Reflection Riding

This is one of my favorite photos from our trip to Chattanooga last weekend, taken at Reflection Riding, a nature center surrounded by natural beauty. It reminds me of the transition from old to new, looking from what's current, dieing off, to the promise of new growth and beauty in the near future. We just have to step into it.

We were delighted by these 3 horses, led out from the barn in mid-afternoon. As soon as they were let loose, the two black ones threw themselves on the their backs, rolling in the grass, obviously enjoying themselves. After the white one munched a while he did the same. Happy to be free to do as they pleased.  

Friends that do

We had a wonderful weekend in Ooltewah, TN, with our dear friends Beverly & Bill. At 82 and 85, they are going strong, volunteering, caring for others who are ill, driving, cooking, delivering, playing cards and word games with friends, and very active in their church. What role models they are for active aging! Both are avid readers, enjoy going new places, discussing current events, maintain relationships with family and friends their age and younger (like us!). They are flattered that we want to spend time with them, yet we feel honored to be among their friends and hope we will be as vibrant as they are as we age. Their key to success? They always give of themselves, do for others, are open to others’ perspectives, willing to give the benefit of the doubt, pray for those they love and those they are concerned about. They say they don’t do anything special, but the difference is that they “do” – they don’t just think or talk about it, they take action. They never stop learning. That’s what I want to be like as I to grow up.

In Jamaica

I'm in Jamaica again for another leadership practices inventory workshop with the police dept. My seat mate today on American Airlines was an entrepreneur who introduced Jamaican "Tastee patties" to Belize and his business is doing well. Took 2 years of working 14-15 hour days, six days a week, to get it up and running, and now, a few years later, he is able to live in Jamaica while his business thrives in Belize with his brother running the daily operation. I love hearing stories like his. I asked him what he does as a leader that makes his employees enjoy working with him. He said he pitches in wherever needed -- from cooking to cleaning up -- so his employees know what is important to him.

I'm looking forward to finding out what is important to the leaders in my workshop tomorrow.

Elevate the Leader in You

Would you like to elevate the leader in you? Whether you lead only yourself or thousands, these four actions will help you be a successful leader.

1. Develop your vision for what is possible. See it in your mind’s eye in detail. Hear it. Smell it. Taste it. Feel it. Make it so clear, it makes you smile. Vision it every day for one minute. (Longer is better, but one minute can make difference.)

2. Communicate your vision. Talk about it in ways that stimulate others to want to help you make it happen. This is the hardest of the five practices of exemplary leaders, according to Kouzes and Posner in The Leadership Challenge. If talking about it feels uncomfortable, continue visioning. The clearer your vision, the easier it is to talk compellingly because you’ll be excited about its possibilities.

3. Collaborate. You can’t do it alone. One of my clients wants to make things happen and has great ideas and energy, but has not talked with his team about his vision for what is possible. Sure, he could do some things himself, but the outcomes will be enriched with collaboration. Plus, by collaborating with his team, he models what he wants them to do when working with other departments to make things happen for the good of the organization.

4. Believe in You. This is probably the most important. No one becomes truly successful without believing in themselves and their possibilities. You don’t have to be effusive. Just remind yourself every day that if you can think it, you can do it. Then go back to #1 and vision yourself doing it.

To learn more about what you can do to be a better leader of yourself and others, contact me to discuss coaching or arranging for one of my seminars:
Believe in You
Elevate the Leader in You
The Leadership Challenge
Streamline Your Time with Outlook

Keep in mind: “Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple, and it is also that difficult.” ~Warren G. Bennis

Prioritizing saves time

Are you doing what is most important today? You made a list, right? And prioritized it? I made mine but didn’t add the #s. So, each time I looked at it, I picked what to do next. What a waste of time! If I had prioritized it, I would have breezed through the top 5.

Prioritizing ensures that you tackle the most important first. As interruptions occur throughout the day, you quickly weigh whether they are more important than your next highest priority. If they are, take care of them and then return to your list. If a crisis hits and you can’t get back to what you planned, you’re OK because you already tackled 1, 2, 3.

Most people want to be more organized. One way to test if you’re on track is to check in with yourself. Listen to your inner voice. Is it saying “What are you doing?????” Or, “Sure, this is good. Do it.” Trust your inner guide to help you focus on what is most important. Sometimes shifting gears is the best thing to do. It just happened to me.

I started to write this message about my seminars: Believe in You, Elevate the Leader in You and The Leadership Challenge. But I was interrupted, and my inner guide encouraged me to shift my message to the importance of prioritizing.

Success pivots on relationships

What do you do with nuggets of information you want to remember about people who are important to you? Colleagues, clients, potential clients and friends who mention something in an email you want to remember. Don’t rely on your memory. That nugget will get covered with a lot of other stuff before you want to retrieve it. Instead, jot it in your Contact for this person. Check the Contact before calling them or seeing them at a meeting, and you have a meaningful conversation starter. They will think you’re wonderful for remembering something they said.

4 easy steps to capture info from an email to a Contact:
1) Highlight, right click & Copy the nugget in the email
2) Right click on who the message is From and Look up their Contact. Or, Add to Contacts if you don’t already have one.
3) In the Contact’s notes space, type today’s date, right click and Paste.
4) Save & Close the Contact. You automatically return to that email in Inbox.

When you think about what has helped you be the success you are today, I bet having strong relationships is near the top of the list. Let Outlook remember for you.

This is tip #2 of 111 Ways to Streamline Your Time with Microsoft Outlook.

"Two men looked out from prison bars. One saw mud, the other saw stars." What are you choosing to focus on today?

