Monday Morning....Does It Have To Go That Way?

  "I never did a day’s work in my life.”
Thomas Edison

     The alarm sounds on Monday Morning… you turn over thinking just one more minute and hit the snooze alarm, it sounds again and you pull yourself out of bed heading for the coffee pot.  After downing some caffeine and heading to the shower it’s time to face the dreaded traffic jam.  People rushing to work that did the same thing as you pushing the snooze button one to many times. Then it’s time to face the same monotony of the week meetings, people and in the back of your head your thinking why can’t I be somewhere else?

      So many people wake up on a Monday Morning and think not again why can’t the weekend be longer…. If this is the thoughts that you are having maybe it’s time to take a good look at where you are and see if that’s the right place to be.  I’m not saying walk out and quit because we all know that we have bills to pay and things that money can buy….. But think of it this way what if you jumped out of bed every morning because you love what you do? It’s funny how this can happen when you are passionate about something.  So if you are looking at everyday as something I have to do maybe it’s a good time to sit back and ask yourself some questions……   

What are your interests?  Look at work maybe something at work that interests you.  Maybe something at home that you are passionate about, take some time and write these down.

What do you read about? What have you spent hours reading about online? What magazines do you look forward to reading? What blogs do you follow? What section of the bookstore do you usually peruse? There may be many topics here — add them to the list.

What have you secretly dreamed of?  You might have some dream job you’ve always wanted to do — to be a novelist, an artist, a designer, an architect, a doctor, an entrepreneur, a programmer. Add them to the list — no matter how unrealistic.

What are you good at? Have you always been a good writer, speaker, drawer, organizer, builder, teacher, and friend? Have you been good at ideas, connecting people, gardening, selling? Give this some thought. Add these to the list

 

     Now that you have the list it’s time to take a look at what works, what doesn’t and what to do….

Experiment – Try it see what you think of it.  Can you see yourself doing this every day or is it something that is fun once in a while but not for the long run. Give it a try see what you think

Narrow things down – Take a look at the list and narrow it down to the definitely I could see myself doing this and loving it

Research – So now that you have your list it’s time to take a look at what it will take to start  learning, doing and creating that vision. How long will it take to get degree, certification?  Can I do this part time and move to full time as you grow

Figure out how to make a living at it – This one is important can I make enough money at this to live.  This doesn’t happen overnight. You need to do something, get good at it, and be passionate about it. This could take months or years, but if you’re having fun, that’s what’s most important.

Make The Time - The most important thing is to make the time now.  Funny thing about time is it goes by whether you do something or you don’t.  Making a difference in your life now could create a passionate career for your future

      It is easy to make little changes in your life to transform it to the dream job, life, career for your future.  If you take the time to look at what creates that happiness in your life and work towards making it happen it is so rewarding to create that passion.  I know this first hand I have found my passion and can’t wait to do it every second of my life.  It is a great feeling and I am truly happy that I took the steps to find my passion.   

 

 

How does Your Garden Grow... Creating Goals for the Future

          We planted a garden in late April with everything that you need to have a wonderful home grown salad.  Tomatoes, lettuce, peppers and onions.  I watered it every day and kept vigilance over it to make sure that the plants were growing.  I watched and watched and watered and watered…. Nothing I thought…. But then the first tomatoes and then another and then 5, 10, 20 tomatoes.  The lettuce came up from seed and the peppers are incredible. When I planted the garden I took pictures and filed it away on my phone.   I looked back on the past picture of when I first planted the garden…. It was incredible the growth of the plants.  The fruits of my labors were and are paying off.  Growing slowly but expanding to give us the vegetables to make an incredible salad.

          I contemplated this and thought how ironic that a garden is just like so many things in life. ideas that I planted and started in my life have grown and matured just like the garden.  It is truly amazing what you can do by focusing and creating a vision of where you want to go in your life. One of the best tools that I have found to help me grow the “seeds” of my ideas is writing vision and goals down.  I review them daily so that I know the path that I’m creating in my life.  My daily review helps me to connect to the knowledge, people and things to realize these goals.   I'm still working the list but I know that what you think about comes about and creating the vision is the key.

          When writing your vision statement and goals think of you in the future and ask yourself some key questions.  Remember to give yourself time frames like I see myself writing a bestselling book and publishing it before the end of the year….

• What are your values?
• What is your purpose in life?
• How would you like to be described by your friends, relative, coworkers etc.?  What do you need to do to ensure this is true?
• What do you want to be doing?  How do you see your ideal day/week?
• Where are you living?  Whom do you see around you?
• What actions do you need to take to make it happen?
• What changes do you want to be a part of?  What is your legacy?
• What are the different roles in your life (parent, spouse, worker etc.) and how will you evolve in each of them? 

