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Posts Tagged ‘Change’

Change is all about process…One woman’s story

Posted in Food for Thought, tagged , , , , , on January 15, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Changing anything, if you want the change to be sustainable, requires a process. While it would be delightful (and nothing short of miraculous!) to be able to not eat any sweets for one full day — for example — and lose all the weight you want to drop and look amazing in your clothes the next day, we know it isn’t possible.

Making the change begins with an idea, a desire…to do, be, or have something different than your current conditions and circumstances allow. Once the idea has grown and developed and taken root in our minds, we must then make the DECISION to act. Action requires forethought, intentionality and commitment to continuing to act, DAILY!

Here’s an example. It’s the story of an Australian woman who recognized the need to make some significant changes in several areas of her life, and she started with one small, simple act: Gratitude posts on her Facebook page. Some days they were pretty mundane, some days more significant. The point is, she looked for reasons to be grateful, and found them! When she found them, she considered them and shared them. These are small, daily steps in the right direction.

I would imagine that on some days it was pretty challenging, other days might have been easier — with the challenge being more about which one thing to focus on out of many reasons to be grateful. As her year progressed, she made other changes in her behaviors, sometimes enlisting support from her friends (think — inner circle — those people who should support, encourage, and complement you).

It’s a process. Process begins with a single step, followed by more single steps, and before you know it, you’re on track and moving forward.

What is it you want to change about yourself or your conditions and circumstances this year?

What is the one simple step you can start with?

What will you allow to get you off track once you’ve started?

Whose support can you enlist to help you along the way?

Start today! You’ll be better for it.

Then come back and tell me what you did and how it felt. Looking forward to hearing your stories!

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Change your thinking, change your life

Posted in Food for Thought, tagged , , , , , on January 13, 2014| Leave a Comment »

I recently awoke from an odd dream, that got me thinking about how we think and its impact on our lives.

In the dream, I was walking through a train station, filled with people, as you would imagine. There was a young woman (in her 20’s I would guess) asking people for money. She asked a woman who was walking near me for money. The second woman said she didn’t have any cash. The first woman said “That’s ok, your bank is right here. Let’s go in and you can get some.”

Looking a bit bewildered, the second woman was ushered into the bank and I followed (curious to see what would happen next). The woman approached the teller and said she needed some cash from one of her accounts. The first woman, overhearing this — ‘one of her accounts’ — demanded the teller write down the balances in all of the woman’s accounts…presumably so she could determine how much money she could extract from her confused “benefactor.” The teller wrote the amounts out on a chalkboard (yes, things are sometimes strange in dreams!) and the account holder stood there silently, while the first woman decided how much money she should be given. She came up with some number, and the teller began to do what he needed to do, while the second woman looked on.

This was when I felt the need to step in and object. It was a ridiculous scenario to be sure…and it was certainly none of my business what some other person chose to do with their own money.

My objection sprang from the fact that simply giving this young woman money would not solve her problems. When you have a dysfunctional relationship with money, having more of it will not solve anything; you will simply blow through it as you usually do. It’s only when you are able to change your thinking about what money really is — a tool — and how you use it that you are able to make changes in your circumstances.

I felt compelled to explain this to the first young woman, although it would probably have fallen on deaf ears. Here is just one story of a person who came into a cash windfall, and it didn’t miraculously “fix” her life…in fact, it led to a lot of other issues and challenges, and wouldn’t you know, she is no longer a millionaire!

Here’s the bottom line. If you have the yearning to become a millionaire, great! But simply acquiring the money will not make you different. If you focus on the journey and invest in the process, the more important outcome is who you become on the way to earning the money.

It’s the same principle with anything else you desire to achieve, have, do, or be…the wisest people understand it’s not about actually accomplishing the goal, it’s about who you become on your way there. If you truly want to change your life…you must change your thinking. More specifically, you must actually ENGAGE in THINKING, not simply resorting to habitual ways of thinking or allowing others to think for you.

