Understanding Fear of Process Improvement

by Brad Power  (Published on 09/27/13 on HBR Blog)

A culture of continuous improvement is crucial to organizational performance and survival. Just ask Richard Aubut, CEO of South Shore Hospital, the leading regional provider of healthcare in southeastern Massachusetts. “We don’t know what changes will be coming with healthcare reform and other changes in our industry,” he told me recently. “But we do know we need to build the capability to deal with whatever does. That’s why we’ve added continuous improvement to our cultural pillars.” Yet most reports, such as John Kotter’s classic Harvard Business Review article “Leading Change: Why Transformation Effort Fail,” show that few attempts at fundamental change are very successful, a few are utter failures, and most fall somewhere in between, with a distinct tilt to failure. Discussions about process improvement failures sprang up recently on two different LinkedIn groups I participate in, and most members cited a lack of leadership from the top as the primary reason. A few said it was because people didn’t follow the methodology (e.g., Six Sigma or Lean) the right way.
Ironically, few of these discussions pursued this issue much further to get at the root cause. Why aren’t leaders on board? Why doesn’t culture change? How do you change culture?
But one of the people in the conversation stood out to me, with a more thoughtful approach: John Ryan, a continuous improvement coordinator at Zeus, Inc., a South Carolina-based manufacturer of polymer tubing. When I contacted him directly, he told me there is a simple yet highly effective tool for getting at the root cause of process performance problems: asking the question “Why.”

Why do cultures resist change?

Because they are successful.

Why are they successful?

Because we hold onto practices that make us successful until they become habitual.

Why don’t we try new practices?

Because it takes energy to learn a new habit.

Why do we need habits?

Because to compete successfully, we must able to instantly respond to the environment; we cannot take the time to think every time before acting. The faster we can react, the more likely we are to survive when confronted with danger.

When do we create new habits?

When we confront a situation where existing habits don’t work, we conclude a new habit is needed, and we have enough time to create one.

Why does it take a long time to change habits?

Because if we change immediately every time we encounter a new environment, we will constantly spend energy on changing — energy that we need to survive. And whenever we encounter a new environment, our first reaction is fear. It has to be fear because before we take any action, we must ensure that we can survive. We use this fear to keep us safe.

If fear of change is the root cause of failures to create a culture of continuous improvement, as W. Edwards Deming (the father of the quality movement) famously said, “Drive out fear. No one can put in his best performance unless he feels secure” — what are the counter-measures? What are the most effective ways to embrace fear of change? I see three:
1. Show respect to the people whose work will change by getting them involved in defining the improvements.
People resist change that is imposed on them. But if they help define the changes, they will own them. As Peter Hunter, a former naval officer and management consultant, has said, “People hate being told what to do. It is human nature to avoid doing what we have been told. … Instead find out what people want and give it to them, or give them the reason why they can’t have it. Both answers are equally valuable because they both let the individuals know that their opinion has been listened to and is valued.”
2. Welcome failure in experiments of new ways of working as a way to learn; remove the downside risks and provide upside.
Experiments allow us to learn and improve. As described in my previous post, “Get Your Worker to Disrupt Their Jobs,” you should commit to your employees that they will stay employed if they suggest process change. You should also give them some of the upside from making those changes — profit sharing and promotions. And by training them, you can demonstrate your commitment to their development.
3. Hire self-starters who are committed to your mission.
Your employees will embrace change that furthers the mission of the organization if they view the value of that change to the customer as greater than the pain of change. For example, the 58,000 employees of the Mayo Clinic, a worldwide leader in medical services, are more likely to embrace changes to their work if it’s clear that it makes the patient’s experience better. It starts with recruitment. On the jobs section of the Mayo Clinic website, the first thing you see is “Working at Mayo Clinic is making a difference. It’s providing the highest quality patient care by placing the needs of patients first.”
Organizations with cultures that value continuous improvement are far better at changing their processes and staying competitive. Yet most organizations that make a run at continuous improvement fail to make it stick because of fear. As Zeus Inc.’s John Ryan points out, “You should embrace fear for the tremendous benefit it provides.”
Questions: What do you see as the root cause of failures to institute continuous improvement? How have you seen workers overcome their fear of work changes?

