Happy New You in 2011

Life is a blackboard upon which we consciously or unconsciously write those messages which govern us. We hold the chalk and the eraser in our hand but are ignorant of this fact. What we now experience we need not continue to experience but the hand which holds the erasure must do its neutralizing work. ~ Ernest Holmes

 

As you enter into the New Year, I invite you to ask yourself this question: What’s new about me in 2011? If you are like many people you may look in the mirror and say… “There is nothing new that I can see; same old face… same old hands…same old body...same old aches and pains…same old relationships…same old job. Essentially, I see the same old me.”

I propose it doesn’t have to be that way because change is always constant - we just aren’t aware of it. Even down to the molecular level, change is continually happening. However, if the belief system that creates the template into which life’s energy flows is the “same old” mold as it was last year, life has no alternative but to give us a replay of last year. This is true at the level of the physical body as well as the body of our emotions and relationships. Life is energy seeking a place to happen. You are the conduit through which it happens. Energy is not choosing “how” it manifests in your life - you make that choice. I believe that’s what Holmes was saying - we hold the power to change our future by understanding that while we can’t change the past; we can choose not to recreate it by dragging it into the future. Recently, I heard someone saying aloud, “The future isn’t what it used to be.” The reality is the future will exactly be how it used to be until we learn to consciously pick up the eraser and the chalk.

We have the ability to inscribe something new on the blackboard of life in 2011. Metaphorically, we hold the chalk and the eraser because we have freewill and the ability to choose again. Sadly, however, most people are unaware of the amazing creative power they wield when they couple their intentional thoughts and deepest beliefs with a universal law that says, “It’s done unto you as you believe.” This is why I don’t play the New Year resolution game because it’s dealing in willpower, which is working at the level of effect (from the outside-in) rather than cause (from the inside-out). Essentially, willpower won’t sustain us for the long haul because it’s being held in place only by the conscious mind and that part of the mind tends to get distracted, bored, tired and restless, and then it’s off in some other direction which is generally counterproductive to our deepest desires. We have to go beyond the conscious mind and work at the level of our most deeply held beliefs about the way things “are” and the way they can be.

So, where do we start? How do we embrace what it means to be able to redesign 2011 by inscribing something new and improved on the blackboard of life? We have to be willing to go where we have not gone before, to move beyond the old mindset. What better time than right now? While this exercise could be done on a computer, I recommend doing it with paper and pencil to provide a more visceral/tactile experience. Using a pencil with an eraser, draw a vertical line down the middle of a piece of paper. On the left side of the paper write down the experiences you have had in the past year that you would like not to recreate again in 2011. On the right side of the paper, adjacent to each of those statements, write down what you would like to see as your reality in the next twelve months. Each time you write down a new awareness in the right column, erase one in the left column you wish to release. With each erasure feel the “lightness of being” that comes with the knowing you don’t have to recreate the same experience next year. Spend as much time as possible lightly holding the new view of your life and try to embody the feelings you will have when you arrive at that vision. For now don’t concern yourself with how this will happen. Once you are clear on the what, the universe will guide you in the actions required to manifest the how. Realize that in this process you have just taken hold of the chalk and the eraser. You hold the power.

Happy New You!

We are what we repeatedly do

At the last week’s Time Strategies webinar, I made a recommendation to define your values, purpose, and goals in order to achieve what you need to accomplish in the time that you have in a given day.

There are relationship, career, personal interest, family and social demands… all screaming for attention in our lives. Each of us has the same amount of time available to us as we begin a new day. Twenty four hours to use or abuse as we see fit. There never seems to be enough.

Sometimes we accomplish a great deal, and time just seems to fly by when we notice the lateness of the hour. When we work at challenging and stimulating projects directly related to our goals, our achievement level skyrockets and time flies.

On other days, everything seems to be going in slow motion. When we are bored or doing something we don’t like, time drags and our productivity and our level of accomplishment drops. When we feel under the gun or out of control, time seems to go too fast. We feel out of control, stressed, unable to get done what we need to accomplish in the time allotted, and are continually behind schedule.

The quantity of time doesn’t really change. Only our perception changes and our perception is our reality. Since we cannot increase or manufacture more time, we must get more out of the time we have.

If most of us know how to manage our time and if we realize the value of becoming more effective at managing our time, why don’t we do a better job of it? We all know what we should do. Why don’t we just do it? For most of us, what is easy to say is more difficult to do. So what’s the solution? We must first look at the key factors that influence our behavior.

