"No one cares how much you know until they first know how much you care about them."

Leadership teams of many organizations think we have all the answers, and maybe we do, but that doesn't matter. No one cares how much they know until they first know how much they care about them.

Yeah their in charge and yeah they talk about targets and goals and visions, but employees don't care about any of that stuff for very long. They can communicate and engage and connect all we want, but no one really listens to them. Employees just smile and nod and go back to doing their jobs the way they always do.

I see organizations spend millions of dollars on employment engagement programs, asking for their opinions and saying that they care. But when someone voices something that needs to be said or gives a insight into things that are going wrong, they are quickly shut down and made to feel that they are making trouble.

Employees don't really care about what we want them to do until they know how much we care about them. When an employee knows--truly knows--that the leader care about them, then they care about you. And when they know you care, they will listen to you... and they will do anything for you.

A management consulting firm that I consult for specializing in leadership and organizational development, recently completed its 2011 employee engagement benchmark research. The findings show that 34% of employees indicate that they fail to speak up in the workplace for fear of some type of retribution.

Further analysis employee engagement survey data shows several factors leading to a culture where individuals are afraid to share their voice:

•Constant negative feedback from supervisors and leaders
•Leaders perceived as a dissenting voice (shooting-down new ideas out of hand, or ignoring feedback)
•Fear of demotion, loss of job, or loosing future promotional opportunities
•Raising issues draws undue attention to individuals or groups who make suggestions.
•Employees perceive that there is no procedural justice (fair use and application of employee feedback)

The finding where from large organizations who house 100 plus employees. This is scary.

What this is saying is that the front line staff are scared to speak up relating to the day to day issues arising and effecting both their long turn future and the directions of the organization.

Employees must be given the opportunity to communicate the issues that are at hand. They must be able to raise these issues without fear of retribution. A environment must be created where all staff have the option to voice issues in a safe environment.

Once the issue is raised they must be given one on one feedback as to the progress of the issues. Even if it's that nothing is going to change. That employee can then make a informed decision about their future.

These perceptions typically stem from a culture that stifles the free expression of ideas, and from leaders who contribute to or create that culture.

Many people feel that surveys are a waste of time and money, and they are often justified. Consider these common scenes:

•A consulting firm provides a good questionnaire, and beautiful reports, which are given to leaders with recommendations. The reports are placed on a shelf and life moves on.
•Actions based on the findings take more than three months to become clear, by which time most have forgotten about the survey.
•Leaders take action on a survey - but fail to tell employees that their actions are based on the survey findings, and the employees don’t see what happened to their input.
•A survey is done internally, but many refuse to take it, or do not answer honestly, because they fear retaliation.
•After a survey, some managers take revenge on employees for saying “bad” things.
•The survey guides change at only one level or department, and the actions taken by people at this level are not clear to others.

It’s no wonder that surveys have a bad name in some places! But these problems can be overcome. Even a history of failed surveys is not a major barrier to success.

One of the worst outcomes of a survey is having the results ignored, or discussed but never used, and not communicated back to employees. This frustrates employees and gives them the impression their input is not really wanted. Telling people what happened to that sheet of paper they filled out shows respect for their time, cooperation, and feelings; this respect will be repaid with carefully completed surveys the next time around.

Summarizing the results is better, but still not what people want. Most employees want to know what real changes have been made as a result of their time and effort. More than that, they want a chance to use the findings to improve the organization.

Summarizing the data and providing recommendations is the standard method, but it often lead to little action. Recommendations are too easily forgotten in the day to day rush.

Feedback/action planning sessions

Feedback sessions are an opportunity for managers to show how they, personally, have used the information. Speaking of broad intentions may damage credibility; people usually want to hear about specific changes.

Feedback sessions also ensure that people understand the information and can use it to answer their own questions and make decisions.

The purpose of a survey is usually to spur action and guide decisions. It makes sense, then, to use the feedback session to create action plans. Doing this can not only kick off a project with a bang, but can make the feedback session the most valuable part of the entire project.