Three Things that Actually Motivate Employees

by Rosabeth Moss Kanter 

(Published on 10/23/13 on HBR Blog) 

The most motivated and productive people I’ve seen recently work in an older company on the American East Coast deploying innovative technology products to transform a traditional industry. To a person, they look astonished when I ask whether their dedication comes from anticipation of the money they could make in the event of an IPO.

Newcomers and veterans alike say they are working harder than ever before. Their products are early stage, which means daily frustrations as they run through successive iterations. Getting them to market demands more than corporate systems can handle, so they must beg for IT upgrades, recruit and budget themselves, and even take on sales responsibilities to explain innovations to customers — which adds to the workload.

So much pressure, yet they don’t seem to care about the money?

One person says that he can’t let himself think about an IPO. It’s too remote; it distracts from doing the work, and the work is the important thing. Another says she is most excited about the opportunity to change how the industry operates and have a big impact on improving lives. The chorus of voices is consistent: “We take the work in directions we choose.” “We’re working on the most advanced technology.” “Our products change lives.” Moreover, they have the joy of self-expression. One sales manager, a former actor, recited Shakespeare at a customer meeting and won over skeptical executives.

For these professionals, a future IPO is outweighed by today’s OPI — the opportunity for positive impact.
OPIs exert a strong appeal wherever I find them. In a different company in a middle American city, I talked with a couple meeting with a caterer to finalize details of their wedding — which was going to take place in the office lobby. Imagine that — people who feel so connected to their workplace that they want to get married there.

Both companies embrace a digital future still being invented. Yet leaders have turned change from exhausting to exhilarating by asking employees to open their imaginations. Although some professionals see transformation as a threat, most find chances for creative expression, especially as the companies evolve from siloed departments to flexible collaboration. Employees are encouraged to work on the best and latest concepts. Emphasis has shifted from output to impact – from how many products are sold to how much the products enrich people’s lives in the broader society.

There are no promises that these jobs will last forever. Loyalty comes from the daily work itself, a sense of community accepting of individuality, and constant reminders that what employees do matters.

I summarize these keys to strong work motivation in three Ms — mastery, membership, and meaning. Money is a distant fourth. Money can even be an irritant if compensation is not adequate or fair, and compensation runs out of steam quickly as a source of sustained performance. Instead, people happy in their work are often found in mission-driven organizations where people feel they have positive impact on social needs. As my HBS colleague Michael Norton shows in his book Happy Money, giving to others boosts happiness.

Unfortunately, happiness at work is rare. Numerous polls show low levels of work engagement in U.S. companies, with perhaps half of employees disengaged and disaffected. That’s an appalling finding. I think the problem is that human resource policy too often centers around compensation and benefits and not around the nature of the work itself. In contrast, the high-performance teams in sports and business I studied for my book Confidence focus on the work and its impact. They work harder, longer, and yet with more energy than low-performance teams. They make a difference day by day, making progress through small wins — a key to motivation that another HBS colleague, Teresa Amabile, studies in The Progress Principle.
To tap the three Ms, leaders at all levels can rethink how they define their strategy, jobs, and culture. They can:

Mastery: Help people develop deep skills. Stretch goals show faith that people can shape the future rather than being victimized by it, and find pride in constant learning. Even in the most seemingly routine areas, when people are given difficult problems to tackle, with appropriate and tools and support, they can do things faster, smarter, and better.

Membership: Create community by honoring individuality.  Community solidarity comes from allowing the whole person to surface, which means going beyond superficial conformity to know what else people care about. Encourage employees to bring outside interests to work. Given them frequent opportunities to meet people across the organization to help them get to know one another more deeply.

Meaning: Repeat and reinforce a larger purpose. Emphasize the positive impact of the work they do. Clarity about how your products or services can improve the world provides guideposts for employees’ priorities and decisions. As part of the daily conversation, mission and purpose can make even mundane tasks a means to a larger end.