The first step in changing any habit is to identify the habit you want to change. Therefore, in order to change your time management habits, you must evaluate your present use of time by analyzing your attitudes and behavior in relation to outcomes. An accurate time analysis will help you to pinpoint who and what occupies your time. Look for time wasters and peak performance periods. Pinpoint precise behaviors that are incompatible with your goals.

Define the new habit that you wish to develop and be as specific as possible. Negative habits in our lives are destructive. Positive habits are uplifting and they help us achieve our goals. In order to build better habits, we must define precise behaviors for change and perform them at specific times. As Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act, but a habit.”

You will get more out of your time when you learn how to get more out of your life. After you determine what you want, what you value, what you believe, and where your priorities lie, determining how to spend a given day or hour becomes easy. In order to get more out of your time, know what you want and what you want to get out of it. That seems very simple and most people overlook the real purpose of their lives. They fail to define their values, purpose, and goals. They become so immersed in their daily activities that they fail to think about what they really like to do.

That brings us back to the webinar’s recommendation as to why it is so critical to define your values, purpose, and goals in order to achieve what you need to accomplish in the time that you have in a given day.

I'd like to hear your thoughts on this...

Beat the Time Bandits

We all have time bandits at work and at home. These are the people and things that block us from reaching our goals and getting through our daily To-Do lists.

The usual suspects are in our lineup:

Low-To-No-Control Gang

The Low-To-No-Control Gang harbors time bandits that are outside our span of control, unless we make profound changes to the world we live and work in. At work, these miscreants might include inefficient and redundant procedures, unclear priorities, too many low-priority tasks, outdated and slow equipment, too much paperwork and red tape, too many special projects, and so on.

What can we do when cornered by members of the Low-To-No-Control Gang?

We can learn, look for alternatives and shortcuts, and deal with them as effectively and efficiently as possible. At work, our senior leaders should constantly work to reduce or eliminate the time bandits that are out of our control. Our job is to adapt to things we can’t control, and remove the time bandits that are directly and indirectly in our control.

Direct-Control Gang

The Direct-Control Gang exists inside our own hearts and heads. We have direct control over our own behavior, and we can be as big a time bandit to ourselves as anyone or anything else, although it might be harder for some of us to admit. Some of the gang members include procrastination, low assertiveness, low self-discipline, low motivation, poor listening, disorganization, trying to do too much, doing unimportant things, doing things wrong the first time, and so on.

Indirect-Control Gang

The Indirect-Control Gang is made up of all the people in our lives: coworkers, bosses, friends, family, acquaintances, and passersby. People are born to steal our day, just like puppies are born to chew up our favorite shoes. But whose fault is it?

It’s our fault, in both cases. We shouldn’t leave our shoes out because we know how puppies are. We can blame the puppy, yell at the puppy, chase the puppy around with a rolled up newspaper, but it’s ultimately our fault. And if other people chew up our day, we have no one to blame but ourselves.

Here is our Top 5 list for how to fend off the time bandits in the Indirect-Control Gang:

1)     Don’t be a bandit yourself

Just as you don’t want others to ‘bandit’ you, you should always be aware of your own ‘bandit’ potential. If you are true to your own self-leadership goals, this will come naturally, because you will be committed to not wasting your time or anyone else’s.

2)     Communicate what’s important

To effectively lead yourself and others, you need to have clear priorities and clue people in to what they are. It’s easier to communicate your need to stay on task when people buy in to your cause and understand the significant demands of your effort.

For example, our bosses are notorious time bandits. Why? Because their bosses are also notorious time bandits to them. There are things to meet about, special projects that need people, and special functions to attend. The world isn’t perfect, and we all have things to do we don’t necessarily want to do or that don’t fit into our definition of ‘important.’ Can we say, ‘No, I’m not going to attend that meeting,’ or ‘No, I won’t do that special project’? Not usually. If you have issues with the type of tasks you are asked to do at work, or conflicting priorities that impact your performance, you should feel comfortable discussing them.

3)     Coach and delegate

You coach people when you move them from reliance on you to reliance on themselves. Instruct and encourage people to be effective self-leaders and they will draw less and less on your time. The time you invest now will serve you well down the road when you can delegate tasks to highly capable people who don’t need you looking over their shoulder.