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Adding value to you in 2014 — Free e-book 2 days only

Posted in Worth Reading, tagged , , , , , , , on January 1, 2014| Leave a Comment »

I want to add value to you in 2014, and I hope to do that in a number of ways. To begin, I want to offer you my e-book, The ‘What Matters Most’ Manifesto, available on Amazon.

I wish for you a meaningful, satisfying, and fulfilling year ahead, and that won’t happen by chance. You must be intentional about it…and this e-book is intended to get you in that mindset.

This short, easy read is yours for free on January 2 and 3, as a Kindle download.

This doesn’t mean you have to own a Kindle, you merely need a Kindle reader, which you can use on a smart phone or tablet (I use it on both my iPhone and my iPad).

Feel free to pass it along and share with others, as well.

Please be kind enough to review the book on Amazon when you’re done. I truly want to know what you think of it.

May you enjoy good health and much prosperity in 2014.http://www.amazon.com/What-Matters-Most-Manifesto-ebook/dp/B00GTXGX6W/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1388595713&sr=1-1&keywords=laura+prisc

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Intentional Leadership — D5, W2, M12 — Belief

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , , , , on November 29, 2013| 1 Comment »

Good morning and Happy Friday! I hope this day finds you well and happy, after enjoying a delightful Thanksgiving with friends and family.

I have been working on a major transition in my life for a while now, and more intensely over the past few weeks. Finally, I have stepped through a doorway, so to speak, largely because of my belief in myself, my purpose, and my calling. In a lot of ways, what’s happening in my life was inevitable, I believe. I have a vision; I have the support and encouragement I need; I have knowledge, some level of wisdom, and experience to carry me forward; and I have a strategy to bring my dream into reality. Finally, and maybe most important, I believe I will be a success in my endeavor. So, this month’s topic is particularly relevant to me these days.

How about you? How important is what you believe, right now with where you are in your life today? What does it mean for where you are headed tomorrow?

And speaking of tomorrow…what plans do you have? How will you spend your time this weekend?

What thought are you giving to preparation for next week, as it brings with it a new month and the beginning of the end of 2013?

What thoughts, by chance, are you giving to preparation for 2014? It will be here before we know it!

I am actually taking a bit of a different approach to this weekend; it will be all about family, fun, and relaxation. It’s truly time for a short break…to reflect, regroup, adjust my view of the world, get comfortable with my new priorities…and celebrate a couple of birthdays. Delightfully, my Monday will truly be my own for the first time in a long time.

Whatever you choose for your weekend, I hope you are intentional about it. Remember…as each moment passes, it is gone.

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Intentional Leadership — D2, W4, M11 — Initiative

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , , , on November 12, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Last week, I spent a few days with a group of like-minded, growth-oriented people from across the US and Canada. We were talking about our dreams and what it takes to bring them to fruition (it was a lot more profound than this, but simply put, that was the focus). One recurrent theme was “Dream Big.”

Dream Big!

After all, what’s the point of dreaming if you aren’t going to Dream Big?!

And why wouldn’t we dream big within our organizations, as well? Typically, in organizations, we speak of the BHAG — or Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal (Thank you, Jim Collins and Jerry Porras), which is a “commitment to challenging, audacious, and often risky goals and projects towards which a visionary company channels its efforts.”

What BHAG would propel your organization forward?

How can you use it to inspire others?

What steps would you need to take to initiate this BHAG?

What will you do, now, to get started?

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Intentional Leadership — D1, W3, M11 — Initiative

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , , , , , on November 4, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Be willing to make decisions. That’s the most important quality in a good leader. Don’t fall victim to what I call the ready-aim-aim-aim-aim syndrome. You mist be willing to fire. ~T. Boone Pickens

In the late 1980’s, Paul O’Neill became the first outsider to run Alcoa (aluminum manufacturing). When he took the helm of this highly cyclical manufacturing business, it was having significant difficulty weathering the troughs of its normal cycle.