Highly-engaged people who contribute more of themselves can produce Shakespeare recitations that win customers, weddings in office lobbies that build community, or the ultimate prize: innovations that change the world.

9 Best Practices for Creating Powerful Mentoring Programs

9 Best Practices for Creating Powerful Mentoring Programs  
by Ann Tardy, President
The LifeMoxie Consulting Group

Implementing a corporate mentoring program can be your wildly successful legacy or your administrative nightmare. The difference lies in creating a powerful, employee driven, effective program.

As an employee benefit, a powerful mentoring program can serve to develop your current team and attract new talent. A mentoring program is the perfect opportunity to leverage the skills and strengths of your employees in order to train and develop each other. And when designed properly, a mentoring program can enhance leadership skills, soften departmental barriers, increase employee effectiveness, and boost morale.
Alternatively, a poorly planned mentoring program can become an administrative nightmare. The burden of designing, implementing and maintaining a mentoring program often falls on the already-full plate of an HR director or diversity manager. And an ineffective mentoring program runs the risk of frustrating the employees (and you!) and negatively impacting morale.

The following are nine best practices for creating a powerful, employee-driven, effective mentoring program:

1)      Define Your Success - As early as possible define your program’s success factors in measurable ways and then design your program to achieve that success. For example, one of LifeMoxie’s clients created a mentoring program to increase membership in its company-sponsored affinity groups. Another LifeMoxie client is using the program to augment its succession planning initiative and develop its mid-tier managers.  

2)      Give them a Reason to Participate - time is precious, especially on the job. If you want your employees to participate in your mentoring program, give them an incentive to participate or obligate them to identify their own reasons for participating. For example, encourage participation in the program by making it a factor in annual performance reviews.

3)      Blow up Mentoring Myths - Mentoring often connotes “a guide for your whole life,” similar to the character Obi-Wan Kenobi from the movie Star Wars. As a result, employees often expect to find that one special lifetime mentor in someone of the highest ranks of the company. In reality, everyone on your team can be a Mentor and everyone, regardless of level, can benefit from a mentoring program. Encourage employees to participate as both a Mentor and a Mentee in your program so they learn from as well as develop each other.

4)      Think like a Dating Service - As the catalyst of your mentoring program, consider yourself a dating service for the professional development of your employees. As such you need to provide a way for people to find each other (think Match.com) while providing them the structure in which to make good matches (think matchmaker). Teaching people how to participate in their own matching will create more effective mentoring relationships while giving them lifetime mentoring skills, but will also require your employees to be proactive in the finding and creating of their mentoring relationships. Your challenge is to implement a program that acts like a dating service and not like an arranged marriage.

5)      Teach them How to Mentor - To create an effective mentoring program, you must teach the participants how to be effective Mentors and Mentees. Incorporate ongoing Mentor/Mentee training and educational opportunities, and provide your participants with tools for creating structure in their relationships. Your goal is to teach them how to create their own mentoring relationships so that your mentoring program becomes an employee-inspired, employee generated, employee-driven program year after year.

6)      Make them Commit - Make it a requirement that everyone who enters into a mentoring relationship must sign a mentoring agreement or complete an application (either on-line or on paper). In addition, require your participants to commit to the relationship for a certain period of time, preferably three to six months, while providing each party the opportunity to obtain a no fault split should the relationship not be working.

7)      Mentor around Specific Goals - As your participants start creating mentoring relationships, encourage them to work on specific goals that the Mentor and Mentee generate together. Having goals will create focus and contribute to the effectiveness of their relationship.

8)      Make it Easy to Play - There is nothing worse than an interested, inspired employee that becomes frustrated with the process. Make it easy to participate in your mentoring program, easy to access the mentoring tools and information, and easy for you to administer.

9)      Track Everyone’s Progress - Encourage your participants to track their progress in the program and their progress on their goals. Incorporate a mechanism for participants to provide their feedback on their relationship and on the mentoring program.