              
         The truth is it all starts with a "seed" that we plant in our mind and many times until we look back we don’t realize that goals we set were realized.   It really takes planting the idea of what we want into our subconscious and letting it grow.  We can create incredible things if we believe in ourselves and our vision for the future.

My Guilty Pleasure Motivational Videos... Sometimes Just Because.....

I must admit motivational videos are my guilty pleasure.  When I need a little pick me up or a reminder that anything is possible I go to you tube for a bit of inspiration. Actually to be truthful I'm a bit of a motivational and inspirational junkie. I just can't get enough of it.  I research it, read it, write about it, teach it and try to live it.  But when I need a quick "fix" a motivational You Tube video usually hits the spot!! O.k. there I said it..... So I thought I would share a few of my most recent guilty pleasures with you just in case your looking for a bit of inspiration.....So enjoy!!

One of the BEST Motivational Videos I've ever seen! 

A Must See Motivational Video! 

The Most Motivating Video for Success

Will Smith's Wisdom: Success Secrets For Young Entrepreneurs

[HD] Best motivational video ever 2013 - GET RESULTS

Thanks for indulging me and I hope you enjoyed.....

Is There Anybody Out There?? ... Technology And The Dysfunctional Team

      
     Have you ever gone through the ping pong game of emailing someone back and forth until you can’t figure out where it started?  Death by email we have all seen it.  After several pings and a couple more pongs it loses translation.  Something we forget that there is another human being on the other end of the email.  Connecting just by picking up the phone and talking to someone is so important to solve the issue or just connect in a personal sense. 

      When working with a team just seeing a face once in a while or hearing a voice can do so much.  Inflection and non-verbal cures are a part of communication that the written word just can't replace. There are great ways to do this now that we have technology that puts a face on the screen. Sometimes I wonder if everyone looks like a powerpoint presentation that works remote or in another location. I have even seen team members that are two desks down write an email instead of taking the time to connect by talking.  Technology is great but we need to remember that humans bond through direct interaction.  We are connected to our family, our community, our organization through the emotional bonds we feel for them.  A team is not a thing but is made up of people and people need to bond to feel a part of something.

        Creating a productive team dynamic can be an issue in today’s world of technology.  More and more teams are relying on email, task initiators, shared data files and web chats as their primary communication.  The days of picking up the phone and asking the other person how they are and what’s been going on in their life has been replaced by task and a couple of quick sentences or words on a computer  We are taking the human out of human contact and with this can bring an impersonal disconnection of the team. 

       “New technologies help companies extend participation on a project to an ever greater number of people, allowing firms to tap into a wide body of knowledge and expertise. A decade or so ago, the common view was that true teams rarely had more than 20 members. Today, according to our research, many complex tasks involve teams of 100 or more. However, as the size of a team increases beyond 20 members, the tendency to collaborate naturally decreases, we have found.”  Research has shown that teams that are above 13 members tend to be more dissatisfied with the team.  This is due, to the most part, to lack of human connection.  The human factor is crucial to the success of the team.“

      Loyalty is built through the feeling of being a part of a group or team.  When leaders are managing teams it is important to remember that the team's interaction is as important as completing the tasks.  If  leaders create an environment that encourages human connection many of the issues and time drains can be eliminated.  Team connection creates motivation and breaks down the communication barriers.    

     Virtual teams can create more of this disconnection, that is why we need to remember that the human factor is critical in bonding a team.  “Working together virtually has a similar impact on teams. The majority of those we studied had members spread among multiple locations—in several cases, in as many as 13 sites around the globe. But as teams became more virtual, we saw, cooperation also declined, unless the company had taken measures to establish a collaborative culture.” With the technology today we should be connecting face to face with our virtual team members regularly and create a bond. 

     While I would agree that technology has taken business into an entirely different dimension, the need to connect is still a significant part of creating strong bonds.  Creating a collaborative culture is critical to the success of a team and individuals within the team.  If we remember to disconnect sometimes from technology and create human bonds we can move past many of the misunderstanding and become more productive. So get up from your desk and ask a question or pick up the phone and connect.  It is surprising what a little human interaction can do for productivity and teamwork.

Gratton, L., & Erickson, T. (2007). Eight ways to build collaborative teams. Harvard Business Review, 85(11), 100-109. (Business Source Complete Accession Number:
         AN 27040494)

 

What Makes a Leader Resilient?

       When I think of resilience it brings to mind the movie Blind Side that was based on Michael Oher's life.  In the movie Michael Oher is faced with many challenges from a mother that was an addict to living in the streets but through it all he found a way to look at the positive.  His story is what resilience is all about, the ability to move forward even within the troubled times.  We have all had setbacks in our lives but the test of true resilience is how you bounce back. So with this in mind what does it take for a leader to be resilient?  Commonly used terms, which are closely related within psychology, are "psychological resilience," "emotional resilience,""hardiness","resourcefulness," and "mental toughness."

