There’s No Such Thing as an Insignificant Turn

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

 

arrows on path

Discover the significance of unexpected career turns. See how choices shape your path.

Today’s guest post is by Steve McKee, author of TURNS: Where Business is Won and Lost (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

If I were to ask you to identify three turning points in your career, it probably wouldn’t require too much thought for you to come up with them. We tend to remember people or events that have changed our trajectory in significant ways.

But if I were to ask you to consider three of the things you most value, and then to retrace your steps to recall how they came about, it’s likely that upon reflection you would identify a turn in your past that at the time you had no idea would have been so consequential.

Let me give you an example. I’m not only the author of a book on the topic at hand (TURNS: Where Business Is Won and Lost), I’ve written two other books, hundreds of articles, and a number of proposals and recommendations that (I’ve been told) stood out for the quality of their prose. Being a craftsman with the written word is a core part of my identity. And while I can’t say for sure where that journey first began—probably sometime back in grade school—if I trace my professional steps back to the beginning of my career, I recall a most formative turn.

I had recently graduated from college and was working at a health club while I pursued entry-level career possibilities. One day I spotted a newspaper want ad (remember those?) from a hot West Coast advertising agency looking for a field marketing manager based in my hometown to work on the Pizza Hut account. The combination of pizza and marketing sounded like the perfect job for me, and this seemed like a terrific way to break into an industry in which I was interested. So, I applied.

Trouble was, when the initial call came in from the woman who would become my boss, it awoke me from a deep sleep. I had been getting up well before dawn to open the health club, and when I got off work at noon each day I’d go home and take a brief nap. She happened to call just when I had entered a dream state, and when I picked up the phone I couldn’t get my bearings; I’m sure I must have sounded drunk. Needless to say, the call didn’t go well.

After recounting the story that evening to my then-new wife, she encouraged me to write a letter to the woman asking for a second chance. I put pen to paper and not only explained what had happened, but conveyed my naïve-yet-enthusiastic understanding of marketing and why I was the perfect person for the job. She agreed to give me a second chance and invited me to an in-person interview when she next came to town. Needless to say, I got the job.

Shortly after that, I met the founder of the firm, who told me that my letter had made its way to his desk and was the best business letter he had ever read. That was quite a compliment for a wet-behind-the-ears college graduate, and it seared into my young mind the power of the printed word and fueled my love for writing. The consequences of that single turn of events led to a life of professional fulfillment on which I could have easily missed out.

Not all turns have such life-changing ramifications, of course, but any turn may be consequential in some way. The next time you consider taking a different route home from work, changing your desk chair, instituting a new remote-work policy, or writing an important letter (or email, or dare I say, text), consider what might come as a result of it. It may just change your life.

steve mckee bookSteve McKee is a business strategy expert and co-founder of McKee Wallwork, a nationally-recognized marketing advisory firm. He’s the author of three books: When Growth Stalls, Power Branding, and the newly-released TURNS: Where Business Is Won and Lost.

Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!

Work Less and Relate More 

/0 Comments/in , , , , , /by

two men talking in coffeeshop

If each of us took 10 percent of the time we devote to work and shifted it to relationship building, we’d reap impressive financial and emotional rewards.

Today’s guest post is by Larry Thornton, author of Why Not Win? A Reflection on a 50-year Journey from the Segregated South to America’s Boardrooms — And What it Teaches Us All (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

After more than 40 years of affiliations with prominent corporations, I’ve come to believe that most people could benefit from working a little less and relating to others a little more. Winning in life depends on the efforts of other people to support you and advocate on your behalf and so investing time and energy in relationships with others is a winning strategy.

I’m not advocating for a cynical, Machiavellian approach to relationships. Chances are you’ve run across people in your working life who pretend to befriend people and then seek to manipulate them for their own benefit. To the contrary, I’m suggesting that you build relationships in a sincere way such that respect and rapport come first, and support later follows.

Sometimes a relationship gets off to a shaky start and then becomes incredibly rewarding. My experience with Max Cooper illustrates this path. When I finished the training required to become a McDonald’s franchisee in the early 1990s, I wanted to build a store in my hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. I planned to be the first Black owner of a McDonald’s in the city. This would send a powerful message about the opportunities available to people of color, especially given the central role Birmingham played in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

I sought advice from Max for getting started. He owned dozens of McDonald’s in the area at the time, but his exclusive rights to the territory were expiring. I thought Max would embrace the chance to help another member of the McDonald’s family. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

After several phone messages went unreturned, I went to Max’s office determined to speak with him. I knew his assistant would be wary of an unannounced visitor, so I fibbed and told her that I was there to personally thank Max for his support of my development. A stand-off arose. Max wouldn’t come out and I wouldn’t leave. In effect, I held him hostage in his own office. But Max had to emerge eventually.

When he did, he was hostile, as I expected. Max offered me some advice, but the advice seemed likely to benefit him, not me. He showed me several locations where I could open outside the Birmingham area. I told him I wasn’t interested in other options. Birmingham was my home, and I was going to own a store there.

I was elated when my grand opening day arrived, but then an uninvited guest arrived — Max Cooper. Max sauntered behind the counter (my counter) while his business partner sneered at me, “You know you can’t run a McDonald’s, don’t you? We’ll own this store in six months.” Stunned by their rudeness, I couldn’t muster a response.

Max returned two months later with a warning that I was doomed to fail. He offered to purchase my store — an offer I declined. A few months later, Max again offered to buy me out. This pattern continued for a year. Each offer revitalized my efforts to succeed.

Because I’d endured discrimination throughout my life, I believed Max’s behavior was a racially driven affront. Eventually, though, I realized it wasn’t a matter of black and white, but rather one of green — as in money. Ray Kroc, who built McDonald’s into a global icon, allegedly stated, “If any of my competitors were drowning, I’d stick a hose in their mouth and turn on the water.” Max adopted this hardline mentality in running his fast-food empire. Had Max’s own grandmother started a McDonald’s in his territory, he might have been just as cut-throat as he was with me.

Over time, mutual respect started to emerge. After I realized Max was simply an aggressive entrepreneur, and after he developed admiration for me and my business acumen, we were on our way to a healthy and productive relationship — one that helped us both win in life. Eventually Max embraced me in the way I’d hoped he would from the beginning. His advice over the years made me a better businessman. We developed a friendship that enriched our lives and strengthened McDonald’s standing in Birmingham. And, in an ironic twist, I eventually bought five of Max’s restaurants.