When scheduling the session, tell everyone its purpose: to review survey findings, ask people for their views of the implications of the information (causes, problems, strengths, trends, etc.), and create some action plans to address issues raised by the survey.

It is best to set up feedback sessions with plenty of time; a morning or afternoon, or a day or two, depending on the scope and how much you want to change.

Set up some ground rules. The session should be genuinely open, and people should be able to participate without fear of retribution or attack. (Don’t make any promises you can’t keep! It helps to have an outsider present to warn when managers become defensive). The manager must create a feeling that people can freely ask questions, discuss issues, propose ideas, and take on new responsibilities.

Briefly review the goals of the survey project and how it was conducted, including how surveys were distributed and who analyzed the data. The goals may include increasing effectiveness, learning customer or staff needs, spotting minor problems before they became large headaches, initating or advancing continuous improvement, or other purposes.

One good way to start the action planning session is by asking for help in solving problems. Acknowledge that other people may be closer to the situation, or may have more experience with different parts of it. Asking for help may increase the others’ respect for you, because it shows that you have some respect for them; and because people tend to like those who they have helped. People are also much more likely to accept and to actively support solutions which they had a part in creating.

If people at the meeting do not have the power to make decisions and implement plans, be honest about these limitations and tell them that you will be using their input to make these plans yourself, or to bring them up to a higher level. However, if you (or the people at the higher level) are not really serious about implementing the proposals unless they were what you were planning to do anyway, forget about the action planning session. It is better to have an open, honest feedback session without action planning than a session that raises expectations and then dashes them.

Action planning: key to success

Instead of having formal minutes, when the action planning session starts, notes can be taken on large sheets of paper so they can be visible to everyone, and can be transcribed later.

Usually, some people say they cannot change anything, that other areas must be changed first. This can be countered by asking, “Well, what can we do? ... What’s stopping us from doing that right now?” This has a tremendous motivating effect. If we cannot do everything we want, we can certainly do some of the things we want.

It is essential for everyone to feel that their opinions and suggestions are valued, and that they are taken seriously. Watch yourself for condescending, authoritative, and defensive actions or words, while making positive comments about useful suggestions and contributions. Practice “active listening” — the art of intentionally concentrating on what people are saying, and considering how it can work and help rather than any problems it might cause or any difficulty in implementing it. Often, people can find a way around problems and barriers if they really believe in something and have a reason to invest their time and energy in it.

Seemingly trivial issues can be important, partly because of their symbolic value, partly because they are a daily nuisance: the drip in the faucet, the sign-off process for magazine subscriptions. If the survey spotlights small problems that can easily be fixed, immediately fix them, no matter how small. (Delegation helps.) When you visibly and immediately use a survey, you show respect for your employees, and increase energy and enthusiasm.

Responding to a suggestion by rewording and summarizing it shows you have heard and understood it, and gives other people a chance to clarify or add to it. It also helps to write suggestions on posters, which also comes in handy when writing down what was suggested and accomplished at the meeting.

If ideas are not usable, but the group believes they are, present your points not as absolutes, but as barriers. For example, “This is a good idea, and but...” Someone in the group might have thought of a way around it, or might be able to come up with a similar plan that is do-able. I have often been surprised by how quickly seemingly insurmountable obstacles can be overcome; and I have often surprised other people by getting around them myself!

People should be able to come up with workable actions to address problems and enhance strengths, some which can be put into effect immediately. To maintain momentum, it is essential to follow through and enact at least a few of them within the week. The ideal is to come out of a feedback session with several ad hoc committees working on specific tasks which are within their authority, and with several decisions ready to be put into effect.

The final part is deciding who will do what, and when. Many people find just coming up with recommendations to be sufficient; and that is fine, if the group does not have the power to make changes on its own. Frequently, the group includes people who do have power, if not over everything, then at least over their own areas. It is fine to mix recommendations to higher authorities with specific actions that group members can accomplish on their own.