Why So Many Leadership Programs Ultimately Fail

Another great post from the Harvard Business Review

Why So Many Leadership Programs Ultimately Fail 

by Peter Bregman

The topic in the Executive Committee meeting turned to Europe. The technology company, Alentix*, was doing well and growing annually at the rate of about 15%. But its European division was struggling. It had been five years since the region turned a profit.
Yet no one had addressed that issue. Jean, the head of the Europe office, had been with the company longer than anyone else around the table — he had strong ties with the board — and the topic seemed untouchable.
This time looked to be no different. When Jean said he was on top of things, no one challenged him. I looked around the room at the silent senior leadership of Alentix, all of whom had privately complained to me about Jean's performance in recent weeks. I suggested we take a 15-minute break.
Every one of these leaders was smart, knowledgeable, and capable. They'd all read innumerable books on leadership, taken leadership skills assessments, and attended multiple training programs — including executive leadership programs at top business schools. They knew as much as anyone about leadership.
So why weren't they leading?
The answer is deceptively simple: There is a massive difference between what we know about leadership and what we do as leaders.
I have never seen a leader fail because he or she didn't know enough about leadership. In fact, I can't remember ever meeting a leader who didn't know enough about leadership.
What makes leadership hard isn't the theoretical, it's the practical. It's not about knowing what to say or do. It's about whether you're willing to experience the discomfort, risk, and uncertainty of saying or doing it.
In other words, the critical challenge of leadership is, mostly, the challenge of emotional courage.
Emotional courage means standing apart from others without separating yourself from them. It means speaking up when others are silent. And remaining steadfast, grounded, and measured in the face of uncertainty. It means responding productively to political opposition — maybe even bad-faith backstabbing — without getting sidetracked, distracted, or losing your focus. And staying in the discomfort of a colleague's anger without shutting off or becoming defensive.
These are the things that distinguish powerful leaders from weak ones. And you can't learn them from reading a book, taking a personality test, or sitting safely in a classroom.
Ever since I started teaching leadership on mountaineering expeditions in the late 80's, the question of how to develop leaders has absorbed me. I've designed and taught everything from one-day team buildings to 30-day wilderness trips, from business school classes to corporate trainings, from simulations to executive leadership courses.
The goal of any leadership development program is to change behavior. After a successful program, participants should show up differently, saying and doing things in new ways that produce better results.
By that measure, most of what I've done — and what I've seen others do — has failed. Sure, the trainings are almost always fun, interesting, engaging, and filled with valuable, research-based content. But they fail the test of significant and sustained behavior change that produces better results after the program.
Here's why: We're teaching the wrong things in the wrong ways.
If the challenge of leadership is emotional courage, then emotional courage is what we need to teach. You can't just learn about communication, you have to do it, in the heat of the moment, when the pressure is on, and your emotions are high.
In everything I've tried, I have discovered two things that work:
1. Integrate leadership development into the work itself. This is the ideal environment, where the learning and the work are seamless. The Executive Committee meeting at Alentix is a perfect example. That was a real meeting, where the leadership team was doing their real work. The difference, though, was that I was there.
I knew each person's strengths and weaknesses. That's why I called the break. During those 15 minutes, I approached several people and we talked about previous conversations I had with them and their concerns about Europe's performance. What will it take, I asked them, for you to speak up?
Here's what I didn't do: facilitate the meeting or bring up the issue myself. That would have been doing their work for them and they wouldn't have developed their skills. They needed to bring it up. They needed to push the issue. And they needed to do it in a way that didn't alienate Jean or make him defensive. Yes, I taught them ways to do that. But they had to do it, in real time, with real colleagues, doing real work.
2. Teach leadership in a way that requires emotional courage. Most leadership programs strive to create a safe environment for people to learn. At best, they teach about courage. They articulate why it's important, what it looks like, how it plays out in a case study. Maybe they do a simulation.
But that's a mistake.
The only way to teach courage is to require it of people. To offer them opportunities to draw from the courage they already have. To give them opportunities to step into real situations they find uncomfortable and truly take the time to connect with the sensations that come with that.
For example, most leadership programs give people feedback from anonymously collected forms they and their colleagues fill out before the program. That's safe.
In the leadership week I conduct for senior leaders, I have people give each other real feedback, in real time, face-to-face with each other, based on what they're witnessing in the program. That's courageous.
And the more they take those kinds of risks during the week — risks to be vulnerable, to communicate hard things, to listen to hard things, to try a new behavior — the more they will take those same risks in real life, when it matters most.