What if each of us took 10 percent of the time we devote to work and shifted it to relationship building? I think we’d reap impressive financial and emotional rewards. In my case, Max Cooper became a mentor and friend. I was one of the last people to visit him in his office before he passed away at age 99 — the same office where we’d had a spirited debate years earlier.

why not win bookLarry Thornton is an artist, entrepreneur, and servant leader. Growing up in segregated Montgomery, Alabama, he worked his way from sign painter to advertising manager for Coca-Cola United (CCU). Today, he owns multiple McDonald’s stores and serves on CCU’s board of directors. His book, Why Not Win? A Reflection on a 50-year Journey from the Segregated South to America’s Boardrooms — And What it Teaches Us All (UGA Press, 2019), serves as inspiration for people from all walks of life. In addition, Thornton and co-author David Ketchen’s graphic novel, You Have to Live, Why Not Win? takes his message to young audiences. Larry founded the Why Not Win Institute to share the book’s ideas on leadership, success, and personal accountability. Revenue from the sales of both his books supports the institute’s mission. Learn more at larrythornton.com.     

Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!

What Investors are REALLY Listening For

/0 Comments/in , , , , , /by

panel meeting

Keep these three things in mind when preparing your next pitch.

Today’s guest post is by Donna Griffit, author of Sticking To My Story: The Alchemy Of Storytelling For Startups (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

Startups spend A LOT of time tweaking their pitch, their numbers, and (they should be tweaking) their story before meeting investors. Often, though, they miss out on a huge opportunity – how to speak to what investors really listen for.

Humans process information in steps – it goes through our mind by various questions popping up, seeking answers; then it starts traveling to our heart; and finally, our gut – which is where we truly make decisions. It would seem that the “top of mind” questions are the most important part to address with investors. That’s true – but we can’t ignore the other parts as well.

In my experience, there are three things investors really listen for throughout the entire pitch. And if you can point to at least one of these on each slide – you will be creating an entirely different dimension of communication. In my new book, Sticking To My Story: The Alchemy Of Storytelling For Startups, I detail how to prepare each and every aspect of an investor pitch. I want to give you a peek into these three very important things:

Credibility – This is where your numbers and preparation come into play. You must be able to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that you know what you’re talking about, you are an industry expert (even if you didn’t start off in your industry) with the numbers, the credentials and the evidence to back up your words.

Also, credibility is proven through your stellar team, who should be experts with unique knowledge and experience in their domain and preferably some in your startup’s industry as well. Highlight their unique skills, talents and experience that give your startup an “unfair advantage” over your competitors.

This can also help answer the question I often am asked: Where to put your Team slide. Beginning? End? Somewhere in the middle?

Ask yourself if your team adds to your credibility. Do you have serial entrepreneurs with exits under their belts? Former C-Levels from well known companies who have now joined you? Recognizable names or industry leaders on your Advisory Board? If you answered yes to any of these, definitely put the Team slide at the front. And make sure to add logos of big companies they’ve worked with or organizations they’ve been affiliated with.

If you just happen to be a nice group of scrappy, hard working, first-time entrepreneurs (not that there’s anything wrong with that!), wait til a bit later when you have grabbed their attention with your fabulous pitch.

This is not the place for false modesty – you and your teams’ accomplishments are one of the biggest assets you have as a startup – so be ready to showcase them.

Likeability – Investors aren’t just scrutinizing your company; they are scrutinizing you. They want to see that you are “mensches” – meaning good people with strong integrity. They want to know that you are people they can work with. It’s not being a yes-person; it’s showing that you are coachable and have a flexible mindset, that you won’t fight them on every suggestion or criticism that they have. They aren’t there just to write a check, they want to be able to bring value to your company in other ways – and if you aren’t open to that, it will deter them from investing.

Remember, you’re going to spend many years together, through thick and thin, sickness and health – for better and for worse – and if this sounds a bit like a marriage, you’re right! You are in a committed relationship with them for a period of time that very well might last longer and have a better outcome than many marriages today!

How do you show likeability? Is there a slide for that? A VC once told me that he sees so many good companies that he started looking for reasons to say “no” rather than “yes”. And it can be one of the seemingly most benign reasons – like a founder glancing at their phone during a meeting. This was a red flag for him, and a strikeout for the company. Sounds a bit extreme? Maybe – but they view your behavior during a meeting as a sneak peek into how you will interact with them in the future – and they should take precedence over phones.

So be present, listen more than you speak, answer questions, take notes! (Actual written notes on a pad and paper, not on your phone or computer – this shows active listening.) And please – do not argue with them! It’s ok to disagree, but arguing will definitely put you on the no list.

Momentum – This is the “rubber meets the road” moment. Investors look for winners. You need to prove that you are on a winning trajectory, scaling to new heights and they have a once in a lifetime opportunity to join your company at this stage.

This is where numbers come into play: Growth in users, in revenues, strong partnerships, an impressive pipeline, loving testimonials from users, IP or regulatory process – anything that proves you are a solution that people want and are willing to pay for or be part of. This can be shown early on in a “Brag Slide” – where you showcase your biggest and most impressive numbers if you have them, or later on in a “Traction Slide” – where you simply show your accomplishments and the phase that you’re at in product, projections, pipeline, partners and more.

If you constantly keep Credibility, Likeability and Momentum in mind and in play as you are pitching, you will definitely increase your chances to raise funding, or at the very least, forge a relationship with an investor who might come on board when you’re a bit further along.

donna-griffit-bookDonna Griffit, author of STICKING TO MY STORY: The Alchemy Of Storytelling For Startups, is a world-renowned Corporate Storyteller and Pitch Alchemist. She has helped over 1000 startups, corporates and investors raise over one billion dollars and accelerate their sales with a personal touch and unmatched messaging savvy, in any industry, at any phase. For more information, please visit www.DonnaGriffit.com

Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!

Timing Is Key: When to Intervene in a Conflict

/0 Comments/in , , , , , /by

 

office conversation

Learn how to address conflict in your organization to make it a net positive.

Today’s guest post is by Beth Fisher-Yoshida, Ph.D, author of New Story, New Power: A Woman’s Guide to Negotiation (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

Whether we like it or not, conflict is a part of life. It appears in our workplaces in a variety of ways, from slight disagreements to full-blown brawls. We often run away from dealing with conflict simply because it’s uncomfortable.

This discomfort comes from not having the skills to address conflict well, reliving bad memories of previous conflicts that didn’t go well, lacking the time to have a proper discussion, believing it’s not worth the effort, or hoping that if we ignore it, it will go away. Or a combination of all of the above.

Of course, the conflict might fade away with time. New priorities could take over. Or the conflict could fester and grow. This is one of the inherent risks in not addressing conflict early, and leaving it for later.

In an organizational setting, the type of intervention that’s effective in the first few months of a conflict is different from what might be effective after one year, or even after five years. It may sound strange, but as an external, impartial consultant, I’ve been called in to address conflicts that have been present for five years (and more!).

Positive versus painful interventions

In the initial phase of a conflict, there’s an opportunity to teach conflict resolution skills to the people who are directly and indirectly affected. Affected employees may be able to address the issues themselves or with the guidance of an impartial third party. By developing these skills and promoting a sense of agency in your staff, they’ll be able to address future concerns before they become problematic. Intervening early turns conflict into a net positive.