Go through the list of action steps which people have agreed on, and ask the group who will volunteer to handle the first one. Ask that person when they think they can have it done, and mark their name and the date next to the item. Then ask when they will be able to report on preliminary progress, even if it’s only considering exactly how they will do it, or discussing it with someone else. Mark that as a follow-through date. Repeat this for each of the actions, until everyone’s plate is full. Do not force anyone to volunteer through intimidation or peer pressure, and do not let anyone take on too many tasks; the important thing is not to get people to agree to do things, it is for them to actually carry them out!

Before people leave, schedule a meeting for a later date, two weeks or a month afterwards, to follow through and check on progress. This reinforces commitments and ensures that stalled projects are re-examined.

The next day, get all the action steps, volunteers, deadlines, and such distributed to everyone in the group. Ask for input, clarifications, etc. Give them a chance to revise it.

You may want to informally speak with people who seem to have unreasonably short (or long) deadlines, remembering that the final word is theirs.

If goals were set, make sure they can be measured. It is often good to start measuring key indicators before the survey or feedback session, so you can measure progress. Using performance indicators is also a way to measure the effectiveness of particular changes.

It helps to divide the report into:

• Actions the team has already put into effect.

• Actions it will be putting into effect

• Actions for which it needs approval.

• Actions that need to be taken by other groups

If the report includes actions that must be taken by other people (different areas, higher levels of management), put them last, and specify what actions are to be taken to encourage those actions. The most important changes, in terms of motivation, are the ones which have already taken place! These are often forgotten, but they are a key in empowering people to do more.

The report should include a summary of the survey results, such as key strengths and problem areas, most frequently given suggestions or comments, and common answers to open-ended questions.

Take advantage of surveys to gather people up, make decisions, and implement them. That’s what surveys are for.

Leadership skills are based on leadership behaviour. Skills alone do not make leaders - style and behaviour do. If you are interested in leadership training and development - start with leadership behaviour. The growing awareness and demand for idealist principles in leadership are increasing the emphasis (in terms of leadership characteristics) on business ethics, corporate responsibility, emotional maturity, personal integrity, and what is popularly now known as the 'triple bottom line' (abbreviated to TBL or 3BL, representing 'profit, people, planet').

For many people (staff, customers, suppliers, investors, commentators, visionaries, etc) these are becoming the most significant areas of attitude/behaviour/appreciation required in modern business and organisational leaders.

3BL (triple bottom line - profit, people, planet) also provides an excellent multi-dimensional framework for explaining, developing and assessing leadership potential and capability, and also links strongly with psychology aspects if for instance psychometrics (personality testing) features in leadership selection and development methods: each of us is more naturally inclined to one or the other (profit, people, planet) by virtue of our personality, which can be referenced to Jung, Myers Briggs, etc.

Much debate persists as to the validity of 'triple bottom line accounting', since standards and measures are some way from being clearly defined and agreed, but this does not reduce the relevance of the concept, nor the growing public awareness of it, which effectively and continuously re-shapes markets and therefore corporate behaviour. Accordingly leaders need to understand and respond to such huge attitudinal trends, whether they can be reliably accounted for or not at the moment.

Adaptability and vision - as might be demonstrated via project development scenarios or tasks - especially involving modern communications and knowledge technologies - are also critical for certain leadership roles, and provide unlimited scope for leadership development processes, methods and activities.

Cultural diversity is another topical and very relevant area requiring leadership involvement, if not mastery. Large organisations particularly must recognise that the market-place, in terms of staff, customers and suppliers, is truly global now, and leaders must be able to function and appreciate and adapt to all aspects of cultural diversification. A leaders who fails to relate culturally well and widely and openly inevitably condemns the entire organisation to adopt the same narrow focus and bias exhibited by the leader.

Bear in mind that different leadership jobs (and chairman) require different types of leaders - Churchill was fine for war but not good for peacetime re-building. There's a big difference between short-term return on investment versus long-term change. Each warrants a different type of leadership style, and actually very few leaders are able to adapt from one to the other. (Again see the personality styles section: short-term results and profit require strong Jungian 'thinking' orientation, or frontal left brain dominance; whereas long-term vision and change require 'intuition' orientation, or frontal right brain dominance).