Who Knows What You Know

I have to tell you about Roto Rooter. Our sink backed up twice last week. I Googled “fix clogged sinks Orlando,” and Roto Rooter topped the list with complimentary customer ratings. We remembered the old jingle from TV commercials and had an excellent experience with them years ago at Christmas, so I didn’t hesitate to call. “Experience” walked in the door when Ken arrived. He has been with Roto Rooter for 40 years. He assessed our situation, cleaned out the pipes, and we were clog free.

As he was leaving, I told Ken I would recommend Roto Rooter to anyone with clogged drains. He thanked me but said that was a problem. People think of Roto Rooter for cleaning drains but don’t think of them for other plumbing needs, like changing or fixing a faucet. He was right. I wou ld have called Walt’s Plumbing for something like that. It’s an ongoing marketing challenge because so many people think of them only as drain uncloggers.

It made me think of what Women Unlimited drums into the minds of their leadership program participants. It’s not what you know, it’s WHO KNOWS what you know that will get you ahead in this world. If you’re good at something but the right people don’t know how good you are at it, it doesn’t do you any good.

So, my message to you today is: What are you doing or what have you accomplished that others need to know? When you communicate confidently and comfortably about what you do or have accomplished, you are memorable. What do you want people to remember about you?

Do the right people know you do more than unclog pipes?

Your best time

I did a seminar on “Streamline Your Time with Outlook” yesterday at Darden. I saw light bulbs go on when we talked about their best time of day. Many don’t pay attention to it, yet it is a simple, powerful approach to making progress toward your goals.

When is your best time of day? When are you your sharpest, clearest, brightest? What are you typically doing during your best time of day? I hope you’re not wasting it on mundane work. Use it to focus on something important to your growth and your career. Try this: block time on your calendar for your best time of day at least twice a week for the next month. By Memorial Day, you will have made progress toward something important to your success! And you will have created a new habit.

I gave the seminar participants an example of someone I used to work with. He realized his best time of day for reading and digesting new material, industry mags and reports was right after lunch. We thought he was closing his door to take a quick nap. But within weeks of closing his door almost every day for one-half hour after lunch, he was a different person in staff meetings. He had new ideas, was up to speed on the competition, knew what was happening in our industry, and had more energy about his job. All because he was tackling the pile of reading material he never had time for, yet knew his future success hinged on it.

Dedicate time, even a few minutes, during your best time of day to work on something you really want to accomplish.

Hell in the hallway

I was talking with a colleague who is very unhappy where she works. I made her laugh with what my brother would say when he was down: "When one door closes, another opens ... but it’s hell in the hallway!"

Are you in a hallway? Is it frustration with your work, your role, your relationships, yourself?

Often in difficult times, we find out who we really are, what really matters, and what we really want to do.

Try this right now. Be a possibilities thinker. If you could be or do anything you really wanted, and you had no restrictions, if time, money, geography didn’t matter, what would you do? Mute the negative voice in your head. Listen to the positive one. What would you do?

Pay attention to that positive thought. What one step could you take toward it? You can work your way out of the hallway by focusing on possibilities.

You have more strength within you than you may give yourself credit for.

I received a card recently with a Helen Keller quote on the front that touched me. "Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it." How true!

When my brother was down, he would do something for someone else. Reach out to someone in need. Volunteer. It would get him outside of his head. It always made him feel better. He died unexpectedly two years ago this April at 60 from a brain hemorrhage. We never know how long we have to do what we're here to do.

What hallway are you in? I'd love to help you achieve your possibilities.

Friends are Powerful

You know that good friends make a difference in your life in many ways. They even impact the way you view your challenges.

Researchers asked participants to stand at the base of a steep hill and estimate how tough it would be to climb. Those standing with a friend gauged the ascent to be less steep compared with those who were alone. The longer the study participants had known their friends, the more gentle they estimated the incline to be.*

What could you do today to connect with a friend? It might turn one of your (or their) mountains into a mole hill.

Do you have grit?

I bet you have more grit than you realize.

It’s when you believe in something and know you can’t do it all or make the big impact all at once. So you chip away at it. One step, then another. Until, with dedication and commitment, you achieve what you want…and more. It is how many significant accomplishments are achieved.

In MADE TO STICK, a Fast Company* article, Dan Heath and Chip Heath explain why some of the biggest victories are won an inch at a time:

"…grit – defined as endurance in pursuit of long-term goals and an ability to persist in the face of adversity – is a key part of what makes people successful. In a culture that values quick results – this qua rter’s numbers, this week’s weight loss, this month’s click-throughs – grit can be an under-appreciated secret weapon.

"Consider the difference grit makes even in a naturally gritty place like West Point. To be admitted, cadets must have impressive marks on multiple dimensions such as SAT scores, class rank, leadership ability, and physical aptitude. They’ve been tested as leaders. Yet during the first summer of training, a grueling period known as Beast Barracks, one out of every 20 cadets drops out.

"When Angela Duckworth of the University of Pennsylvania analyzed these incoming West Point cadets, she found that a very simple survey gauging grit – in which people self-assess on statements such as 'I finish whatever I begin' – could predict who would survive the Beast Barracks better than any existing West Point measure. 'Grit may be as essential as talent to high accomplishment,' D uckworth wrote.

"… Grit is not synonymous with hard work. It involves a certain single-mindedness. An ungritty prison inmate will formulate a new plan of escape every month, but a gritty prison inmate will tunnel his way out one spoonful of concrete at a time.”

Since reading this article, I’m making "I have grit" my mantra for the challenges I wish I could wave a magic wand and finish quickly. It has helped me make progress with a positive mindset. The trick is to keep your vision of success – you successfully completing whatever it is -- in mind, in crystal clear detail. A crystal clear vision of you as the success you want to be, brought to mind every day, will get you where you want to go.

What will grit help you accomplish?

Let me know if you would like to talk about it.