However, when conflict isn’t addressed for an extended period of time, painful issues can (and will) mount. Your employees may lose confidence in company leadership because leaders haven’t taken care of them or ensured their workplace is safe. Your staff may become emotionally or physically ill and take time off work to address their health concerns.

Whether employees take time off or remain in a conflict-riddled environment, productivity will drop, and so will your bottom line. Workers will spend time protecting themselves, not sharing information or engaging with others. In the end, everyone loses.

Conflict is an outlet

Conflict itself isn’t bad. How it’s managed makes all the difference. When conflicts surface, it’s a sign that something isn’t right, that an issue may need to be addressed. Maybe some new procedures need to be clarified. Or perhaps staff members aren’t sure how upcoming changes will affect them, and they need to be reassured that their interests are being considered.

As human beings, we often don’t express our underlying concerns constructively. Conflict is one outlet for letting other people know something isn’t sitting well with us. Conflict provides the opportunity for good discussions, brainstorming to surface great ideas, and transparency so that everyone is on the same page moving forward.

Here are three ways to be more preventive than reactive to the conflicts that arise in your organization:

Invest in skill development. Everyone can benefit from learning more about themselves and how they communicate with others. Many of us think we’re good communicators, and while we may be, there are always new and improved ways to reach different people, come together and solve complex issues, and remedy problems.

As your staff develops these skills, they’ll gain confidence so that when they need to address uncomfortable issues, they’re better prepared to do so, which will lead to better outcomes.

Lead by example. As a leader, you have more influence than anyone else in the organization. By participating in these same development activities, you’ll send a clear message: you value these skills so much, you’re devoting your time to them, too.

Actions speak louder than words when you demonstrate that you’re a strong leader who is open to being a lifelong learner.

Engage outside expertise. There are times when issues can be handled internally, utilizing the expertise of HR professionals or an organizational ombudsperson, if there is one. But at other times, there will need to be a stronger display of impartiality.

This is a good time to bring in an external consultant with the expertise you need. Staff members impacted by the conflict can confidently share their comments with this external consultant. This information can then be collected and aggregated so that no one individual is identified. In the spirit of transparency, the consultant’s reports can be shared so staff members understand what their colleagues are experiencing.

Of course, leadership will need to support this and be willing to implement the recommendations as feasible and appropriate.

Make conflict a step forward

Reframing conflict as a potentially good and informative process, when addressed well and early, is a step forward in creating a healthier and more collaborative work environment.

new story new powerBeth Fisher-Yoshida, Ph.D., CCS, is a global expert and educator in negotiation and communication. She’s the program director of Columbia University’s Master of Science in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution, a negotiation consultant for the United Nations, and the CEO of the consulting agency Fisher Yoshida International. Her new book, New Story, New Power: A Woman’s Guide to Negotiation, helps women of all ages make successful negotiations a reality. Learn more at bethfisheryoshida.com.

Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!

When You’re Overwhelmed, I Want You to Picture Balloons

/0 Comments/in , , , , /by

balloons

By talking through our day-to-day concerns, we can uncover the mechanisms at work behind our thoughts, actions, and patterns. When we gain internal clarity, the weather has a way of clearing up. 

Today’s guest post is by Rachel Rider, author of Who You Are is How You Lead (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

“Rachel, I don’t even know where to begin. I’m totally overwhelmed.”

This was the first thing out of my client Thalia’s mouth. Like so many in leadership positions, as the CEO and Founder of her company she was being pulled in 10,000 directions and needed to make several high stakes decisions.

“I’d like to start with an exercise, if it’s ok with you, Thalia,” I said. “I’d like you to picture everything you’ve got going on right now, and, one by one, I’d like you to name your concerns. As you do, I want you to assign that concern to a balloon. I’d like you to give the balloon a color, and a place in the room.”

As a master coach and founder of MettaWorks, I find that when clients come to me feeling cloudy or overwhelmed, an exercise like this is a great way to help decide what to focus on. It’s also a great way to discover what’s going on beneath the surface of the problems. And, asking visionaries like Thalia to picture balloons is a good icebreaker – admittedly, it sounds a little ridiculous at first.

Thalia was game. The first issue was assigned a yellow balloon at the back of her chair. This balloon was Thalia’s board’s decision to move headquarters out of its founding office and into a new location across town. A location that Thalia disliked, and, she knew, would change the presenting culture of the organization. The second balloon, green, hung over her couch. It was the cost of inflation that was pushing the company’s touchstone product beyond reach for a primary demographic, a demographic that Thalia cared about deeply. The third balloon, blue, was right above her head. This was her partner’s decision to plan a 50th wedding anniversary for her parents during Thalia’s busiest quarter. And so on.

When Thalia had named and placed all of her concerns in balloons around her, I asked her to take a look at the room. “Notice the space between the balloons,” I said, “and the space between you and the balloons. What comes up for you?”

“Well,” she said, “I feel the space. But I also feel like the balloons are attached to my sides by strings.”

“Let’s ask your nervous systems what we can do about that. Can we cut the strings? Is there someone you trust who could hold them for you?”

“No,” said Thalia, suddenly forceful. “What I’m feeling is, I can and I should hold all these strings. I can manage this myself. I have to manage this myself.”

Thalia paused and looked down. “You know what? There’s something else. It’s like, if I don’t hold these strings this tight, I might lose my grip and they’ll just float away. If I’m not holding on as tight as I can, I could fail.”

And there it was. Beneath the cloud cover of everyday concerns – the board, the cost of the product; Thalia’s partner’s parents’ golden anniversary – was the reason Thalia felt she couldn’t let go. Underneath it all was her belief system at work. If she didn’t hold on tight to each thread, she would lose control, and fail.

This is the power of inner work. By talking through our day-to-day concerns, we can uncover the mechanisms at work behind our thoughts, actions, and patterns. When we understand the mechanisms at work, we can begin to redirect our energies in ways that further our goals, rather than hold us back, and act with clarity.

For Thalia, uncovering her belief system was step one. “I can’t imagine letting go,” said Thalia, after our exercise, a little dismayed.

“But that’s great,” I said. “It’s time to celebrate! Those belief systems have done a great job. They’ve gotten you this far, right?” It’s only through understanding and appreciating our belief systems that we can fully grasp how they’ve worked. “Step two is taking what you’ve learned about your belief system and giving it a new job, like leveraging the people around you.”

And that’s what Thalia did. As we worked together, and as we began to address her underlying belief system, Thalia was able to see which issues she needed to attend to herself, and which were better left attended by her team. Space on her calendar and in her mind opened up so that she could actually enjoy the beautiful company she built and take her vision – and her company – to the next level.