If it's not clear already, leadership is without doubt mostly about behaviour, especially towards others. People who strive for these things generally come to be regarded and respected as a leader by their people:

• Integrity - the most important requirement; without it everything else is for nothing.
• Having an effective appreciation and approach towards corporate responsibility, (Triple Bottom Line, Fair Trade, etc), so that the need to make profit is balanced with wider social and environmental responsibilities.
• Being very grown-up - never getting emotionally negative with people - no shouting or ranting, even if you feel very upset or angry.
• Leading by example - always be seen to be working harder and more determinedly than anyone else.
• Helping alongside your people when they need it.
• Fairness - treating everyone equally and on merit.
• Being firm and clear in dealing with bad or unethical behaviour.
• Listening to and really understanding people, and show them that you understand (this doesn't mean you have to agree with everyone - understanding is different to agreeing).
• Always taking the responsibility and blame for your people's mistakes.
• Always giving your people the credit for your successes.
• Never self-promoting.
• Backing-up and supporting your people.
• Being decisive - even if the decision is to delegate or do nothing if appropriate - but be seen to be making fair and balanced decisions.
• Asking for people's views, but remain neutral and objective.
• Being honest but sensitive in the way that you give bad news or criticism.
• Always doing what you say you will do - keeping your promises.
• Working hard to become expert at what you do technically, and at understanding your people's technical abilities and challenges.
• Encouraging your people to grow, to learn and to take on as much as they want to, at a pace they can handle.
• Always accentuating the positive (say 'do it like this', not 'don't do it like that').
• Smiling and encouraging others to be happy and enjoy themselves.
• Relaxing - breaking down the barriers and the leadership awe - and giving your people and yourself time to get to know and respect each other.
• Taking notes and keeping good records.
• Planning and prioritising.
• Managing your time well and helping others to do so too.
• Involving your people in your thinking and especially in managing change.
• Reading good books, and taking advice from good people, to help develop your own understanding of yourself, and particularly of other people's weaknesses (some of the best books for leadership are not about business at all - they are about people who triumph over adversity).
• Achieve the company tasks and objectives, while maintaining your integrity, the trust of your people, are a balancing the corporate aims with the needs of the world beyond.

Jack Welch, respected business leader and writer is quoted as proposing these fundamental leadership principles (notably these principles are expanded in his 2001 book 'Jack: Straight From The Gut'):

1. There is only one way - the straight way. It sets the tone of the organization.
2. Be open to the best of what everyone, everywhere, has to offer; transfer learning across your organization.
3. Get the right people in the right jobs - it is more important than developing a strategy.
4. An informal atmosphere is a competitive advantage.
5. Make sure everybody counts and everybody knows they count.
6. Legitimate self-confidence is a winner - the true test of self-confidence is the courage to be open.
7. Business has to be fun - celebrations energize and organization.
8. Never underestimate the other guy.
9. Understand where real value is added and put your best people there.
10. Know when to meddle and when to let go - this is pure instinct.

As a leader, your main priority is to get the job done, whatever the job is. Leaders make things happen by:

• knowing your objectives and having a plan how to achieve them
• building a team committed to achieving the objectives
• helping each team member to give their best efforts

As a leader you must know yourself. Know your own strengths and weaknesses, so that you can build the best team around you.

However - always remember the philosophical platform - this ethical platform is not a technique or a process - it's the foundation on which all the techniques and methodologies are based.

Plan carefully, with your people where appropriate, how you will achieve your aims. You may have to redefine or develop your own new aims and priorities. Leadership can be daunting for many people simply because no-one else is issuing the aims - leadership often means you have to create your own from a blank sheet of paper. Set and agree clear standards. Keep the right balance between 'doing' yourself and managing others 'to do'.

Build teams. Ensure you look after people and that communications and relationships are good. Select good people and help them to develop. Develop people via training and experience, particularly by agreeing objectives and responsibilities that will interest and stretch them, and always support people while they strive to improve and take on extra tasks. Follow the rules about delegation closely - this process is crucial. Ensure that your managers are applying the same principles. Good leadership principles must cascade down through the whole organization. This means that if you are leading a large organization you must check that the processes for managing, communicating and developing people are in place and working properly.

