must go on.\n\nIf you\'re not familiar with the play, the majority of the show takes place inside a small rundown flower shop, owned by Mr. Mushnik.\n\nIt was early in Act I, and without warning, the large wooden frame of the shop - about the length of the stage itself - plunged to the ground with a resounding thud, narrowly missing the actors.\n\nThey stopped cold.\n\nSo did the audience. Silence ensued. Picture me: jaw dropped, eyes wide and glued to the stage. Everyone knew this was not supposed to happen and we all wondered, \"what will happen next?\"\n\nSuddenly, Mr. Mushnik turned to Seymour and said those five magical words I\'ll never forget:\n<blockquote>\"Excuse our mess, we\'re remodeling.\"</blockquote>\nThat was it! Peals of laughter erupted from the audience, followed by grateful applause. We knew that actor had just saved the day and the show would go on.\n\nWhat did the actor do right? He employed a very simple technique actors have been known to use for centuries.\n\nHe said \"Yes.\"\n<h3><strong>Saying Yes</strong></h3>\nActors often spend time training in the art of improvisation. It helps prepare them to handle whatever might happen onstage because in live theater the stakes are high and anything can go wrong. Set pieces can fall from the sky!\n\nNo matter what happens, the show must go on. And for this to be possible, everyone must be present in the moment, ready for anything. This requires active listening, partnership, and quick thinking. It requires improvisation.\n\nThere are many rules, but one stands above the rest as critically important.\n\n<strong><em>Rule #1: Do not deny (or just say Yes!)</em></strong>\n\nDuring a fully improvised scene, stage partners will make an offer of some kind – this is any action or piece of dialog that may advance the scene – and it must be accepted by the other actors. The more accepted offers, the more interesting and real the scene. Denial is the number one reason most improvised scenes go bad. By accepting all offers partners work to create something better, together.\n\nThink about Mr. Mushnik and Seymour. They weren\'t improvising. They had a script. But when something unplanned happened, they were ready.\n\nWhat other choice did they have? They could have said \"no,\" denying what had just happened, and just stood there, panicking, waiting for someone to draw the curtain.\n\nBut in that split second they knew that wasn\'t their <em>best</em> option. They knew what to do. For a brief moment the script was tossed aside and the actors said \"Yes!\"\n<h3>Leaders Also Say Yes!</h3>\nHow does this relate to the rest of us - that is, most of us - who aren\'t starring in a play?\n\nI believe that in our own way - no matter what business we\'re in - we\'re doing live theater. We have our \"corporate scripts\" to guide us, but think about the many situations when things don\'t go as planned and we\'re called to think on our feet.\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>A client unhappy about his service. An employee seeking assistance. A peer with an idea for a new product. A manager asking for your opinion. A student asking you a tough question. A prospect not buying what you\'re selling.</em></p>\nEach of these scenarios requires us to react. To perform. To improvise.\n\nLike the actors know already, when we say \"yes,\" we turn a problem into something better - maybe even magical.\n\nBy contrast, that moment we say \"no\" the momentum stops and the corporate curtain is drawn.\n\nImagine what could happen in your life as a leader if you accept more offers than you deny. What if you tossed your corporate script aside and improvised?\n\n\"I\'m not a good improviser,\" you say?\n\nThat\'s okay. Like other skills, this is one we can develop.\n<h3>How to Say Yes!</h3>\nYour first step in becoming an improviser is listening to yourself. In everyday conversation, is your default to say \"no?\" If so, try replacing it with \"yes, and...\"\n\nThere are variations on this. All it takes is keeping the lines of communication open. For example, try these: <em>Tell me more. Go on. Let\'s build on that.</em>\n\nYou can also try playing improv games because games are great for teaching or strengthening skills. While this may sound daunting, trust me when I tell you a theater background is not required. What if I told you you\'re already a world-class improviser and you don\'t even know it?\n\nFact! You improvise everyday, only you call it something different. Like <em>being creative, innovating, </em>or<em> quick thinking.</em>\n\nThere\'s one very simple improv game I love to play that you can adapt for use with your teams.\n<h3>A Simple Improv Game: <em>The Last Word</em></h3>\nThis game strengthens listening skills, collaboration, and creativity.