If you'd prefer to skip to The Bottom Line, please scroll all the way down. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy the entire post.

A little over a month ago, I renewed my commitment to my health and wellness and decided to not let good be the enemy of great, as Jim Collins puts in in his book, Good to Great! I set some goals in terms of my exercise program and the tweaks I needed to make in my diet and I set out to make it happen. I am happy to report that I have been consistently following my program and I feel great about resisting the temptation to go back to my old ways—as I have done many times in the past—but that doesn’t mean I haven’t had my share of challenges! One such challenge and defining moment is what gave me the inspiration for this week’s post.

It was about two weeks after starting my new regimen that I decided to get on the scale to see just how much progress I had made. I had resisted the urge to do so for a couple of weeks, but that day, I figured I might as well because I could use a little encouragement that I was indeed making good progress and everything that I was doing was worth the trouble. Unfortunately, that didn’t turn out to be a great idea as my bathroom scale seemed to be having a bad day! We have one of those solar-powered digital scales, so you have to turn the light on in the walk-in closet where we keep the scale and wait a few minutes for it to charge. I did that with anticipation and couldn’t wait to get on it, only to find out that the thing was malfunctioning! It was showing that I had actually gained two pounds instead of losing a few as I thought I had. At first, I couldn’t believe it. I got off the scale, repositioned it because I thought maybe it wasn’t getting enough light or the floor was uneven, then carefully stepped on again, this time making sure that I didn’t make any sudden moves that would confuse the scale, only to see the exact same dreaded number pop up again!

To say I was disappointed would be a huge understatement! I mean here I was, so proud of myself for having followed my plan. All those hours on the treadmill and all the desserts I skipped and the late night snacks I went without and this is what I get? It had been two whole weeks! Surely, I should have seen some results by now!? In an instant, I went from being totally enthusiastic about following through with my commitment to health and fitness to wondering if I would have even gained any more than the two pounds, had I been indulging in a few Twinkies every day and trading the treadmill for the couch this whole time! The moments after having the sudden realization that my efforts had not yielded the desired results were not fun. I felt the powerful urge to give up so strongly because I figured all was lost and there was no hope. I would never get in shape and no matter what I did it wasn’t going to work!

It was a strange feeling because, on the one hand, it felt like the agony of defeat and on the other hand, there was the sweet taste of victory in finding some justification that I no longer needed to work so hard because I had evidence that it was pointless to do so anyhow. Two whole week’s worth of evidence! So I did what I always do when I’m in my head. I reluctantly shared what I was thinking with my wife, knowing well that she was going to talk some sense into me, and that she did. She reminded me of all the things that I preach and teach and nudged me back on track.

Has anything similar ever happened to you? You set out to achieve a goal and pursued it with enthusiasm only to be disappointed by your expectations having not been met at some point along the way? Isn’t it interesting that when we get going in a positive direction, we want instant gratification and immediate positive results, and when we have had some bad habits for years, we are surprised at how quickly they produced negative results? I can go on eating junk food for years and be shocked at how quickly I gained weight and be on a diet for two weeks and wonder what is taking so long for the weight to come off!

How we react and what we do in those defining moments when the results are not as promising as we expected them to be is what sets Transformative Leaders apart from others.

Transformative Leaders act according to their commitments, not their attachments. In my case, my commitment is to lead a healthy lifestyle. My attachment is the number I see on the scale or just how far or how fast I can run or how I look. Acting according to my attachments is conditional based on my expectations being met, but if I continue to focus on my commitment regardless of what the scoreboard says, I will stay in action and eventually get the results. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not minimizing the value of keeping an eye on the results to determine where you stand and whether or not you need to adjust your strategy. That is absolutely necessary in every transformative journey. What I’m talking about is the obsession with the scoreboard that diminishes your energy and enthusiasm and unnecessarily diverts your attention to worry and fear, rather than the focused effort concomitant with any transformative vision to which you have committed yourself.

I run into this challenge often and have to constantly catch myself to make sure I’m focusing on my commitment. One example of something I have to watch out for is when I hold leadership development sessions. It is not unusual for the participants to come into the session a bit skeptical and sit with their arms crossed as if to say, “This had better be good!” I’m used to that and I usually don’t let it bother me, because my commitment to them experiencing a transformation is so much bigger than my attachment to the fear of evidence of that not happening. It does help to have seen hundreds of people walk out of my sessions completely energized and ready to get in action.