When we gain internal clarity, the weather has a way of clearing up. To learn more about MettaWorks and what inner work can do you for you, read on here.

rachel-rider-bookRachel Rider founded MettaWorks in 2015 after a distinguished career in HR, receiving executive coaching certification from Columbia University, and extensive training in meditation, Somatic Experiencing, and Polarity Therapy. She is the author of Who You Are is How You Lead. 

Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!

It Takes Courage and Insight to End Workplace Bullying

/0 Comments/in , , , , /by

 

no to bullying

Many people in the workplace are suffering in silence. They are being bullied by abrasive bosses and they fear that if they let anyone know or complain, they will lose their jobs. There is hope.

Today’s guest post is by Dr. Laura Crawshaw, author of Grow Your Spine & Manage Abrasive Leadership Behavior (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

In this age of heightened awareness of inequality, bias, and bad behavior concerning sex, gender, race, age, and ethnicity, employers are increasingly required to provide psychologically safe workplaces characterized by respectful treatment. To do this, employers must be prepared to manage unacceptable conduct effectively.

Abrasive leaders (aka bosses who bully) can be enormously destructive, with management styles involving intimidation, overcontrol, emotional volatility, and inappropriate sexual, racial, and ethnic comments or behaviors. Their unacceptable conduct can wreak havoc on organizations, resulting in the alienation and attrition of valued employees, costly litigation, disrupted productivity, and loss of reputation.

What is the best way for management to tell a leader that their interpersonal conduct is unacceptable? What if they deny their leadership style is abrasive? How do you enlighten someone who is blind to the impact of their damaging words and behaviors?

Do you suffer from spinal paralysis when it comes to managing an abrasive leader? Are you unsure whether their behavior requires intervention? Are you afraid the individual will file a formal complaint against you or, worse, sue you? Do you believe you can intervene only if you’ve personally witnessed the behavior(s) or if the conduct is illegal? Are you waiting for an employee to file a formal complaint before you do anything? Have your employees concluded you’re spineless because you haven’t dealt with your abrasive leader, or even worse, that you actually condone the individual’s behavior?

Telling an abrasive leader to stop being abrasive is like telling a drowning person to start swimming. It’s accurate advice, but not particularly helpful because abrasive leaders see no need to change, and even if they do, they know no better way to achieve their objectives. You’ll encounter denial and defensiveness, with little or no conduct improvement.

Disrespect is the common denominator of all these abrasive behaviors. As one employee put it: “When you come to work, you leave your self-respect at the door and hope to pick it up on your way out.” Do you hear the pain in that statement? You, and only you, can stop this suffering. Anti-bullying laws and workplace civility policies won’t stop it. Management trainings won’t stop it. Bystanders can’t stop it. Human Resources staff don’t have the power to stop it. Only those who manage bosses who bully have the authority to intervene and stop this suffering. That’s you.

What does it take to motivate abrasive leaders to transform their management styles? It takes courageous intervention paired with psychological insight, otherwise known as Management Backbone. This backbone consists of these vertebrae:

1st Vertebra: I Am the Guardian of Our Mission & Employees

2nd Vertebra: My Responsibility to Promote & Defend

3rd Vertebra: Physical & Psychological Safety

4th Vertebra: I Determine Acceptable Performance & Conduct

5th Vertebra: I Monitor & Manage for Both

6th Vertebra: If I Don’t, Who Will? 7th Vertebra: My Perceptions Prevail

8th Vertebra: My Duty to Act on My Perceptions

All of these items are actionable and they serve as a guide to fixing abusive workplaces. And here’s the good news: most bosses who bully can change if their managers motivate them to transform their leadership styles using the correct strategy: management intervention.

Bottom line: Don’t excuse bad behavior in the workplace. Grow a spine, and get busy fixing it.

You can, and you must.

laura-crawshaw-bookDr. Laura Crawshaw has written two books and founded The Boss Whispering Institute, whose mission is to relieve suffering in the workplace caused by abrasive leaders through research and training.

Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!

11 Proven Ways to Build Rapport in Your Negotiations

/0 Comments/in , , , , , /by

two businesswomen talking

If you want better outcomes in your negotiations, you’ll want to master the skill of rapport-building. Here are 11 simple tips on how to do it.

Today’s guest post is by Cindy Watson, author of The Art of Feminine Negotiation: How to Get What You Want from the Boardroom to the Bedroom (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

If you want better outcomes in your negotiations, you’ll want to master the skill of rapport-building. Rapport is all about relationships: finding ways to make (rather than break) connections and build (rather than tear down) bridges. Building rapport diffuses potential tension as it creates a perceived shared frame of reference.

Rapport-building can be instantaneous, or it can take time to develop. It can grow naturally, or you can build it with intention. Some people seem to connect with others instantly. If you’re not one of those people, don’t panic. Contrary to popular belief, rapport-building isn’t an elusive gift you’re either born with or destined to do without.

There are many ways to build rapport in a negotiation. Here are 11 simple tips on how to do it.

  1. Be Yourself.

Being authentic will always be more effective than trying to adopt a persona that’s unnatural for you. A lack of authenticity undermines rapport; the other party will sense it, and this will erode trust.

As you practice the skills that build rapport (including those set out here), err on the side of being yourself. Don’t get stuck in your head or overthink how you’re going about it. If you do, you’ll lose your natural charisma in the process.

  1. Make a Good First Impression.

Study after study have shown that first impressions matter. We all have a visceral reaction to other people within seconds of meeting them. Invite a favorable reaction by getting yourself into a positive state of mind before you start the negotiation. Show up with an inviting posture, a genuine smile, and warmth in your eyes.

  1. Find Common Ground.

While you don’t want to jump straight to business, I’m not a fan of the often-cited advice, “Use small talk to create rapport.” Instead, try to find a common interest or connection. Find your shared humanity. That’s a much better place to start.

  1. Get Curious.

Most people like to talk about themselves. Researchers have found that people spend 60% of their conversations in “me mode.” When chatting on social media, this figure jumps to 80%.

Why not use these stats to your advantage? Show genuine interest in others. Discover what brings them joy. What are they passionate about? Get curious. Ask open questions. Stay genuinely engaged. Ask some variation of “tell me about yourself.” In doing so, you’ll build connection and rapport.

  1. Give a Compliment.

Find something you appreciate about the other person, and then acknowledge it. A genuine compliment can go a long way to kick-start rapport.

  1. Use the Person’s Name.

We all like to be seen. Make a point of calling the other person by name early in the conversation. It creates an immediate connection and familiarity.

A word to the wise: Be sure you have the person’s correct name. Nothing breaks rapport like mispronouncing someone’s name or, worse, calling them by the wrong name.

  1. Be Candid.

If you want to build rapport and trust, always be the person who tells the truth. Admit when you don’t know the answer to something. Acknowledge mistakes.