\n\n<em>Rules:</em>\n<ul>\n 	<li>This can be done with a group, but involves two people at a time - Partner A and Partner B</li>\n 	<li>Partner A offers a sentence on any subject.</li>\n 	<li>Once Partner A finishes their sentence, Partner B starts a new sentence featuring the very last word spoken by Partner A.</li>\n</ul>\n<blockquote><em>For example:</em>\n<strong>Partner A:</strong> This morning before work I ate a bowl of CEREAL.\n<strong>Partner B:</strong> The CEREAL aisle is my favorite at the grocery STORE.\n<strong>Partner A:</strong> I plan to STORE my Mercedes in your garage while I\'m out of TOWN.\n<strong>Partner B:</strong> TOWN and Country magazine suggested the Mercedes is making a COMEBACK.</blockquote>\n<ul>\n 	<li>The discussion continues like this for a few more rounds until it is time to rotate.</li>\n 	<li>A new partner replaces one of the previous speakers - leaving someone still up there - and the discussion continues where they left off.</li>\n 	<li>Keep rotating until everyone has had at least one turn \"on stage.\"</li>\n 	<li>Warning: expect uncontrollable laughter!</li>\n</ul>\nThe keys to success for playing this game:\n<ul>\n 	<li>Active and patient listening. You have to wait until the very last word spoken - not something we\'re always good it.</li>\n 	<li>Making statements, not asking questions. Because questions make the other person do all the work.</li>\n 	<li>Offering your partner something to work with - don\'t leave them in the dust with a <em>throw-</em>away <em>word</em> that\'s hard to build on. This requires teamwork.</li>\n</ul>\nIf you can\'t imagine selling the idea of playing an improv game with your team, just call it a \"team-building exercise.\" But we both know what it REALLY is - and that\'ll be our little secret.\n\nWant more games? Check out <a href=\"https://www.amazon.com/Yes-Improvisation-Reverses-Creativity-Collaboration-Lessons/dp/0062248545/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1486076973&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=Yes%2C+And%3A+How+Improvisation+Reverses+%22No%2C+But%22+Thinking+and+Improves+Creativity+and+Collaboration--Lessons+from+The+Second+City\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Yes, And: How Improvisation Reverses \"No, But\" Thinking and Improves Creativity and Collaboration--Lessons from The Second City</em></a> by Kelly Leonard and Tom Yorton. It is a wonderful resource for additional reading on this subject and offers a plethora of improv games you can try in any work setting. The game above was inspired by their book.\n\n<strong>Be the leader who just says \"yes!\" Go wild. Have fun. Do something different. Stand back and see what happens.</strong>\n\n&nbsp;', 'When Leaders Toss The Script', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'when-leaders-toss-the-script', '', '', '2017-02-03 06:00:13', '2017-02-03 11:00:13', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=32052', 0, 'post', '', 4),
(32061, 323, '2017-03-21 06:00:42', '2017-03-21 10:00:42', 'Meet Sam.\n\nSam is an experienced leader who just joined a new company. He\'s not new to leadership, but to this organization he\'s practically a freshman.\n\nIn Sam\'s first 90 days on the job he\'s already made a big impact. The bad kind. Where did he go wrong?\n\nHe made mistakes common to many freshman leaders.\n\nBeing new in a company is like being a freshman in school all over again. Despite the obvious differences - like one is an institution of higher learning and the other provides goods and services for a fee - the rules for success are very much the same.\n<ol>\n 	<li>Be a Good Student</li>\n 	<li>Honor the History</li>\n 	<li>Carry the Flag</li>\n</ol>\n<h3>Be a Good Student</h3>\nIn school your first job is to learn. The same applies at work, because before you can contribute anything of value you need to know what you\'re doing.\n\nTrue, in many cases you come to the table with an abundance of previously-acquired knowledge and skills. But those\'ll go to waste if you never learn how to apply them in your new surroundings. That takes adopting an attitude of learning and healthy study habits.\n\nAside from the usual things to learn - like the products, services, customers, processes, and policies - the most effective freshman leaders spend time learning the people.\n\nBeing a student of people requires first taking stock of your network. Identify your boss and your boss\'s boss. Your team. Your peers and partners. Your internal service providers and customers. Your external customers and vendors. And so on.\n\nOnce you know the players, your next priority is getting to know them. You can decide where to start, but I highly recommend starting with your team.