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Intentional Leadership — D5, W3, M8 — Change

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 16, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Happy Friday! Wow! What a week, I just had. Spending time with the John Maxwell Team is all at once energizing, soul-filling, enlightening, thought-provoking, and the impetus to stretch myself, yet again, into changing the way I think and act and respond. It’s one of the few times I can say I am fully-engaged, totally “on” for 12-15 hours at a stretch, for several days in a row. When our time together comes to an end, I equate the disconnect as being similar to pulling the plug on a power cord…exhausted — but in a really satisfied way.

With that in mind, my plans for the weekend involve unpacking and lots of laundry! Reconnecting with my family, reconnecting with my normal daily schedule, prep for the next week. I will be beginning the Empowerment Mentoring series of lessons, again, (it’s a revolving series of lessons, so one does not need to start and stop on any particular lesson) on Tuesday with the Purpose, Vision, Goals lesson; will spend some time reviewing the material in preparation. Need to go through a week’s worth of mail; do some banking; and plan for next week.

Monday will be busy with a series of meetings, preparation for a full-day off-site team-building and vision workshop on Friday. Continuing some team-building and vision work with the maintenance team I’ve been working with. Have several coaching sessions scheduled, a couple of mentoring sessions, as well.

Plenty of reflection and writing to do to download everything I learned over the past week. And, of course, looking ahead to plan for September activities.

What’s on your agenda for the weekend?

What relationships need nurturing?

What time do you need to devote to yourself?

What activities would you like to fit in and how much rest do you need?

What do you need to do to prepare yourself for a great start to your week on Monday?

What do you need to be thinking about, and doing, to set yourself up for success in the coming weeks?

We will finish our month of focus on Change next week…can’t believe it’s going so quickly. So, I’ll “see” you on Monday.

In the meantime, make your time intentional!

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Intentional Leadership — D1, W2, M8 — Change

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , , , on August 5, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Approximately a year and a half ago, I attended the Chick-fil-A Leadercast, and Andy Stanley was one of the speakers. I don’t remember the entire content of his talk, but one part of it really stuck out for me and I remember it frequently.

He was telling to story of two executives, a few years ago, I believe at Dell. They were struggling with an issue that they had to resolve, and weren’t coming up with new ideas. You see, they were so firmly entrenched in their paradigms, that they couldn’t see their situation in a different light. They knew their way of thinking at that time wasn’t going to allow them to come up with the solutions they needed to change the direction of their business.

Finally, one of them had a stroke of genius and asked this question: “What would our successors (replacements) do?” You see, he recognized the dire situation they were in and was confident that if they weren’t able to change their way of thinking, and change their corporate strategy, they would soon be replaced with someone who could!

Pretty sobering thought, don’t you think?

This simple question allowed them to think as if they were someone else, with different beliefs, constraints, perceived barriers, etc…and they were able to come up with some ideas that were a bit out of the ordinary for them, but weren’t out of the realm of possibility. Having given themselves permission to consider ideas they wouldn’t normally entertain, they were able to come up with some better responses to their situation.

And that, as they say, made all the difference!

Take some time today to think back on a time when you had to change your way of thinking in order to succeed. What was the situation?

What “barriers” (either real or perceived) held you back?

What pushed you into a new way of thinking?

What were the results?

How have you used that experience with different situations?

Having had this experience, how quickly do you now move into a new way of thinking when faced with a challenge?

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Intentional Leadership — D5, W1, M8 — Change

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 2, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Good morning, and Happy Friday! Thank you for being here, reading my thoughts…this is my 201st blog post!

Again, the week has gone quickly for me. I spent last weekend and the early part of the week in Colorado visiting my mom and sisters. Haven’t had the opportunity to do that in a long time, so it was good, but too short. Now, as this is Friday, and the next weekend is upon me, I am already planning my weekend activities, as well as those of next week.

Tomorrow, I will spend with my son and my mother-in-law who has recently come to live with us. We will travel a short distance (a little over an hour) to visit a Children’s Museum, do a little shopping, and have a lunch date. It will be good for all of us to get out, for my son to explore, imagine, and experiment with the many interactive displays and activities at The Clay Center, and for my MIL to see some more of the area.

I will also spend part of the weekend doing some writing in advance and preparing for the next lesson in my Empowerment Mentoring program, “World Famous”. I will be traveling next Thursday, for a week in Orlando with the John Maxwell Team (oh, how I love being with these amazing, energizing, up-lifting, encouraging, like-minded, growth-oriented people, literally from all over the world!). It will be a week of learning, reminiscing, growth, new experiences, deep reflection, and fellowship. It will be, easily, 12-14 hour days fully engaged; which is energizing and exhausting! Thankfully, my yoga program is portable and I can practice in my hotel room.