When we returned after the break at the Alentix Executive Committee meeting, the CFO interrupted the agenda to say he wanted to address the issue of Europe. Jean quickly stepped in and reiterated what he had said before: "We already addressed it."
The room was silent and I could feel the tension rise. This is the moment, I thought to myself, this is the hardest point in the conversation, in the meeting. Will someone step up?
Sure enough, emboldened by our break-time conversations and by the initial bravery of the CFO, the head of human resources spoke up, followed by the head of sales, and then the COO. The conversation was happening and it was skillful, respectful, and powerful.
That's leadership. That's emotional courage. And exercising that muscle is what develops powerful leaders.
*Names and some details changed

Keys for a successful coaching relationship

Keys for a successful coaching relationship

Is the executive highly motivated to change?
Yes : Executives who get the most out of coaching have a fierce desire to learn and grow.
No: Do not engage a coach to fix behavioral problems. Blamers, victims, and individuals with iron-clad belief systems don’t change.

Does the executive have good chemistry with the coach?
Yes: The right match is absolutely key to the success of a coaching experience. Without it, the trust required for optimal executive performance will not develop.
No: Do not engage a coach on the basis of reputation or experience without making sure that the fit is right.

Is there a strong commitment from top management to developing the executive?
Yes: The firm must have a true desire to retain and develop the coached executive.
No: Do not engage a coach if the real agenda is to push the executive out or to fix a systemic issue beyond the control of the coached individual.

Does the focus of coaching engagements shift?
All but eight of the 140 respondents said that over time their focus shifts from what they were originally hired to do.
“Absolutely! It starts out with a business bias and inevitably migrates to ‘bigger issues’ such as life purpose, work/life balance, and becoming a better leader.”
“Generally no. If the assignment is set up properly, the issues are usually very clear before the assignment gets started.”

What should you look for when hiring a coach. Here's how various qualifications stacked up. 

 

 

Coaching borrows from both consulting and therapy

 

Is Your Business Ready For 2013?

Preparing Your Business for 2013

Change is happening.  The stress we felt in recent recession will hit our businesses again soon.  

Whether this predicted fiscal cliff is a 10,000 foot drop, a bump in the road or someplace in between, business leaders need to be prepared. 

Taxes will increase, legislation will be greater, health care costs will continue to go up, government will get bigger and BUSINESS WILL STILL HAPPEN.

Based on the lessons learned from past economically challenging times, as well as good business practices, let me share with you 5 areas that you can manage in your business to survive and possible thrive.

• Financial Management. Going beyond fundamental management of your business (income statements, balance sheets, and sales forecasts), I recommend 2 specific things to improve your financial stability: 

1. Have a strong banking relationship. This goes two ways.  Know the bank you are with is a solid bank. Think about the fallout a few years ago.  Partner with a bank that will be there for you.  Secondly, meet quarterly with your banker to review your business. Share what you have done and what you will do.  This relationship will be invaluable if you need financial assistance from your bank. 
2. Get your Accounts Receivable balance to zero OR EVEN negative!  How can you get paid before you deliver the service?  Think about magazines. They collect their money and then, over 12 months, deliver your service.  How can your business do this? 