Communication is critical. Listen, consult, involve, explain why as well as what needs to be done.

Some leaders lead by example and are very 'hands on'; others are more distanced and let their people do it. Whatever - your example is paramount - the way you work and conduct yourself will be the most you can possibly expect from your people. If you set low standards you are to blame for low standards in your people.

"... Praise loudly, blame softly." (Catherine the Great). Follow this maxim.

If you seek one singlemost important behavior that will rapidly earn you respect and trust among your people, this is it: Always give your people the credit for your achievements and successes. Never take the credit yourself - even if it's all down to you, which would be unlikely anyway. You must however take the blame and accept responsibility for any failings or mistakes that your people make. Never never never publicly blame another person for a failing. Their failing is your responsibility - true leadership offers is no hiding place for a true leader.

Take time to listen to and really understand people. Walk the job. Ask and learn about what people do and think, and how they think improvements can be made.

Accentuate the positive. Express things in terms of what should be done, not what should not be done. If you accentuate the negative, people are more likely to veer towards it. Like the mother who left her five-year-old for a minute unsupervised in the kitchen, saying as she left the room, "...don't you go putting those beans up your nose..."

Have faith in people to do great things - given space and air and time, everyone can achieve more than they hope for. Provide people with relevant interesting opportunities, with proper measures and rewards and they will more than repay your faith.

Take difficult decisions bravely, and be truthful and sensitive when you implement them.

Constantly seek to learn from the people around you - they will teach you more about yourself than anything else. They will also tell you 90% of what you need to know to achieve your business goals.

Embrace change, but not for change's sake. Begin to plan your own succession as soon as you take up your new post, and in this regard, ensure that the only promises you ever make are those that you can guarantee to deliver.

Self-mastery requires that you become so secure in your sense of self that you are not concerned with the opinions of others and their perceptions of you. Rather than taking others' opinions of you as the determinant of your self worth, take the opinions of others as feedback on your performance.

We cannot demand excellence from others if we do not command it from ourselves. We need to always command our best from ourselves. A good example of why we should always demand the best from ourselves is to consider the pilot on an airplane. You certainly wouldn’t want the pilot of a plane you are flying in to determine his day’s work according to his mood or his lack or sleep last night. In the same manner, you should strive to provide your best performance in all that you do.

Sometimes training and development is about teaching people how to do what they already do better. Good training is teaching people how to do what they aren’t already doing. There is a difference between what we call adaptive and generative learning.
Adaptive learning means learning how to solve day-to-day problems. It’s problem solving skills as they relate to the workplace. In other words, it’s problem-solving the“same ‘ol” way we’ve done it for centuries. Generative learning is about teaching people how to create and exploit opportunities.

Training and development is a necessity, and the best leaders and organizations know it. This dedication to improvement is
reflected in their calendars and in their budgets.

These challenges come at both a social and a personal level. Social challenges involve information and technology as well as global competition. Leaders at a personal level strive to find meaning in a material world.

Here are some other Steve Jobs principles that served me well:

• Be passionate about each project you work on.
• Be driven by an opportunity and create a product for it.
• Always be open to talent who can help.
• Do your best to make the product intuitive, so a users manual isn't needed.
• Be really honest with yourself about your products.
• Ensure that the products represent you and your traits as a person.
• Work through your people and celebrate as a unit with every success.
• Keep innovating to get closer and closer to your ideal, your vision of perfection that goes beyond the currently achievable reality.
• Don't listen to people who say it cant be done.

_Steve Jobs understood something that a lot of companies try to do, but are rarely successful at. The more he advanced, the simpler his products became. In some instances, it's less about the product and more about the user.

For Steve, nothing is wasted, nothing is unnecessary. It doesn't happen by cramming in more, it happens through creativity and innovation, with a relentless pursuit of perfection. It means thinking through everything with the laser-focused goal of making it intuitive to the user.

Every leader and every manager wants his or her people to work together; all pulling in the same direction, supporting each other, everybody pitching in to do their part in achieving the goal of the group.