O’Neill had spent his career up to that point largely as a government civil servant. When he stepped into the CEO role at Alcoa, he did something that seemed totally counterintuitive in business. Rather than focusing on production and finance, as many new CEO’s would do when needing to turn a company around, he focused on what was considered “soft issues”: safety and teamwork.

While Alcoa had the industry’s best safety record at the time, and had been making strides in reducing injury rates each year, O’Neill let his Safety Director know that the only acceptable injury rate was ZERO! His belief was that ”You can’t get safety unless you really understand your processes.” And by diving deep into the work processes in every aspect of the business, the company was able to shed light on all of the behaviors surrounding how people did their work…behaviors that led to high quality and poor quality, behaviors that lead to strong teamwork and no teamwork, behaviors that led to safe work practices and unsafe work practices.

In essence, he set his sights on the one thing that inarguably affected every single person in the operation, and around which everyone shared common ground: Every person should go home from work each night in at least as good of condition as when they arrived for the beginning of their shift. By focusing on this one aspect of their business, they were, in effect, focusing on all aspects of their business. And, by improving performance around safety, the company improved its quality, production times, loss due to waste, financial performance, and customer relations.

The point here is that O’Neill had a vision, strategies to support it, he identified common ground, rallied his employees around the goal, and took initiative not only to set it all in motion, but did it in a very unorthodox manner…and he started down this path on his very first day at work.

The story of Alcoa’s turnaround is used as a case study in many management programs. Here is just one article about it. It’s an interesting read if you have the time.

As we begin our third week of focus on taking initiative, it’s important that we understand this basic concept: Initiative allows a leader to uproot problems before they balloon into crises.* When you are proactive in the short-term, it allows you to also see the big picture.

Think about what’s going on within your team/organization right now. What issue could you deal with now, that will prevent having to put out fires later?

Once you’ve identified the issue(s), think through how you can best approach it, and schedule time to deal with it before it becomes something much bigger.

*From Intentional Leadership booklet, by Giant Impact.

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Intentional Leadership — D5, W1, M11 — Initiative

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , on October 25, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I’m writing this to you from Summersville, WV; a place I’d never been before yesterday, and what a beautiful drive it was. The trees are changing colors…from bright green to salmon-orange, and rich reds…and snow! I spent most of the day yesterday attending the Create WV conference in Richwood, and it was interesting, fun, and educational. I’ll write more on this later; right now I want to get us thinking about our Friday ritual.

This month’s focus topic, initiative, is so appropriate for our Friday ritual. I’ve been encouraging you to be intentional about how you think about and spend your weekends. It’s one thing to say we have a plan for our weekend, but we have to take the initiative to actually put our plans into action. I know this is common sense, but the biggest gap we struggle with in our lives it the “knowing — doing” gap — meaning we often know what we need to do, but fail to do it Getting across this gap takes focus, discipline, and initiative.

I will be at this conference through part of the weekend. Nonetheless, I still have reading and writing to do, some review of the activities I’m focused on through the Maxwell Plan for Growth (this month’s focus within that program is Priorities; which, I must say, is really helping me get more done each day), and enjoy a little down time.

What’s on your list for the weekend? What are your priorities and and what will it take for you to take the initiative to get started, keep going, or finish whatever you’re focused on?

However you spend this weekend, I hope you’re intentional about it.

“See” you Monday!

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Intentional Leadership — D4, W2, M10 — Strategy

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , , , on October 3, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I first heard this story during the Chick-fil-A Leadercast in May 2012, and find it, again, in the Intentional Leadership booklet we are following, developed by Giant Impact.

It’s the story of Andy Grove, long-time CEO at Intel (by the way, Andy has a fascinating personal story; if you aren’t familiar with it, I encourage you to do a little research on him). There was a point in time when Andy asked these questions:

If a new leader walked into your role today with a fresh perspective and a full mandate to make changes, what strategic shifts would he or she make? What insights would be gained as he or she talked to your customers, employees, suppliers, and consultants?