•  Operational Management. This is where you can make the biggest impact to your survival. Again, I recommend 2 specific actions:

1. Know what you do and do what you know.  Identify your core services / products and be the best at it.  Don't get distracted by the "shiny new idea".  Focus on your core strengths and commit to being the best at it. Too many times I see businesses who lose sight of their core capabilities and wonder into unchartered waters. More often than not, they sink.  Now is not the time to stray. 
2. Simplify, simplify, simplify.  Continually ask what you can do to streamline your operations.  What steps don't add value to your service or product? There is a process called "Activity Based Costing".  Ever activity has a cost to it. Find your cost and ask if there is an offsetting value. If not, eliminate it or simplify it.

• Customer Management. Your customer relationship is the third area of focus. You must create "raving fans" to survive and thrive.  Here are two recommendations:

1. Sell solutions not products or services. As simple as this sounds, too many businesses sell products and services that they think their customers need. Ask your customers what problems you solve. Ask them why they buy from you?  Know their problems and be their solution. 
2.  Don’t depend upon a few good customers. Diversify your customer base. If you have more than 70% of your revenue coming from less than 30% of your clients, you are at risk. Find new customers who have the same problem. Can you expand geographically, demographically, gender, ethnicity, age, etc.? How does your solution solve another potential customer's problem? Profile your customers and find a new customer. 

• Utilization of Resources. Most companies are only using 20-30% of their resources true potential. Consider how much technology is at your fingertips. Besides using it for e-mail, documents and a few basic spreadsheets, most of the potential lies dormant. This is true for most of the other resources in our business - including your people.  What can you do? Here is one simple recommendation.

1. Invest in resources. Consider where the biggest opportunities are in your business and invest now - BUT measure the results.  Don't assume if someone is trained or equipment is upgraded, that you have solved the problem. Measure the expected performance improvement. What gets measured gets accomplished. This is the only true way to do more with less.

• Stakeholder Management. This is one of the most neglected asset a company has and yet the one that can make or break a business.  The stakeholders of your business includes the community you live in and the market you serve. Frank Agin, founder of AmSpirit Business Connections and author, once said "All things being equal, and even when they aren’t, people do business with people they know, like and trust." In today's business world, no reputation is a bad reputation. You must pay attention to your reputation and build your reputation. Here is a simple action you can take.

1. Invite comments. Ask your customers to give you feedback. Online, in writing, through survey cards but you must ask.  If you get something unfavorable, respond immediately. Study after study shows that a quick, positive resolution brings stronger loyalty than all the 'good' service in the world.

FOCUS on these core concepts and you have a better chance of surviving and even thriving during this next challenging time.

Remember this business truth – if someone is buying the products or services you offer, you have a marketplace to compete. Your job is to compete!

Success = Attitude + Habits

SUCCESS requires CHANGE

in ATTITUDE and HABITS

Welcome to 2012!  It's a bright new year, full of opportunities and enjoyment for those willing to embrace new ways of doing things.

The greatest bar to success is the inability to change.  The old saying "If you only do what you have always done, you will only get what you have always gotten -- only less" is absolutely true.

Just as Dickens' Christmas Carol discusses the past, the present and the future, business leaders need to consider the entire continuum of time -- and decide how much they want success.

THE PAST



Your organization's past may not have been as positive as you wanted it.  Many times, organizations fail to understand that they are "over-investing" their energies (as well as their cash) in only HALF of the "KASH BOX".

THE PRESENT

Every day, you have the opportunity to "turn the page" and make SURE that you spend EQUAL time with ATTITUDE and HABITS as well as KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS.

So, how much should YOU INVEST in YOUR ATTITUDE and HABITS? Consider the "TEBOW EFFECT":

"He just wins."  "God doesn't win games for him, his attitude and his hard work are what wins."

A positive attitude -- backed up by total diligence and hard work are what have allowed "a guy who shouldn't be in the NFL, let alone be starting quarterback" to have success. Tim Tebow isn't a "miracle," He just believes he can win and works hard at it.

What's the business lesson here?

Tebow has invested EQUALLY in both halves of his KASH BOX.  He studies the playbook and he practices his quarterbacking skills, BUT he also developed the habit of focusing on a POSITIVE ATTITUDE and being faithful to his HABITS to win.