Steve would challenge his team to come up with completely fresh, original ideas. He had scoured the halls of Apple and elsewhere for people with the courage to be different, to be unconventional, to go beyond.

Although he operates from the gut level when hiring, he's also very thorough.

In searching for talent, you must not be put off by first impressions. You must find the real person, sometimes discovering a pirate where you least expected. 
 
Most corporations acknowledge employees by holding a little celebration for birthdays, employment anniversaries and so on. But for a product-centric company like Apple, celebrations, rewards and recognitions are focused around the company's stars: its talent and its products.

Steve truly cherishes his people. It's not just that he knows he couldn't be doing all these great things without them: He lets his people know he knows. The lengths Steve goes to shower recognition, appreciation and reward on his people often left others in awe.

There is the assumption that a high performing employee will automatically make an effective manager. Often this just isn’t the way things work out. The reality is that some of the best performers make some of the worst managers.

The best organizations today are creating dual career tracks for employees so that people can stay in their area of expertise and make more money by assuming more responsibility without necessarily managing other people. That in itself is a prime example of leadership.

 What a radical idea! Be specific about what you need from another person. Don’t expect followers to read your mind.

Managers and leaders differ in several ways. Managers perform tasks; leaders seize opportunities. Managers have employees; leaders win followers. Managers monitor people; leaders inspire them. The managers who make the most impact are the ones that perform as leaders.

Leaders set the course for themselves and their organizations. Leaders and managers differ; leaders are a valuable asset to their company, their team, and their employees. Leaders use the future to motivate people and always believe that things can be better than they are.

A Fable..

One morning a pastor stood in front of his congregation and said

"This morning I only have 3 points. Point number 1, their are over 2 billion people starving to death today around the world. Point number 2, most of you don't give a dam. Point number 3, the greatest tragedy of our faith today is that more of you are angry that I said dam in church than you are that 2 billion people are starving to death in the world."

Are you focusing on the real issue at heart

Petty people get excited about petty issues, but significant people get excited about significant issues. You can tell a lot about people by what excites them. We have plenty of sports fans, and that is great, but we also need to be fans of values that have lasting meaning.

Focus on the core issues at hand.

Action
“Some people dream about success, and others wake up and do something about it.”

Active Listening and Attention
“Nothing I say this day will teach me anything. So if I'm going to learn, I must do it by listening.” -Larry King

“The greatest gift you can give to another is the purity of your attention.” -Richard Moss

“One of the best ways to persuade others is with your ears -- by listening to them.” -Dean Rusk

Be Humble
“Talent is God-given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.” -John Wooden

“Humble people don't think less of themselves ... they just think of themselves less.” -Norman Vincent Peale

Change
“We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.” -Max DePree

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
- J. Baldwin

Discipline and Habits
"Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment." Jim Rohn

“Don't judge a day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant.” -Robert Louis Stevenson

“If you want to change your life, take control of your consistent actions. Its not the big things you do once in a while that reshapes your life, its what you do consistently”

“Every thought you produce, anything you say, any action you do, it bears your signature.”

Dreams and Goals
"A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams." John Barrymore — with Sufia Amir Khan and Sadaqat Ali.

“He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how.” -Unknown

“Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside of us while we live.” -Norman Cousins

“Life without goals is like a race without a finish line.” -Ed Trenner

“Goals without time limits are only wishes.” -Unknown

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” -CS Lewis

“Confront your doubts and fears but build on your hopes and dreams. Learn from what you tried and failed in but focus on what it is still possible for you to do.”

Essentials
“Most of what we say and do is not essential. If you can eliminate it, you’ll have more time, and more tranquillity. Ask yourself at every moment, 'Is this necessary?” - Marcus Aurelius

Excuses
“When you make excuses, you deny yourself the opportunity to grow.” -Tayo Adeyemi

Greatness
“Forget greatness, seek truth; then you'll find both.”

Knowledge
To quote educator Diane Ravitch: “The person who knows ‘how’ will always have a job. The person who knows ‘why’ will always be his boss.”

Leadership
“I always thought of leadership as the art of determining whether they're chasing you or following you.”