4)     Expect respect

Living your purpose and achieving your top goals are important to you and the people around you. At work, acknowledge the importance of your purpose and expect bosses and coworkers to respect that purpose. You don’t have to be a killjoy to establish your expectation that people respect (if not value) your time as much as you.

If people do not respect your time — if they invite you to meetings that they didn’t prepare for, send you e-mails that don’t have a clear connection to you, stop by without a clear purpose — you have three choices: (1) let them steal your day, (2) get rid of them as best you can, (3) coach them on what you expect from your business interactions.

5)     Scan for the good stuff

We are constantly bombarded with information, new technology, and profound changes to how we view and function in the world. In fact, a conservative estimate by researchers suggests that business information is doubling every three years. To make sense of everything coming at us, we have to be selective about what gets our attention.

For example, we can be buried by e-mails, although they can be important and effective when used correctly. Here are some scanning-for-good-stuff tips for your e-mails and other communications you receive:

Let people know that you are overwhelmed with information and that you tend to block out messages that aren’t concise, simple, or clearly relevant to you. Tell them that they can expect the same courtesy from you.

Consider reading and responding to emails only at designated times during the day, such as at the beginning of the day, before lunch, and again before you leave work.

Consider using the ‘10-minute rule’ to work through easy e-mails; get the small and simple stuff out of the way in one 10-minute sitting rather than putting them off and allowing them to build up until you have a large, time-consuming chore ahead of you.

Consider creating an ‘Additional Action’ folder to separate important e-mails that you need to revisit later when you have more time.

Finally, try to handle an e-mail only once (or as few times as possible). Once you read it, take action. Dump it, respond to it, print it, forward it, whatever, and then move on.

To beat the time bandits that steal our day, we must recognize who and what they are and take the lead in putting them away.

"Learn to use ten minutes intelligently. It will pay you huge dividends." --William A. Irwin

PS:

Magic trick illustrating why using little pieces of paper as a planning system is not a good idea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxJg1aKef5o&feature=related

Enjoy!

What Defines Leadership?

The search for the characteristics or traits of leaders has been ongoing for centuries. Yet, defining leadership has been challenging and definitions can vary depending on the situation. Here are a few:

• We have conceived of leadership... as the tapping of existence and potential motive and power basis of followers by leaders, for the purpose of achieving an intended change...
• Though leadership may be hard to define, the one characteristic common to all leaders is their ability to make things happen...
• Leadership can be defined as the will to control events, the understanding to chart a course and the power to get a job done, cooperatively using the skill and abilities of other people...
• Leadership is the ability to get men and women to do what they don't want to do or like to do...
• Leadership appears to be the art of getting others to want to do something you are convinced should be done...

The world is evolving at every second. Everything is being touched by this accelerated pace of change. No person, entity, industry, profession, and no part of the world or any business can escape the relentless pull of the future into the present moment.

Business leaders need to chart an effective course into the future even though they don't have a clue what their organizations will look like tomorrow let alone next year. Many business leaders are mired down in philosophies, strategies and approaches that were the standards held years ago when the rules and the world were more predictable.

The rules are changing - and the rules that are determining the rules are changing.

We are living in a crazy, frenzied time in history. The roller coaster left the starting point several years ago and it is poised for yet another rapid decent - challenging what we know, believe, feel and have forecasted. The smooth ride of the past is nothing more than a distant memory for most of us. Never again will we know what is around the next corner or where or how the ride will end.

How, then, can today's executive, business owner and manager predict what their vision of what tomorrow will look like with any degree of accuracy? It's anybody's guess what the next several years will create, manifest, modify, re-define or even destroy. What you can do is: stay loose, flexible, positive and optimistic. What you want to avoid is: remaining stuck in yesterday's paradigms, attitudes, philosophies and strategies.

What are some of the specific things to avoid as we move into the future?

• Believing that what worked last year or yesterday will work today or tomorrow.
• Thinking that what you thought yesterday about the future will come to pass.
• Status-quo thinking.
• Conventional wisdom or thinking.
• Using yesterday's results as a benchmark for tomorrow.
• Refusing to think out of the box.

Spend some time considering how all of this is impacting your ability to manage successfully.