____________________________________________________________

THE FUTURE
What About the Future?
Is your business running at it's highest "value"?  Not just efficiently or effectively but "valuable"?

HOW CAN YOU TELL if your business is performing at optimal "value"?

Selllability Score

It's Simple  -- Always focus on the "sale" of your business.
Whether you think at the end of your run you want to sell your business or transfer it to family or employees or simply sell off the assets, you need to PLAN to build your business so you can SELL it when you want -- for the amount you want.

If you want to reap the rewards that come from balancing the KASH BOX investments YOU'RE making AND develop a business you sell -- you need to contact LMI Columbus.

We have the tools and the processes to help you not only BALANCE the investments you make in YOUR KASH BOX, we can help you get the FUTURE YOU WANT by enhancing the total ROI from them.

The Cry for Change

What are you doing to change?

“The irony of entrepreneurial leadership is that the very behaviors and habit patterns that lead to success at one stage of growth can contribute to failure in the next stage.”

- Katherine Catlin & Jana Mathews “Leading At The Speed of Growth”

“To go from good to great requires a deep understanding of three intersecting circles translated into a simple ‘Hedgehog Concept.’ Foxes pursue many ends at the same time. Hedgehogs, on the other hand, simplify a complex world into a single organizing idea, a basic concept that unifies and guides everything. Good-to-great companies were all hedgehogs, focusing on one big thing.”

- Jim Collins, Good to Great

The Top 3 Concerns in Today’s Economy

1. Low employee engagement and low productivity 34%
2. Losing top performers 26%
3. Leadership gaps 18%

- Taleo Research

“On average, employees waste 1.44 hours each day on nonproductive activities.”

- Joseph Carroll, Gallup News Service

A study of 3200 companies found a 10% increase in capital expenditures led to only a 3.8% increase in productivity. However, a 10% increase in training and development spending led to an 8.5% increase in productivity.

- Robert Zemsky & Susan Shaman University of Pennsylvania

“A survey of 3000 leaders found that only 4% believed they possessed the necessary mindset or skills to lead the virtual corporations of the 21st century.”

- Economist

“In 5 years, 50% of all executives will retire. The need has never been more urgent to develop key talent and to recognize leadership potential at every level of the organization.”

- Korn Ferry International

"Four out of five companies do not have enough talented leaders to pursue their current or future business opportunities."

- McKinsey

Now if businesses only had a place to turn for help... :)

Lessons in Mentoring - PJM

Tell Me, Show Me, Let Me, Correct Me - Lessons in Mentoring by Paul J. Meyer

My father told me again and again to never take a job unless I was willing to be mentored. He knew that knowledge was not enough. He knew the value of repetition and mentoring in the learning process, and he modeled that for me from my earliest years. His learning system was simple. He would:
·tell me
·show me
·let me
·correct me
My first bike, for instance, was a junkyard rescue. My dad and I picked it up, brought it home, and took it apart. He patiently showed me how to put it back together - how to fix the brakes, build a gear, and put new spokes on the wheel. That hands-on learning taught me a great deal, but just when I felt I had conquered the bike, he made me take it all apart again. My dad understood that repetition was a powerful ingredient in the learning process. I took that bike apart and put it together so many times that I could have done it with my eyes closed! Sure, I was sometimes frustrated, but I learned.
My dad did the right thing: he provided structure and follow-up, making sure I understood the correct way of doing it from the very start, and then allowed me to repeat the process with his "mentoring." He supervised my practicing until he felt I could do it on my own.
Dad did this with everything in life. I remember when I got my first car - I had to have it towed home! I knew nothing about cars, but dad taught me everything. He taught me the difference between the transmission and the master cylinder, the headers and the exhaust pipes. He taught me what made the car work and how it all fit together. Together we took each piece apart and he'd tell me what it was, show me how it worked and was put together, let me try to do it on my own, and then correct me so that we could begin the process again. Finally, when we had finished and I knew how to put every piece back together, he took it completely apart again, smiled, and said, "Put it together, and it's yours!"
It was a challenge, but I did it and learned a lifelong lesson about learning, "Successful people yearn to learn and have a plan for learning." Unless people have a plan for learning and are motivated to do it right, it isn't very likely that they'll hang in there and do it. My dad created a need and a plan for me with that car, and to this day, one of my saddest memories is the day I joined the military and had to sell that car.
In my own companies, I maintain my dad's learning system with one small change. As I got older, I realized the power of positive reinforcement and praise in the coaching/mentor relationship. My dad was a great teacher, but his correction didn't always involve encouragement. So we've modified it a bit:
·tell me
·show me
·let me
·observe me
·praise my progress and/or redirect me
Having a coach or mentor accentuate the positive as you journey through the learning process is vital to success!
I am who I am today largely because of the lessons I learned from my own father. I understand how to learn and activate that knowledge because my dad modeled that for me. As you seek to grow and learn, remember the power of repetition, the importance of follow-up, and the value of coaching and mentoring.
_________________________________________________