Mistakes
“The greatest mistake one can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.” -Elbert Hubbard

“The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none.” -Thomas Carlyle

“When you make a mistake, admit it, correct it, & learn from it - immediately.” -Stephen Covey

“Most of my advances were by mistake. You uncover what is when you get rid of what isn't.” -R Buckminster Fuller

“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.” -Scott Adams, cartoonist

“One who makes no mistakes makes nothing at all”

Optimism
“The Pessimist complains about the wind. The Optimist expects it to change. The Realist adjusts the sails.”

Persistence
“Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent.” -Marilyn vos Savant

"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed" - Michael Jordan

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts” - Winston Churchill

Power and Leadership
“The term power comes from the Latin posse: to do, to be able, to change, to influence or effect. To have power is to possess the capacity to control or direct change. All forms of leadership must make use of power. The central issue of power in leadership is not Will it be used? But rather Will it be used wisely and well?” - Prof. Al Gini

Reality Check
“Whatever your excuse is, it is time to stop believing it.”

Recognition
“Don't worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.” - Greg D. Bunch

Transparency
“Tell people what you believe and where you want to go and you’ll be amazed how well your positive words will inspire those around you.”

Vision
“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” - Isaac Newton

One of my observations about many organizations that I work with today is that many employees are so busy trying to survive organizationally that they have no time to contribute to the bottom line.

What we typically do is look to see what the people in management or leadership are doing and try to emulate them assuming that if those behaviors made them successful, those same behaviors will make us successful.

What this results in in some organizations is what I call "perpetuation of stupidity". If we have poor role models who are in upper management, we will begin to emulate those poor behaviors and those behaviors perpetuate themselves over time. Some of these poor behaviors come to us because of assumptions that managers hold.

The first is the assumption is that customer service is a strategic edge. In reality it is not customer service but rather service. There is a important difference. One of the reasons many organizations are in so much trouble is that they have lost all sense of the service ethic. As a matter of fact, the phrase customer service suggests unless somebody is a customer they do not deserved to be served. Therefore we are not tuned into to servicing co-workers, to servicing employees, to serving managers, to serving vendors or simply serving the people that we live with each day.

This loss of the service ethic has transformed all the way to the customer.

The people we should be focused on servicing are the people in the next step in the process. You have to ask yourself "Who is it I've been employed to serve?" The heart of service is what drives (or breaks down) relationship building.

Customer service should not be the objective, but it should be to better serve the people we work and live with.

The second assumption is we are smarter than our customers. We think because we are in a particular business we know what our customers need better than what they do. This happens a lot when your customers are internal customer within the organization.

Quality and service are what the customer says they are!

The next assumption is that people should conform to the system. The reality is that the system should almost always conform to the people.

When a crafts-person uses a tool, their using that tool to leverage their knowledge and their skill. It would be ludicrous to think that if the tool changed that the craftsman would have to adjust their knowledge and skill to tool, rather progress is always dependent upon the tools conforming to help the crafts-person. The problem is organizationally we create systems and when those systems do not work and do not support the people who work in the system, we demand that the people change.

In mental health the first sign of mental illness is rigidity of thinking. The first sign of organizational illness is rigidity of systems, telling people that the systems are locked into place, that they cannot be changed or improved to better the skills of the people that work their.

Make sure your systems are conforming to the customer (internal and external) rather than your customer conforming to the systems.

Do your systems truly leverage the knowledge and skills of the craftspeople within your organization?

http://itunes.apple.com/au/book/key-leadership/id497320914?mt=11

If you want to make an impact during your lifetime, you have to trade the praise you could receive from others for the things of value that you can accomplish.

A friend once explained something to me that illustrates this concept very well. He told me that as people catch crabs, they'll toss the crustaceans into a basket. If you have only one crab in the basket you need a lid to keep it from crawling out, but if you've got two or more, you don't. When there are several crabs, they will drag one another down so that none of them can get away.

A lot of unsuccessful people act the same way. They'll do things to keep others from getting ahead. But the good news is that if you observe someone trying to do that, you don't have to buy into their belief system. You can get out and stay out of the basket by refusing to be a crab.