What’s on your list this weekend? Will you focus on you? Will you spend time with others? Exercise? Read? Write? Rest?

What do you need to do to set yourself up for success on Monday? And in the coming weeks?

However you spend it, I hope your weekend is satisfying and intentional.

“See” you Monday!

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Intentional Leadership — D2, W1, M8 — Change

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

When was the last time you really took a step back and reflected on where you are in your life and what’s going on around you? How much change is taking place? I encourage you to spend some time with your journal today, responding to these questions?

Over the past year, what has changed in your personal life?

For me, change has been significant over the past year, but mostly internally. My work seems to flow in waves, with peaks and valleys, and I adapt as necessary. Internally, however, change has been significant. I’ve been on an intensely-focused journey of self-discovery and clarification of my passion, purpose, vision, values, and beliefs. It’s been enlightening, refreshing, and liberating. I highly recommend it!

Over the past year, what changes have taken place within your industry?

Over the past year, what changes have you witnessed within your organization?

Within any one, or more, of these areas, has there been a change you resisted or challenged?

Why did you resist?

What was the outcome?

What was the cost to you of resisting?

Was there a change you welcomed and embraced?

Why did you embrace this change?

What benefits have you received as a result?

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Intentional Leadership — D1, W1, M8 — Change

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , , , on July 29, 2013| Leave a Comment »

In his book, the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, John Maxwell tells the story of Henry Ford and his leadership style. Truth be told, he wasn’t an effective leader, because he needed to be in control, thrived on keeping his staff uncomfortable and on-edge, and actively worked to undermine them and cause disruptions between members of his leadership team. Be that as it may, he did develop an automotive company that was, at one time, the dominant automaker in the US.

Well, Mr. Ford pioneered the assembly line, thus streamlining automotive manufacturing, significantly cutting the amount of time it took to build a car, which also lowered costs. He made the automobile an affordable transportation option for the masses, rather than a luxury item only a few could afford. However, as his competitors began to copy his assembly line and mass produced their own cars, Ford made a mis-step. You probably all remember one of the famous quotes attributed to him about one of his cars, something to the effect of: You can have it in any color you like, as long as it’s black! This was in response to the growing demand of his customers who wanted cars in different colors.

His thinking was sound in one respect: black paint dried the fastest and could be used more efficiently than other colors. He missed the boat in understanding and acknowledging what his customers wanted: variety! Other manufacturers were more than willing to paint their cars other colors, and consumers bought those instead of a Ford.

This is a clear example of having tunnel vision; Ford was so focused on moving towards efficiency, changing the way cars would be built even today, but he couldn’t move back to a less efficient process, a different direction if you will, even when doing so would have been very profitable for his business. This is the danger of becoming complacent.

Sometimes, when we have outpaced, out performed our competitors and tasted some level of success, it’s tempting to think that it’s “good enough” and we don’t have to continue striving to get better; this is an extremely dangerous mind-set and will surely lead to one’s downfall.

As they say, if we don’t learn from our mistakes we are doomed to repeat them. We should all be so wise as to study Ford’s leap to success and later to the back of the pack. It’s a lesson we shouldn’t repeat.

As a leader, it’s critical that we are in tune with what’s going on the marketplace, what’s changing in the minds of our customers and potential customers, to changes in technology, and especially to changes in thinking. If not, we will soon find ourselves at the back of the pack, and sometimes…it’s just not possible to recover from that position.

Take some time to think about a time when you ignored a necessary change and missed an opportunity. What was the situation? What signs did you ignore? What did you miss? How has that affected where you are today?

There is an assessment called the Kirton Adaptive-Innovative measure; it is designed to identify whether you are an innovator and maintainer (prefer the status quo, thank you very much!) or somewhere in between. It’s a revealing exercise to be sure. In the absence of having the opportunity to do this assessment right now, how would you honestly rank yourself in terms of your tendency to embrace change?

We’ll spend a lot more time with these thoughts this month.

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Intentional Leadership — M8 Intro — Change

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , , , on July 28, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Change: The process of becoming different.

In this, our eighth month of this Intentional Leadership* journey,  we will closely examine the process of change; which is, oddly enough, the only thing that seems to be consistent in today’s world! If you can count on any one thing, it’s that change is either on its way or already here! And how we adapt to and manage change will make an enormous difference in our path to success and satisfaction.