We often mistakenly believe these types of admissions will undermine our credibility when, in fact, the opposite is true. It humanizes us and makes us more relatable and trustworthy. Being honest builds rapport.

  1. Create Shared Experiences.

Spending time together and creating shared experiences outside the negotiation process can turbocharge the connection process. This doesn’t mean you have to set up a high ropes challenge or whitewater rafting adventure (both popular in today’s team-building culture). Simply pick an activity with the potential to create a meaningful connection.

  1. Mirror and Match.

When it’s appropriate, try to mirror and match the other person’s posture and language. But be careful and discreet about it. Otherwise, your actions will be jarring and break rapport.

A good starting place is to note the other party’s speech patterns, tone, tempo, and volume. Try to match these elements to increase the opportunity for connection.

  1. Gradually Increase Intimacy.

The more you create a personal connection, where the other party feels they know you and gets comfortable sharing with you, the more likely you’ll build the bond necessary for superior negotiated outcomes.

Gradually increasing intimacy by strategically sharing personal information can be powerful. Don’t, however, prematurely overshare and dump inappropriate private information.

  1. Inject Humor.

Humor is the ultimate cure-all and connection-builder. Laughter releases feel-good chemicals (endorphins) in our body, which open the way for better bonding.

Practice Makes Perfect

Get comfortable with these approaches so they become natural, and you’ll slip into rapport-building mode authentically.

For women who worry about their negotiation prowess, it’s worth noting that building rapport is typically regarded as a “feminine” trait. This isn’t surprising, as women were required to develop this skill in a world where, for too long, they enjoyed so few rights. Survival depended on becoming adept at developing relationships.

If you lose rapport at any point in a negotiation, don’t ignore the elephant in the room. Be humble. Address why you lost it. Take ownership where appropriate. Apologize if necessary. Get curious and determine how to get back on track.

By building better relationships, you’ll enjoy better negotiated outcomes.

cindy-watson-bookCindy Watson is the founder of Women on Purpose, a TEDx international speaker, and the award-winning author of the Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestseller The Art of Feminine Negotiation: How to Get What You Want from the Boardroom to the Bedroom. Learn more at ArtOfFeminineNegotiation.com.

Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!

Best Practices for Building a World Class Strategic Growth Plan  

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , /by

 

man using tablet

Learn ten best practices for creating a strategic growth plan for your organization.

Today’s guest post is by Mike Fata, author of Grow: 12 Unconventional Lessons for Becoming an Unstoppable Entrepreneur (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

A strategic growth plan is a crucial component of a company’s long-term success. It serves as a roadmap, guiding a business towards its goals by outlining objectives, strategies, and tactics. A well-constructed strategic growth plan enables businesses to navigate through market shifts, adapt to new trends, and capitalize on emerging opportunities.

This article will discuss the best practices for writing an effective business strategic growth plan, focusing on ten key points that will ensure your organization is set up for success.

Define your vision and mission

The first step in creating a strategic growth plan is to clearly define your company’s vision and mission. The vision statement should describe your long-term aspirations, while the mission statement should communicate the purpose of your business. These two elements will serve as the foundation for all subsequent decisions and actions.

Set SMART goals

Establish specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals to ensure your growth plan is realistic and effective. SMART goals are more likely to be reached and can be easily tracked and evaluated. Prioritize your goals based on their impact on the business and their alignment with your vision and mission.

Conduct a SWOT analysis

A SWOT analysis is an essential tool for identifying your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. By examining these factors, you can better understand your competitive landscape and capitalize on your strengths, while addressing your weaknesses. This will enable you to uncover new growth opportunities and create strategies to mitigate potential risks.

Identify your target market and segmentation

Knowing your target market is crucial to creating a tailored growth strategy. Identify the specific customer segments you want to focus on and analyze their needs, preferences, and pain points. This will allow you to develop products, services, and marketing strategies that resonate with your target audience, ultimately driving growth.

Analyze your competition

Understanding your competition is essential to maintaining a competitive edge. Assess their strengths, weaknesses, market positioning, and target audience. This information will allow you to identify gaps in the market, opportunities for differentiation, and potential threats that you need to address.

Develop a unique value proposition

A unique value proposition (UVP) is a clear and concise statement that communicates the benefits of your products or services, setting you apart from your competitors. Your UVP should address your target audience’s needs and preferences and showcase your company’s competitive advantages. Developing a strong UVP is critical to attracting and retaining customers, ultimately driving growth.

Create a marketing and sales strategy

Your marketing and sales strategy should outline the tactics you will employ to attract and convert customers, focusing on channels and messages that resonate with your target audience. Consider a mix of online and offline channels, such as social media, email marketing, content marketing, and events, to reach a wider audience. Align your sales and marketing efforts to ensure a seamless customer experience, and set performance metrics to track your progress.

Establish a financial plan

A robust financial plan is a cornerstone of a successful growth strategy. Outline your expected revenue streams, expenses, and investment requirements, and create financial projections for the next 3-5 years. This will enable you to identify potential financial risks and ensure your growth strategy is financially viable.

Implement an operational plan

Your operational plan should outline the processes, systems, and resources required to execute your growth strategy. This includes hiring and training new employees, implementing new technologies, and streamlining processes to improve efficiency. Regularly review and adjust your operational plan to ensure it remains aligned with your strategic objectives.

Monitor progress and make adjustments

Finally, it’s essential to continuously monitor your progress against your SMART goals and KPIs, adapting your strategies and tactics as needed. A properly scheduled cadence of formal review meetings (weekly, monthly and quarterly), along with standardized meeting agendas and reporting structure, will set you up for success.

mike fata book

Mike Fata is the Chief Executive Officer of Fata & Associates and the author of Grow: 12 Unconventional Lessons for Becoming an Unstoppable Entrepreneur. He is the co-Founder of Manitoba Harvest Hemp Foods and hosts the Founder to Mentor podcast. As a 9-figure entrepreneur, certified holistic health coach, and growth coach, he motivates and inspires people to discover their authentic business passions and live their best life every day.

Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!

The Inescapable Conundrums of Managing   

/2 Comments/in , , , , , /by

question marks

Management is a practice, not a profession or a science. To appreciate the true complexities of managing, we have to understand its intrinsic conundrums.

Today’s guest post is by Henry Mintzberg, author of Understanding Organizations…Finally! – Structuring in Sevens (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

Management is a practice, not a profession or a science. It is learned largely through experience, which means that it’s primarily a craft, although some of the best managers make considerable use of art. They also use some science, in the form of analysis, but nowhere near as much as in the professions of, say, medicine and engineering. And that’s a good thing: the overuse of analysis, especially an obsessive reliance on measurement, gets in the way of effective managing.