\n\nIf you expect your team to follow you then you need to win their hearts and minds and gain their trust, and that takes getting to know them on an individual basis. This is where we apply the old adage, \"No one cares what you know until they know you care.\"\n\nDo you want to connect with your colleagues on a personal level, but not sure what to talk about? Try my favorite question:\n<blockquote>What do you do for fun?</blockquote>\nWhat about Sam? Well, Sam squandered any chance to know his team. Whenever he spent time with them he talked about himself or work, and the many ways his team needed to perform better.\n\nHe won no hearts and no minds. Worst of all, he lost their trust before it was ever gained.\n<h3>Honor the History</h3>\nSchools do a tremendous job of teaching their histories to new students. It is what makes the school special and fun. It inspires unity and camaraderie.\n\nSimilarly, every organization has a history. A reason they were founded. Their purpose. Their mission. These are taught in new hire orientation and reinforced through corporate culture.\n\nOrganizations also have tried and true \"ways we\'ve always done things.\" Sometimes these are effective, and many times they\'re not. Many leaders are hired to make changes, like improve a process, set a new vision, or transform a team. In these cases, change is necessary.\n\nBut before making a change, the successful freshman leader starts from a place of seeking to understand. She asks questions and studies why the company does certain things. She then asks for input, socializes recommendations, and strategically makes changes. She starts with small wins and accelerates from there.\n\nThis is where Sam floundered, once again.\n\nSam came in guns blazing. He told the team he was there to make changes because they were \"doing it all wrong\" and they needed to either \"fall in or fall out.\"\n\nFor one example, Sam quickly retired an old product that was generating low revenue, which happened to be the brainchild of one of the organization\'s founders, still a member of the board. He stepped on a land-mine with that decision. Had he asked around and studied the history, that career-limiting-move could have easily been avoided.\n\nIt may not always feel this way, but your organization existed before you joined. Respect the people, the traditions, and the history and be respected in return.\n<blockquote>You can only know where you\'re going if you know where you\'ve been. - James Burke</blockquote>\n<h3>Carry the Flag</h3>\nWe demonstrate our school spirit in many ways. Carrying the school flag is one literal way of doing that, and in a professional setting it bears a metaphorical meaning.\n\nIt means that you support your organization, both in words and actions. It means you\'re a good corporate citizen and that you believe in its people, its purpose and its product.\n\nAs a leader your team needs to see you rooting for them, fighting for them, and standing with them. When they see you \"carrying the flag,\" your team will fall in and follow you anywhere.\n\nSam did a great job of carrying the flag. His own.\n\nAt every opportunity he regaled his team with stories of his accomplishments, of the people he knew and the places he\'d been. He was even more skilled at bragging about his past company and the way they did things. \"At my last company, we...\" he often said to a room of rolling eyeballs. He was clearly still carrying their flag.\n\nWhen you join a new organization, carry their flag. And no one else\'s.\n<h3>Best Freshman</h3>\nPeople talk about the importance of quick wins as a way of gaining credibility and establishing yourself when you\'re new. I absolutely agree. But I also believe if you get this other stuff wrong, the equity of your quick wins will soon be lost and you\'ll be left with a zero balance.\n\nDon\'t be like Sam.\n\nYou got in the door because you worked your way to the top, but now you\'re a freshman leader and it is time to start over at the bottom. The secret to your success is winning over the hearts and minds of the people. Be a student. Honor the history. Carry the flag. Soon enough you\'ll be voted your company\'s<em> freshman leader of the year.</em>', '3 Ways to be the Best Freshman Leader', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', '3-ways-to-be-the-best-freshman-leader', '', '', '2017-03-21 06:00:42', '2017-03-21 10:00:42', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=32061', 0, 'post', '', 1),