Change is happening at a dizzying pace that appears to be moving faster all the time. This is true in all aspects of life, including business, and if you aren’t able to anticipate, recognize, and adapt to change, as a leader, you will certainly fall behind. Not only is change a requirement for growth, it is actually necessary for survival.

Think back over the course of your lifetime and remember some of the things that have come and gone. I grew up in Southern California, and I remember buying actual ticket booklets at Disneyland. The “E” ticket was the most desirable, as they were for the best, most exciting rides in the park. If I remember correctly, there were a lot more tickets in the book for the “A-D” rides, and if you wanted to go on more than one “E” ride, you had to buy more “E” tickets! I remember rotary dial phones; cell phones as big as a shoe, and heavy as a boot! I remember when you could actually buy “penny candy” and a bag of M&Ms was 10 cents! This list could go on and on…and I’m sure you have one of your own, possibly similar to mine, or very different if you are from a different generation.

The point is, change is inevitable and we must be able to work our way through it, and remain committed to it, even when it appears as if nothing is happening. This requires leaders to be steadfast, holding tight to their convictions, willing to sacrifice for what they believe to be the right thing. Eventually, the transformation will happen and we will all easily see the benefits of having stayed committed.

To be truly successful in these ever-changing times, we must not only adapt to change, but we must welcome and embrace it. Our most valuable skills in these times are flexibility, resourcefulness, and resilience. To take it one step further, leaders who are able to anticipate change, and prepare for it before the need becomes obvious, are much better prepared for what’s to come.

As we get started with this new month, new focus, take some time today to ask yourself these questions:

How can I be more flexible to the changes happening around me?

In what areas do I have opportunities for growth in terms of changing the direction of my leadership, that will allow me to work through change more effectively?

What changes have you made in your life, to-date, and what growth do you attribute to them?

How has your self-confidence changed as a result of successfully navigating change?

Much more to come on this topic. “See” you tomorrow! In the meantime, have an intentional day!

 

*From the Intentional Leadership booklet by Giant Impact. 

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Intentional Leadership — D4, W4, M6 — Perseverance

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , , , , on June 27, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Do you have your journal handy? Let’s spend some time today in reflection.

What are the three hardest aspects of your job? Write them down.

Next to each one, list the reason for the difficulty.

Then, imagine yourself persevering through each of the three areas, and write the rewards you will earn by enduring.

Now that you have greater clarity, what actions will you take to make them reality and move forward, intentionally and confidently, into your future?

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Intentional Leadership — D1, W4, M6 — Perseverance

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , , , , on June 24, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Perseverance offers a number of rewards, some of them may even be sweet!

Think about Milton Hershey. Yes, THE Milton Hershey of Hershey’s chocolates fame. He was fired from his first job as a printer’s apprentice, for lack of attention to detail. Next, working in a candy store, he discovered his passion and opened his own shop in Philadelphia. Although he had plenty of financial support, he went bankrupt. He moved to Denver to work in his father’s mining venture, but missed the opportunity.

Again, he went to work in a candy store. Learned some new things, and moved east, again. He opened another candy store in NYC; again, he went broke!

No one would have been surprised or would blame him had he given up and gone to work, again, for someone else. But he didn’t. He summoned his courage and tried, again. (There’s that word, again — “AGAIN”!) And aren’t we all thankful he did? Personally, I’m partial to the semi-sweet variety of his chocolate and am enjoying some now, as I write!

The key is, he was persistent. And his name is synonymous with chocolate.

And what about Walt Disney? I believe he went bankrupt seven times before his dreams for Disneyland were realized. I’m sure we could all think of several other similar stories of passion, adversity, perseverance, and eventual success.

Leadership and failure are inseparably linked. When you attempt to bring your vision to life, you will experience bumps in the road, you will find you have fallen into a pot hole or even a giant sink hole along your journey…or you may be blazing an entirely new trail, with all kinds of unforeseen obstacles ahead. The trick is to learn from these setbacks, grow through them, and move beyond them. You will feel the amazing sensation of satisfaction — along with your success — when you do. And my friends, there’s not much like true satisfaction in knowing you stuck to it and accomplished what you set out to do.

Spend a little time today thinking about your greatest setback in your life to-date. What was it?

How did you get through it?

What was the bittersweet reward?

What did you learn from it that you have carried forward and use in other situations?

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What window are you bumping up against?

Posted in Food for Thought, tagged , , , , , , on June 23, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Perception = Reality.