Watch a manager at work, or step back from practicing management yourself, and you can begin to appreciate the wide variety of things that managers do. They champion change, join projects, handle disturbances, do deals. Managing is collaborating and controlling, doing and dealing, thinking and leading, and more — not added up, but blended together.

All this can be seen to happen on three planes — information, people, and action. On the information plane, managers gather and disseminate information to help their people take action. On the people plane, they lead insiders to function more effectively and link to outsiders for the benefit of the organization. And on the action plane, managers do and deal: internally, doing means engaging in projects and handling disturbances; externally, it means doing deals with outsiders — such as suppliers, funders, and partners.

All this creates enough complexity in and of itself, but to appreciate the true complexities of managing, we have to understand its intrinsic conundrums. A conundrum is some problem that cannot be resolved, although it can be alleviated. Here are eight of them that managers face:

  1. The predicament of planning. This is perhaps the most basic of 
all the conundrums, the plague of every manager. How to plan, strategize, just plain think, let alone think ahead, in such a hectic job? Put differently, how to get in deep when there is so much pressure to get it done?
  2. The quandary of connecting. How to keep informed—in contact, “in touch”—when managing by its very nature is removed from the very thing being managed? Yesterday you were transplanting kidneys, today you are managing others who are transplanting kidneys.
  3. The labyrinth of decomposition. The world of organizations is chopped into pieces — departments and divisions, products and services, programs and budgets, vertical silos and horizontal slabs. Managers are supposed to oversee and integrate this whole confusing affair. So, where are they to find synthesis in this world so decomposed by analysis?
  4. The mysteries of measuring. How often have you heard that “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” The trouble is that many of the most important things to be managed, such as culture and innovation, even management itself, don’t lend themselves to easy measurement. Hence, how to manage what you can’t rely on measuring?
  5. The dilemma of delegating. Managers who are well connected receive a great deal of information, much of it informal — opinion, hearsay, even gossip — all of which can be very useful. (What would you prefer: to find out in a sales report that you have lost your biggest customer, or to hear a rumor that this customer is thinking of taking its business elsewhere?) Thus, how is the manager to delegate when so much of their information is personal, oral, and often privileged?
  6. The ambiguity of acting. When a manager delays making a decision to better understand a situation, everyone else can be held back from acting. But leaping to action without adequate consideration can be even more dangerous. How, then, to act decisively in a complicated, nuanced world, somewhere between paralysis by analysis and extinction by instinct?
  7. The riddle of change. Constant change can be as dysfunctional as no change. How to manage change when there is the need to maintain continuity?
  8. The clutch of confidence. Managing requires confidence: who wants to be managed by someone afraid of the future? But is this any better than a manager who always acts fearlessly? Accordingly, how to maintain a sufficient level of confidence without crossing over into arrogance?

How can any manager possibly deal with all these conundrums concurrently? The answer: by facing them, to alleviate their worst effects. If each can be seen as a tightrope, then to manage is to walk through a multidimensional space on all kinds of tightropes: managers have to get the balance right. These conundrums are not distractions; they are managing!

mintzberg bookHenry Mintzberg is a Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at McGill University in Montreal, the winner of awards from the most prestigious academic and practitioner institutions in management (Harvard Business Review, Academy of Management, Association of Management Consulting Firms, and others), and the recipient of 21 honorary degrees from around the world. He is the author or coauthor of 21 books. His latest book is Understanding Organizations…Finally! – Structuring in Sevens (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Feb. 7, 2023). Learn more at mintzberg.org.   

Excerpted from the book, Simply Managing, and applied in the book Understanding Organizations…Finally! – Structuring in Sevens.  

Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!

How Organizations Get Employee Engagement Wrong

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , /by

 

employees working

Employees now expect more. Employee engagement is key to success for most organizations. If we understand the typical and recurring mistakes made in this field, we can predict and prevent them happening to us.

Today’s guest post is by Frank Devine, author of RAPID MASS ENGAGEMENT: Driving Continuous Improvement Through Employee Culture Creation (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

The Roll-out Assumption

During a visit to one of the sites where my Rapid Mass Engagement (RME) process had been implemented, a group of senior visitors toured the site guided by a shop-floor employee who outlined the new high-performance culture. The visitors could see and feel the culture and were impressed by the ‘Behavioral Standards’ – behaviorally specific standards designed to make accountability both easy and transparent developed from employee data and created by employees. One of the visitors informed the guide that they were going to take these away and ‘roll them out’ in the visitors’ own organization.

The employee guide looked deflated and when asked why, explained:

“If you think you can roll these out, I have not explained properly how they were created … and who owns them.”

This roll-out assumption is common. In one site the employees added the following to the organization’s Behavioral Standards:

“Warning: attempts to apply these standards without the process that created them will only disappoint.”

Ownership matters and creates discretionary effort and engagement, and anything rolled-out, by definition, is not owned by those on the receiving end.

Engagement without Enablement

Imagine you do what it takes to create a highly engaged workforce, but employees then crash into overcautious and inflexible legacy systems. Our HR and Quality policies, how we recruit and promote, how early we involve end-users in the design of equipment and software can all be designed to maximize enablement, but frequently suffer from producer capture.

Failing to quickly and systematically align systems to your nascent emerging culture, will mean you have highly engaged employees, but working for another organization.

Squashing Ownership, Solution Space and Discretionary Effort with Unnecessary Standardization

Western universities and organizations dominate thinking and research in areas such as leadership and engagement. In addition, our understanding of improvement science (Lean/Six Sigma, etc., however described) means we first create standards before attempting to improve them.

Why is this a problem? I have seen many examples of corporate functions specifying the color, the size, even the font to be used in visual management.

Why do we think corporate knows best? Why carelessly disregard the mountain of goodwill, ownership and discretionary effort available by letting a thousand flowers bloom, by encouraging local people to create their own?

If you have multiple locations worldwide, allow each to design their own approaches to visual management or, as in the example above, how they codify and articulate their high-performance culture. Give them the maximum solution space and they will fill it with locally resonant and authentic words owned by the employees concerned.

Naïve Engagement

I often hear comments such as “no-one comes to work to do a bad job.” The danger is when this is followed by a logical leap such as “all we have to do is empower our teams and they will do a great job.”

In corporate life, I designed the training for CarnaudMetalbox’s Self-Directed Work Teams (called ‘Autonomous Manufacturing Teams’ in French); the key was ensuring clearly defined scope and responsibilities.

If we create a power vacuum the only thing that is certain is that the power vacuum will be filled. The hope is that a highly motivated self-directed work team will always fill this vacuum, but that cannot be relied upon. It some cases this naïve assumption led to systematic restriction of output, bullying and abuse of vulnerable employees.

Random outcomes are the opposite of high performance. Some of my work comes from helping readdress the damage caused by such policy failures which ignore everything we have learned from FMEA and Human Factors in other contexts.