(32066, 252, '2016-12-08 06:00:40', '2016-12-08 11:00:40', 'I was sitting in a colleague’s office. I could hear a person on the other end of his phone from across the room, several feet away. It was tense. You could tell my colleague was pacifying an angry somebody.\n\nWe had gone through a downsizing event. I had facilitated the process for my part of the organization. The person on the other end of the phone was a director from a different part of the company altogether. He heard about an employee that the managers in my organization had chosen to let go. He knew my colleague, so he called him instead of me. I just happened to be in the room.\n\nI could hear the caller saying what a travesty it was. Then he said the key words, “That could have been me.” He meant he had similar education, background, and accomplishments. I guess it hit a little close to home. He demanded an explanation.\n\nMy colleague got off the phone. He told me that I was going to have to prepare an explanation for that caller. He seemed to enjoy telling me that a little too much.\n<h3><span style=\"font-family: Times;\">Thank goodness for happy accidents</span></h3>\nIf you know me at all, you won’t be surprised by how I responded. I gave him a version of this: If we entertained demands for explanations from random people, there would be no end to it. The process was confidential. That person on the phone was not entitled to an explanation. It would undermine a process that was designed well, for many reasons.\n\nAt that moment, my boss stuck her head in the room. She had overheard the entire conversation. She said, “Mary will not be providing an explanation to anyone and you can call that person back and tell him so.”\n<h3><span style=\"font-family: Times;\">You never know when you will face a leadership moment</span></h3>\nMy boss probably had many of these moments. That’s why she was ready. I doubt she expected to encounter that particular situation as she started to walk down the hall that day. But she rose to the occasion in a moment.\n\nI was grateful that I didn’t have to fight that battle further.\n<h3><span style=\"font-family: Times;\">Handling the small stuff matters too</span></h3>\nMy boss didn\'t earn my respect inadvertently. She was my thesis advisor. She was and still is a mentor. She encouraged me from the beginning to follow my instincts when something bothered me.\n\nShe backed me up or coached me in a variety of situations like this one. I was drawn to seek her advice. She would always hear me out, even when it was something she didn’t want to hear.\n\nShe knew I was growing unhappy as my twentieth year with our employer approached. Unlike others, she never made me feel disloyal or expected less than my highest performance. Her leadership inspired me to want to live up to her expectations.\n\nIt’s not always in big gestures that we find spectacular leadership. Many times it is in consistent, measured, thoughtful everyday actions.', 'Show People the Leader You Are in a Moment', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'show-people-the-leader-you-are-in-a-moment', '', '', '2016-12-08 06:00:40', '2016-12-08 11:00:40', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/?p=32066', 0, 'post', '', 6),
(32081, 274, '2016-12-05 14:30:39', '2016-12-05 19:30:39', 'The Lead Change Group is grateful to <a href=\"http://www.ddiworld.com/home?lang=en-US\" target=\"_blank\">Development Dimensions International (DDI)</a> for hosting the December 2016 Leadership Development Carnival.\n\nDDI\'s Rich Wellins, Ph.D., referred to the December carnival as \"an array of insights that should help deepen your thinking about what it takes to grow effective leaders.\" We concur.\n\nPlease visit the full carnival post <a href=\"http://www.ddiworld.com/blog/tmi/december-2016/december-2016-leadership-development-carnival\" target=\"_blank\">here</a> to read all of this month\'s posts.\n\nEach of the contributors would appreciate a visit to their articles, and we would be grateful if you would share the carnival among your contacts. You can easily tweet your support by using our simple <a href=\"http://ctt.ec/Ll8hn\" target=\"_blank\">click to tweet</a> feature.\n\nThe Lead Change Group will be hosting the January 2017 Leadership Development Carnival so stay tuned for our call for submissions in the coming weeks. We will look forward to another tremendous month!\n\nThank you to the <a href=\"http://www.servantleadershipinstitute.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Servant Leadership Institute (SLI)</a>, December Lead Change Group sponsor, for its support of this Leadership Development Carnival.', 'December 2016 Leadership Development Carnival', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'december-2016-leadership-development-carnival', '', '', '2016-12-05 14:30:39', '2016-12-05 19:30:39', '', 0, 'http://leadchangegroup.com/october-2016-leadership-development-carnival/', 0, 'post', '', 0);