About Paul J. Meyer

Paul J. Meyer is a New York Times best-selling author and founder of Leadership Management Institute, Inc. and Success Motivation Institute, Inc. He has mastered the power of spaced repetition, using it to grow his businesses and change the lives of countless people. For more resources, and to order Know Can Do, visit the LMI bookstore.

Keys to personal leadership success

Personal Leadership is needed - and demanded - now more than ever.

These are random thoughts on the keys to personal leadership success.

1) Recognize EVERYONE is a leader. Whether you wear the title of CEO or bottle washer, you are a leader.
2) True personal leadership has nothing to do with managing others. It has everything to do with influencing others.
3) True personal leadership starts with self and works outward.
4) True personal leadership has a vision for themselves and encourages, supports and engages the vision of everyone else.
5) True personal leadership doesn't wait to be managed.
6) True personal leadership has a humble sense of being. They are comfortable in their own skin and don't depend on others for their identify.
7) True personal leadership is self-accountable. Their standard is beyond doing 'enough', meeting the 'base' requirements or satisfying the 'expected' results. They continually raise the bar of performance on themselves and, by influnce, those around them.

You become a true personal leader by your behaviors and not by your titles.

So - let's all take a little more ownership and become the leader you want to follow!

I need your help - those are my random thoughts on the subject - what can you add to the list? This isn't the complete list.

Managing Your Time Well

By Paul J. Meyer
Your success as an effective team leader or team member requires a wide range of skills, but one of the most important is how you manage your time. Knowledge of the work itself, skills in interpersonal relationships, and the development of creative and useful ideas are essential to your success.
It is time management that determines the efficiency and the effectiveness you achieve in each of these important areas. The effectiveness of the activities in each hour of the day - not the number of hours you work - determines the results you and your organization accomplish.
Effective time management can give structure to your day. Several time-management methods have proven effective in all types of organizations and at every level. Use these three important methods to manage your time:
Set priorities based on high-payoff activities. The most successful people are those who carefully identify their priorities and use them as a basis for making decisions, preventing problems, facing and resolving challenges, and planning the day's activities.
Work every day from a written plan based on your priorities and goals. Use a calendar system that works best for you. Make a list of all items of work you must complete during the day to meet a deadline or to prevent some serious consequence. These are your "Imperative" items. Next, write down all of the work you could do today, but could finish any time in the next two or three days without causing serious problems.
These are your "Important" items. Then, within both categories, assign each item a priority. Tackle your high-priority items on your "Imperative" list first. As each item is completed, go to the next. When all "Imperative" items are completed, move to the "Important" items.
Set challenging, but reasonable target dates for every project. Recognize and respect the value of deadlines and target dates. There is a saying that work expands to fill the time available. Without deadlines and target dates, your work may be stretched out over too much time. Deadlines push you to move forward.
Improved time management offers one of the quickest, easiest, and most effective strategies for improving productivity and increasing results.

To learn more about LMI's Proven Personal Management process, check out our Time and Results Workshop.