Timid Engagement: Wishing the Ends without Willing the Means

An executive from a global organization who had visited a RME site contacted me.

He told me he was very impressed by the culture he had experienced on the site and the impact on quality, customer service and productivity and he wanted that for his organization.

We discussed what was involved in creating such a high-performance culture and his enthusiasm declined rapidly. This is common.

This was one of many examples of people willing the ends without the will to enact the means necessary to achieve those ends.

In the senior team diagnostic workshops that are the 1st stage of RME, it is common for at least some of the senior team to imagine that transformational outputs can be achieved with conventional ‘safe’ inputs; they can’t.

Shiny and New

I have worked with tens of thousands of employees in highly participative workshops where, in the early stages of culture change, cynicism about ‘management’ is common. Employees often tell me of an interesting coping mechanism. Having experienced a high turnover of senior leaders and initiatives they advise their peers to smile at the new leaders and make encouraging noises. They go on to say “this initiative won’t last very long and then another shiny and new initiative will be launched that we can give superficial commitment to! It seems to make them happy.”

Why exhaust yourself launching and re-launching initiatives top-down when it is possible to gain employee ownership of change and culture from the bottom-up. This will maintain the humor but also create and sustain meaningful change!

rapid mass engagement bookFrank Devine, author of RAPID MASS ENGAGEMENT: Driving Continuous Improvement Through Employee Culture Creation, founder of Accelerated Improvement, Ltd., specializes in creating a High Performance continuous improvement culture from the bottom-up.

For more information please visit https://www.acceleratedimprovement.co.uk/

Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!

What if the future of our businesses depends upon our ability to be un-business-like?

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , /by

Why are memorial services celebrating the life of a loved one who has passed always convened around candlelight, music, and poetry and not around bright lights, PowerPoint presentations and spreadsheets?

Today’s guest post is by Dr. Robert H. Lengel, author of A Place For T: Giving Voice To The Tortoise In Our Hare-Brained World (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

Why are memorial services celebrating the life of a loved one who has passed or that bring communities of diverse people together after a tragedy like a human-caused tragedy or natural disaster always convened around candlelight, music, and poetry and not around bright lights, PowerPoint presentations, and spreadsheets? Memorial services are meetings around the most significant emotional and spiritual events in our lives – not about budgets or cost overruns that seem insignificant in comparison. They serve to help people who might or might not know each other find a sense of presence with change and hold hands to risk moving forward. Change always involves grieving the death of something old and mustering the courage to accept the birth of something new. I think it’s time to shed some new light on how we meet to achieve change.

Nothing would be more un-business-like than convening a business meeting in candlelight with music and poetry and nothing would be less human-like than convening a memorial service in bright lights with agendas, charts, and graphs. We need to recognize that not all meetings are the same. I think there is a practical business lesson here – at times our task requires us to be impractical and un-business-like. Those times are turning points in the life of an organization when change, creativity, and innovation become a survival necessity and people need to support each other as human beings in changing themselves.

The lesson is simple. Organizations exist at two levels of reality. The most obvious surface level represents the brightly lit performance stage on which human beings act out their defined roles. It consists of structures, organization charts, systems, goals, regulations, policies, plans, and job descriptions. These elements are visible and difficult to ignore in our day-to-day work. There is a deeper underlying level of reality, however, that is only visible in candlelight. That fragile flame reflects the spirit of loving, compassionate, forgiving, respectful, and collaborative human beings conscious of their common mortality and their insignificance in the face of the night sky. Any change strategy is more likely to be effective if we could work with these human beings and not the entrenched role players who have a stake in the status quo.

We look more like each other in candlelight than we do in the roles we play under the bright stage lights in the conference room. In this light, people are more open to change and ready to support each other in risking it. Issues like trust, poor communications, broken relationships, lack of employee engagement and buy-in, and leadership development are barriers to change that are amplified in bright light and defused in candlelight. These barriers are surface-level issues that can only be addressed at the deeper level of organizational reality. To prepare people to transcend these barriers and achieve real and sustainable change, it is necessary to reveal them as human beings beneath their business suits. Shouldn’t our meetings about change topics be more like memorial services that invite emotional and spiritual presence than agenda-controlled and facilitated meetings that intentionally deny that presence?

We need to better appreciate the effect of how we illuminate our meeting places. For decades I have been experimenting with ways to bring the spirit of candlelight into meetings where it makes sense to do so. I have just published a book entitled A Place for T: Giving Voice to the Tortoise in Our Hare-Brained World where I share my learnings. My book launch events communicate my message with a simple experience. I begin my presentation in a brightly lit room with shuttered windows. On a table in front of the room, I have lit candles. After a short PowerPoint introduction, I shut down my computer, turn out the room lights, play reflective music, and let my audience sit in silence before I continue. Now those flickering flames become the focus of attention. Then I ask them to share what they experienced with the change in lighting. They naturally get it and awaken to the deeper level of reality without me lecturing to them.

Our human consciousness is mirrored in those candle flames. They awaken the human being within us. People who sometimes feel lost, unappreciated, and alone in the roles they play, sense a call home to what they really care about. Now I can talk to an audience that is prepared to be intimately connected to what I have to say and prepared to engage in meaningful dialogue. Isn’t this what organizational leaders really want – to have employees who are intimately connected to what they have to say and fully engaged? But I fear these leaders are a bit afraid of the darkness and don’t trust what might emerge.

Lack of trust might be the biggest barrier to change. If you want trust, then trust. Creating candle lit meeting places challenges leaders to let go of the need to control and trust the natural capacities of employees to do what is right and good for the organization. As I look back on my experiences, I have developed a much greater appreciation for the potential inherent in the natural emergence of change as a product of learning and for the natural emergence of leaders as needed. In their busy lives, employees might have forgotten how to talk to each other, what conditions they need to learn together, and how to lead in their own way. But if the lighting is not blinding them to the fragile candle flame, they will help each other naturally remember that they already know these things. I have seen this emergence happen too often to ignore it. We just need to create the meeting conditions, a meeting place, that invites the conversations we need to have, not the ones we assume we should have. The most critical condition might be how the ‘place’ is illuminated. I think senior leaders need to muster the courage to occasionally turn down the house lights and risk being un-business-like in candlelight. We all look better in candlelight.

lengel bookDr. Robert H. Lengel is Associate Professor emeritus at the University of Texas at San Antonio, president of the consulting firm LeaderWork Inc., and author of the new book A Place For T: Giving Voice To The Tortoise In Our Hare-Brained World. He holds a BS and MS in aerospace engineering, an MBA, and a PhD that blended oceanography, environmental management, leadership and organizational dynamics in business. For more information, please visit www.APlaceForT.com

Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!

Four Powerful Mindset Shifts To Help You Conquer Love, Overcome Death, And Succeed In Business

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , /by

thinking window

These four mindset shifts can help you create winning strategies in both your business life and your personal life.