It’s an interesting exercise and you may be quite surprised at what you come up with — and the freedom you feel when you give yourself permission to step outside your normal mode of operation and look at your world from a different perspective.

As you ask yourself these questions, and imagine the answers, note the responses in your journal.

Then, explore what might be keeping you from making the necessary changes? Would it be actual barriers, self-imposed constraints, or self-limiting beliefs?

What steps do you now need to take to ensure you are really listening to your employees, customers, suppliers, and consultants? How can you maintain that listening posture and incorporate what you hear into your planning.

Choose one change to start with, and move forward.

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Intentional Leadership — D1, W2, M10 — Strategy

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , , , , , , on September 30, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Have you given much thought the need to adjust your strategy to adapt to changing dynamics in your business environment? I have been, prompted by a recent call with one of my mentors who brought up Kodak.

You remember Kodak, don’t you? For a while, it was Eastman Kodak, then just Kodak, and anyone with a camera — the ones that require actual film — will remember Kodak. Back then, we had to go to the store to buy rolls of film; then, when we’d taken our pictures, we took them back to the store or a film shop and dropped off the role of film to be developed…which often took a week to 10 days! Eventually, someone invented the 1-hour photo developing system, and that revolutionized photography (for us amateurs, anyway), for a while. Then along came digital photography. No longer did you need to buy film or have it developed; now the market was all about memory cards for your camera, and the pixel capability of your camera.

Clearly, this new business model didn’t fit with Kodak’s old model — sell film, photo paper, and developing services. So, how did Kodak respond?

At one point, albeit way too late in the transformation of its industry, the former giant attempted to reposition itself as the Memories company, with print-at-home photo paper and systems…but it was too late. Kodak had missed the boat and ended up filing for Chapter 11 Reorganization.

Are you even aware of what Kodak is up to — if anything — these days? I have to admit, I wasn’t sure if the company was even in business any longer. Turns out, a simple search indicates it is. Today, “Kodak has transformed itself into a technology company focused on imaging for business.”

According to its web site,

“Kodak sharpened its focus to commercial markets as part of a 20-month Chapter 11 reorganization in which it successfully removed large legacy costs, streamlined a complex infrastructure, and exited or spun-off businesses – including its remaining consumer imaging and document imaging businesses – that were no longer core to its future. People around the world will continue to see the Kodak brand through its commercial businesses and licenses with select business partners.

As a result of its reorganization, Kodak today is leaner, financially stronger and ready to grow – poised to take advantage of the digital transition underway in packaging markets; the growing demand for graphic communications products and services in emerging markets; and dynamic growth in the market for printed electronics, sensors, fuel cells and other printed products with functions beyond visual communications.”

This is a prime example of the need to adapt one’s strategy as the dynamics of business and industry shift, and they are constantly shifting. The point: One must adapt to survive, and this is as true for you — as leaders — as it is for your organizations.

Today, spend some time reflecting on the changes you’ve experienced in your industry in the past few years. What were some of the most dramatic? And what adaptations were required for your organization to remain relevant?

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Intentional Leadership — D3, W1, M10 — Strategy

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , , , on September 25, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Today, examine the core strategies your organization or team  is following. Are they easily explained and when written, do they fit on one page? If not, it’s time for some review and simplification. Challenge your team to do the same — simplify the core strategies each member of your team will follow in their specific roles that will allow them to support the organizational strategies — and fit them on one page.

Again, if they are too complicated and difficult to explain, understand, or follow, no one will use them.

Then, bring your team together and evaluate each person’s revised strategy. This exercise will allow you to determine whether individual members really understand the overall organizational strategies, and if they are on track to support the bigger picture goals.

This is a great opportunity to address any adjustments that need to be made and to refine individual and team-level strategies to ensure your team is on track to meet organizational goals.

Take some time, right now, to get started.

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