Let's close things up with what eight of the most common leadership myths:

1. To lead you have to have followers. Leadership does not imply that you have to be in front of a group. If you are the only person working in a department you can still demonstrate leadership attitudes.
2. You can study your way to effective leadership. You can attend hundreds of leadership seminars, retreats, programs, and read all of the books on leadership -- even pay for leadership coaching. Unless you are willing to let go of some of your beliefs, attitudes, prejudices, opinions or paradigms you can have all of the leadership knowledge in the world and still fail as a leader. Just look around you! This doesn't mean that you shouldn't receive leadership training, but it does mean that education is not enough, it takes wisdom, understanding and execution.
3. That to be a leader you have to be in charge of something or someone. Leadership is not position. You can be the receptionist and have a leadership attitude about your roles and responsibilities. You can be in sales and have a leadership style and mindset.
4. You have to be a senior citizen with gray hair to be an effective leader. I know many executives who are still in their twenties and are model leaders.
5. Tenure or longevity equates to effective leadership capabilities. Just because you may have been with your organization for over thirty years does not mean you are an effective leader. Any success you might have had could have been timing, luck, pure effort, will or any combination of these.
6. Position or title equates to leadership. Just because you may be the CEO, President or top executive does not mean you have leadership attitudes or skills. There are a lot of executives running organizations today that I would not classify as good or even acceptable leaders.
7. Leaders have to be willing to do any task that any of your employees are asked to do. Sure if the floor is dirty and the Janitor is sick and not at work someone needs to sweep the floor. But is it really your responsibility to show your employees that you are not above this task? Your employees want a leader they can respect and trust not a back-up for the janitorial staff.
8. Leadership is an endowment or an education process. Leadership, trust, respect and confidence are earned and not a set of mastered skill sets.

In Leadership, Identifying Dreams That Lead To Great Results

History teaches that when people needed to do great things, a leader first had to gather them together and speak from the heart. This heartfelt speech was often connected to defining and reinforcing a dream shared by both the leader and the people.

Drill down through goals and aims and aspirations and ambitions of the people you lead, and you'll hit the bedrock of human motivation, the dream.

For instance, Martin Luther King did not say, "I have a goal." Or "I have an aim." The power of that speech was in the "I have a dream".

A dream embraces our most cherished longings. It embodies our very identity. We often won't feel fulfilled as human beings until we realize our dreams.

If leaders are not tapping into the power of people's dreams, if leaders are simply setting goals (as important as goals are), they miss the best of opportunities to help those people take ardent action to achieve great results.

But what do people dream? How can we discover their dreams? After all, people usually won't tell you what they dream until they trust you. They won't trust you until they feel that you can help them attain their dreams. Knowing and sharing their dream can cement a deep, emotional bond between you.

Here are three things you can do to get at what people dream:

1. Be helpful. 
2. Be hopeful. 
3. Be scarce.

Be helpful. Follow the Leadership Imperative: I will lead people in such a way that they not only achieve the results we need but they also become better as people and as leaders.

The relationships cultivated by the Imperative lend themselves to dream sharing and dream motivation.

Be hopeful: "Hope," said Aristotle "is a waking dream". Nobody wants to be associated with a leader who thinks the job can't get done.

In the face of dire circumstances, there is usually hope to find and communicate.

A great leader I knew who consistently had people get more results faster, continually, had a refrain: "You may think you can't meet the goals I set for you. But I believe in you and I believe you can and I'll support you in every way possible so you can."

That hopeful refrain had the power of a dream; and in the relationships he established, he was able to identify and share in their dreams.

Be scarce: Cultivate the art of being scarce. In other words, give them space to get results.

Use this art the way a homeopathy doctor prepares medicine by diluting drugs to produce symptoms in a healthy person similar to those of the full-blown disease.

The full-blown disease in this case is total scarcity -- meaning the leader is never around. Not being there for the people can be a leadership pathology. After all, in the historical example, a leader had to gather people together -- leader had to be with the people.

Many leaders are absent without leave. One secretary described her seldom seen CEO as follows: "He's like Elvis -- There are rumors of sightings of him. The only time we know he's around is when we smell his pipe smoke."

But being with the people can be a fault, if the people resent it. They may think you're trying to micro-manage them or are snooping around trying to get the goods on them.

The art of being scarce is predicated on your giving them the space to do well. The coach of a great Arkansas basketball team said, "I don't want to hamper them by coaching them." Likewise, don't hamper the people you lead by leading them in a domineering way.

People's dreams are pathways to their inner heart and their most ardent desires. However, most leaders don't know how to go down those paths. Be helpful, be hopeful, be scarce will help you walk your talk, letting people get great results though the gift of their dreams.