Today’s guest post is by Alex Brueckmann, author of Secrets of Next-Level Entrepreneurs (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

Sitting on the balcony of our apartment in New Westminster, Canada, I hold my baby boy and reflect on the past few months. After everything that happened, I’m amazed that I made it through without breaking down mentally. I recall founding a new business while my girlfriend navigated a challenging pregnancy, and my father fought terminal cancer.

My emotions were erratic, and I felt pulled in different directions, trying to be present for my girlfriend, dad, mom, and clients all at the same time. Things spiraled downward, and my father passed away shortly before the birth of my son. I was overcome by a mix of grief and joy, and at the same time, we relocated from Germany to Canada amidst the start of a global pandemic.

This was in the Spring of 2020, and I realized that a few mindset shifts helped me navigate these challenging months. Adjusting your mindset allows you to focus on thinking smarter, more complex, with more ingenuity, and finding multiple paths to success. Let’s explore four mindset shifts that will help you succeed.

Embrace JOMO, because YOLO

The first shift is from FOMO to JOMO. The fear of missing out is that feeling when everyone around you is raving about a new artist, and you feel like the only one who hasn’t heard of them. But you buy tickets, just in case, because everyone else is doing it, and you don’t want to miss out.

If we allow fear to drive our decisions, we waste our biggest asset, our attention, on things that don’t matter. In business, this can lead to poor job performance, lack of career advancement, or even job loss. On a corporate level, FOMO can lead to “me-too” strategies, with companies copying whatever their competition does first. However, success comes from clarity, direction, and differentiation, not copying others.

To shift from FOMO to JOMO, the joy of missing out, we need to define our priorities in life and business. Writing them down helps us crystallize our thinking, understand what matters to us, and how we can achieve our goals. This becomes our go-to resource for decision-making, as we evaluate opportunities based on whether they help us reach our goals.

Overcoming Perfectionism with Speed and Agility

The second mindset shift is moving away from perfectionism and towards speed and agility. As a strategy facilitator, my role is to assist businesses in achieving their future goals. When clients ask me how long it takes to create the perfect business strategy, I tell them the truth: it’s impossible to achieve perfection. We can align a business around an 80 percent strategy and leave the remaining 20 percent for uncertainty. This gives us enough direction to get started and make progress.

In business and personal situations, we must be able to adapt quickly when unexpected events occur. When COVID-19 first hit, we had to decide: wait it out, or pull our relocation to Canada forward, and move within days. Our perfectly planned relocation had to make space for a new reality: we acted swiftly and learned as we navigated the uncertainty of moving to a new continent under lockdown conditions. Prioritizing speed and agility over perfectionism will help you move forward, learn from mistakes, and succeed over time.

From Scarcity to Abundance Thinking

The third mindset shift is from scarcity to abundance. In business, an abundance mindset is crucial for creating a winning strategy. It’s about exploring possibilities, curiosity, and daring to dream. It’s about creating hope. Allowing ourselves to be in an abundance mindset will bring about new perspectives, thoughts, and discussions that were previously unclear to us because we listen deeply and build on each other’s creativity.

Abundance also helped me deal with the emotional rollercoaster in 2020. While I traditionally dealt with my emotions by myself, I wanted to seek out additional resources this time. It might sound obvious, but my next move was a sign that I was starting to embrace an abundance mindset. I reached out to a psychologist. As an additional resource in my life, she helped me sort the emotions and embrace both joy of being a dad, while still mourning the loss of my own father.

From Fixed to Growth Mindset

The last shift is from a fixed to a growth mindset. Instead of thinking in limited terms and absolutes, a growth mindset allows us to see mistakes as learning opportunities. Instead of thinking “I failed” or “I’ll never make it,” we can find new ways of doing things and try something different without giving up. When I was younger, I had a fixed mindset, and I struggled with understanding many things. However, I realized I could do something about it and became an avid reader and embraced learning to overcome my fixed mindset.

Instead of making statements and trying to fit things into what we already know, we should ask questions like “What am I missing?” or “How could I use this negative experience and turn it into something positive?” In a growth mindset, we understand that nothing is too hard. By adding perspective and time, we can figure things out, even if we don’t know how at first.

Making Mindset Shifts Happen

How can we implement these mindset shifts in our lives and where would they be most useful? Adam Grant, a leading organizational psychologist, suggests two concepts: challenge networks and confident humility.

A challenge network is a group of people around us who can disagree with us in a constructive way, providing honest feedback without being aggressive. They help us question our assumptions, identify blind spots, and counterbalance potential weaknesses in our thinking. By building a reliable challenge network, we can tackle speed and agility in execution and learning.

Confident humility is having faith in our capabilities while appreciating that we may not have the right solution or may not be addressing the right problem. It involves having enough doubt to re-examine our old knowledge and enough confidence to pursue new insights.

Implementing these mindset shifts can have a significant impact on our lives. Embracing JOMO helped me avoid distractions in business and prioritize what mattered, resulting in more quality time with my family. Adopting an abundance mindset allowed me to see options that would have otherwise been invisible when starting a new business. A growth mindset helped me rise to the challenge of being a first-time dad in my mid-40s. Finally, speed and agility helped us avoid overthinking and instead move to Canada, even under the most challenging circumstances.

To implement these mindset shifts, we need to have faith in our capabilities while being open to new insights. By doing so, we can transform hopes and dreams into reality and create winning strategies in both business and our personal lives.

next level bookAlex Brueckmann is the founder and CEO of Brueckmann Executive Consulting, and the author of “Secrets of Next-Level Entrepreneurs” and “The Strategy Legacy” (Fall 2023). He is a keynote speaker at the intersection of business strategy, leadership, and empowerment. Brueckmann is an alumnus of EBS European Business School (Germany), and holds certificates in change management, leadership, finance, organizational development, and strategy from INSEAD (France), and Harvard Business School (USA).

For more information please visit www.AlexBrueckmann.com

Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!

Our Course Offerings

Leadership Skills

Creating Your Leadership Maxims
Leading Inside the Box
Leading With Influence
Leading Through Change
Structured Problem Solving
Deliberate Decision Making
High Performing Teams
Simplified Strategic Planning
Strategic Business Planning
Coaching for Impact: Foundations
Coaching for Impact: Applications
Building Leadership Resilience
Engagement Management
Project Management Reality

Communication Skills

Communications: Foundations
Communications: Applications
Principles of Chart Design
Strategic Client Engagement
Storytelling for Leaders
Storytelling for Salespeople
Compelling Executive Presence
Advanced Facilitation Skills

Individual Skills

Conflict Resolution
Everything is Negotiable
thoughtLEADERSHIP: Innovation
Building Personal Resilience
Time Management Mastery

Coaching & Consulting