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This beautiful bird spent the better part of four weeks fluttering up and down this window. You see, it thought it was flying into a tree. And it was persistent! It literally fluttered up and down this window most of the day; occasionally flying off into the trees you can see beyond it. The window has reflective film on it, to keep the heat of the sun out of the office. If you look at the window from the outside, you see the trees and bushes (which you can see as you look beyond the bird in this photo) reflected in the glass — pretty clearly, too. No wonder the bird thought it was flying into a tree…and behaved in a frustrated manner that it couldn’t get into the tree. It’s perception was that the window was a tree, and so it continued to try to find a way into the tree, because that was its reality.

Clearly…it wasn’t a tree and the bird was unsuccessful!

This is one of the key concepts I teach when I’m teaching communication skills. It fits in nicely with my two key lessons — self-awareness and intentionality are key to your success.

Understanding the power of perception is important because someone is always watching you, especially when you are a leader. And they make up stories about what’s going on based on snippets of information — often incomplete — combined with their beliefs, values, past experiences, and rumors. What they come up with may be accurate, close to accurate, or a million miles away from the truth, but because they don’t have access to the whole story, the one they create makes sense to them, and they move forward based on it.

My question to you is, how is someone’s else’s perception of you affecting your performance and chances of success? How is it impacting  your relationships?

What about your own perception about yourself? About your abilities, skills, and talents?

Whether you believe you can or your can’t, you’re right. ~Henry Ford

This quote says it all. What you believe to be true about yourself will determine your future. Knowing that, it’s important to examine how you perceive yourself and understand why it is so. Then, what can you do to make it different, if you need to make some changes to move forward into your potential?

And, what perceptions do you have about others that may be affecting your path forward?

Please, don’t waste your time and energy fluttering up against a window that is NOT a tree, and expect it to magically become what you want it to be! Make the effort to have clear vision and understanding about who you are and what’s going on in your life…and then move forward with confidence!

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Intentional Leadership — D2, W3, M6 — Perseverance

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on June 18, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Perseverance can make or break people. When you persevere, you learn a lot about yourself and others. Spend some time now writing a few lessons you’ve learned about perseverance in each area of your life:

Lessons from family members

Lessons from education

Lessons from friends

Lessons from professional life

What two or three principles can you create to remind you of the lessons you have learned from perseverance?

I’ll share one of my stories with you.

I always knew education would be my ticket to a better future. So, I worked hard through high school. I earned a small scholarship through the Jr. Miss program (it was a scholarship program, pretty prevalent in high school, with many programs throughout the US), and qualified for some financial aid for college. I went to school my first year, and was told by the financial aid office at my university that I no longer qualified for aid because my parents earned too much money.

Regardless of what the Financial Aid office thought, my parents were not in a position to help me with school, and I was determined to finish my degree. So, I found a job babysitting a couple of kids for a woman who worked at my university, for about nine months, until I had been independent of my parents long enough to apply for FA on my own merits.

After missing nearly all of what should have been my second year of college, I was able to get some student loans and start classes, again. Because my loans weren’t enough to pay for everything thing, I worked. In fact, I worked three different jobs (cleaning the administration building at my school — part time thru the school year and full time over the summer, cleaning the home of one of the professors, and taking care of the live plants in one of the school buildings) while taking a full load of classes. While the jobs I held changed over the next three years, I worked my way through school. I know I was blessed to have access to financial aid, grants, and loans to earn my Bachelor’s degree.

While having a college education doesn’t guarantee anyone a good job or a successful career, it has certainly opened a lot of doors for me. In fact, in many cases, it was the required minimum to even be considered for some positions. And, after I had been working in my field for several years, I started missing new job opportunities because the level of positions I was becoming qualified for stated “Master’s degree preferred.” Not required, just preferred. Nonetheless, I missed a number of job offers, because the positions were offered to someone with a Master’s degree. So, I realized, if I wanted to move up, I would need to go back to school and earn my Master’s degree.

This wasn’t a daunting task for me, as I love learning. In fact, if I could be in a learning environment all the time, I would be there in a heartbeat! So, I did go back to school. This time, the money wasn’t the biggest challenge; I was working a full-time job and attended school several nights a week, plus some weekend workshops. It wasn’t always easy and it wasn’t always fun…but I persevered and emerged from that time in my life victorious!

I am proud to list myself as Laura Prisc, MSC (Master of Science in Communication).

Try it…you’ll like how you feel about yourself when you finish what you set out to do, and especially if you had to persevere through difficult times.

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