      A leader can only get so far with stamina, ideas and skills to deliver success year after year. This is why a Leaders ability to bounce back, revitalize and renew is essential for the leaders of today. "Most research now shows that resilience is the result of individuals being able to interact with their environments and the processes that either promote well-being or protect them against the overwhelming influence of risk factors."

      A Leader must learn the skills necessary to become resilient in a turbulent marketplace. A recent study by Korn-Ferry found that 90% of leaders were let go due to physical or mental conditions that impaired their leadership effectiveness. Second, organization changes planned without consideration for the impact on the human condition, will not only cause current leadership to falter, but they will also cause the next crop of leaders to be inefficient and ultimately everyone will suffer. A leader needs to understand their own strengths and limitations.  An understanding of who in the organization compliments your capabilities will create teamwork and support. A leader must be aware of the challenges that they face. Self-Awareness is an important part of a leader’s resilience.  Empathy, consciousness and learning are important qualities that need to be focused on.  Emotional Intelligence so that the leader realizes the personal impact to others and understands how connections create and maintain relationships.  A leader must maintain wellness spiritually, emotionally and physically.

Conner (1993) identifies five attributes of personal resilience:

- Positive: views life as multifaceted and overlapping - as challenging with hidden opportunities

- Focused: clear vision of what is to be achieved - uses this as a guidance system to maintain perspective

- Flexible: pliable when responding to uncertainty - has a high tolerance for ambiguity, displays humor and patience and relies on relationships for support

- Organized: applies structures to help manage ambiguity - sets priorities and manages
simultaneous tasks and demands, plans carefully and asks for help when needed

- Proactive: engages change instead of evading it - uses change to their advantage, leans from past experience with change and influences others to do the same

      To lead in today’s marketplace it takes continuous development, effective use of resources and mental/emotional clarity.  The key is to maintain these factors in order to maximize sustainability. While business acumen and industry knowledge can be gained from the classroom and through experience, leading for life requires a relationship with one’s self and the business community. The ability to lead from the heart is a trait that will give a leader the ability to be in the race for the long run.  The days of ruling with an iron fist are short lived and not the qualities of a leader for life.    The successful leader of the future will lead by intuition as well as through knowledge.

Zautra, A.J., Hall, J.S. & Murray, K.E. (2010). "Resilience: A new definition of health for people and communities", pp. 3–34 in J.W. Reich, A.J. Zautra & J.S. Hall (eds.), Handbook of adult resilience. New York: Guilford

Anthony, E.J. (1987). "Risk, vulnerability, and resilience: An overview", pp. 3–48 in E.J. Anthony & B.J. Cohler (Eds.), The invulnerable child, New York: Guilford Press

The Case for Business Resilience

When You Look To The Future All Roads Lead To Success....

       Have you ever had that perfect moment, you dreamed of it, you looked at the ways for it to happen and mendaciously it did!! How great is it when you dream of something and saw it and then there it was in the present! When we stop and take a look at what’s going on in the present we need raise our heads and contemplate what lies ahead in the future. Being a forward thinker is not the same as meeting the requirements of the day’s duties.  We need to plan for the future.  We need to be looking for new opportunities to grow and expand.  They need to be anticipating what is coming over the next horizon.  We are the Managers of the future.  Take a moment to stop, look and listen to the here and now and then use this to look over the horizon for what is ahead. Knowledge is power and understanding what is going on around you, read, think about and talk about the long term view.  

     Dan Schwab once said “One of the greatest gifts you can give others is the understanding that they can think bigger things than they believe they can.  It’s contagious.  What limits vision in an organization is nobody being will to speak up for one.  But once you do, there is a sort of avalanche or landslide factor; it just keeps rolling.” Visions are the future but can become reality over the span of time.  It may take a year, three years or five years but if you believe in the vision it will become now.  How proficient you are at you’re doing something depends on how much time you spend on it and this is true of envisioning the future the more time you spend on envisioning the better you will get. Improvement of the present comes from a vision of the future.

     Steve Jobs and Bill Gates saw the future of the computer.  Their forward thinking created the technology that you are reading this information on today.   What you envision for the future is a reflection of expressing your passion.  It’s about what gets you up in the morning and what you dream about at night.  When you reflect on the past…. are present in the future…. and envision the future you are on the path to finding your passion for life. 

     We all have concerns, desire, questions, propositions, arguments, hopes and dreams that can help us organize and aspire to our dreams.   Your personal passion can guide you towards your vision for the future.  So gaze up and take a look to the future to make a better present for yourself, your family, your organization, your community…..