Having said that, I have to say I had an experience recently that almost messed with my head and threw me off. I say “almost” because I hung in there and boy am I glad I did. In a four-hour class that I conducted recently, I had one gentleman who maintained a very disgruntled look on his face the entire time, and absolutely refused to even crack a polite smile at my jokes and rebuffed my attempts to get him to loosen up a bit. I could clearly imagine what was going on in his head—according to the voice in my head, that is—and it wasn’t good. I took it as a challenge to get through to him and have him experience a transformation and I absolutely refused to give up. By the end of the session, however, I was convinced that while everybody else was completely energized, I had failed to reach this particular participant. As I was packing my computer and gathering my notes, he came around to the front with the same serious look on his face and I was very ready to hear him tell me how he thought the entire session had been a waste of his time. To my surprise, however, he held his hand out to shake mine, and he went on to tell me in a very genuine and authentic manner how much he enjoyed the session and how he picked up so many insights that are going to be extremely helpful to him, personally and professionally. I was taken aback because in my mind, and according to all the evidence on the “scoreboard,” I had made no contribution to him and wasn’t making any progress in getting through to him. But, luckily, I was proven wrong and I was so glad that I didn’t get discouraged and write him off along the way.

Commitment and Progress

This story and the story of my health plan illustrates some instructive truths about progress when it comes to transformative journeys. More often than not, the progress that is being made will not be visible to you, but that doesn’t mean no progress is being made. Sometimes this is because a transformation requires an initial time investment to pick up steam and gain traction. Consider the example of the Chinese bamboo tree, which shows virtually no sign of any growth in the first four years when it is planted and then in the fifth year, it grows by 80 feet in just six weeks. When it comes to something like health, unless we have some specific ailment that can be dramatically improved by a specific therapy, we will have to invest considerable time and effort on the front-end before we start seeing benefits. This is something we tacitly understand in some areas, since we don’t, for instance, buy bigger clothes every week we go to the gym in anticipation of our muscles growing dramatically with each weight lifting session. It would be ridiculous to expect such dramatic improvement in such a short time, and the bigger your transformative vision is, the less realistic it is to expect immediate and obvious results.

In other cases, it may simply be a fact that even after we have put in the time and effort on the front-end, our progress never seems to ever dramatically improve at all. This is because the truth is that we rarely ever feel this more uniform type of progress being made in real-time, whether physically or mentally, simply because it is so gradual and we are so close to it. To give an example, think of how many times you have ever felt your body growing or noticed yourself becoming wiser. I don’t mean times that you noticed that those things had happened, but times that you noticed them happening in the moment. Heck, think of how many times you have actually seen grass grow or paint dry. You can’t, can you? But you certainly don’t deny that those things have happened and are happening, right? Of course not!

The fact is, the only way we ever notice this subtler kind of progress happening is when we take the time to look for it in the past while standing in the present, and acknowledge the progress that happened to get us from where we once were to where we are now. You don’t ever notice yourself growing until one day you stop and look back and say to yourself, “Look how much I changed since then. I used to be so small/inexperienced/weak, but I never gave up and that’s why I’m where I am today.”

This being the case, what can we do to maintain our resolve to keep going even in the face of what seems to be little or no progress?

The first thing that I would suggest, and which I mention in One Point Lesson #20 of my book, is taking the process of looking back to the past to see how much progress we have made so far and extending it into the future. What I mean by this is, instead of looking back on the past from the present, imagine that you are living in the desired future you have set out to create and looking back from there to what is now the present. Fully immerse yourself in the feeling of accomplishment and peace that your future self must be enjoying, having already achieved whatever goal it is that you are currently out to achieve. Can you imagine it and feel it? Now, imagine that you have become your accomplished future self in the present, imagine that you have achieved your health or fitness goals, or that you have a wonderful relationship with your significant other, or that your performance and fulfillment at your workplace is right where you want it to be. If that were the case, wouldn’t you want to keep things that way? If you were already fit and healthy, wouldn’t you do things to keep yourself being fit and healthy? If you already had a wonderful relationship with your partner, wouldn’t you take actions to keep it that way? Of course! Then all you have to do is envision yourself as already having what you want and act in a manner consistent with maintaining it. By acting as if you were already where you wanted to be, you allow your designed future to transform your present in a virtuous self-fulfilling prophecy.

The second suggestion that I would offer is simply to trust the process. What I mean by that is that we live in a world governed by cause and effect, and there are certain actions we know that will always produce certain results. The truth is, if you let go of a glass vase, it will fall and shatter when it hits the ground, whether you believe that will happen or not. If you touch a hot flame, you will get burned whether you understand why or not. When it comes to making progress and creating transformation, the exact same rules apply, albeit in ways that we may not be able to perceive as easily. The very fact that we may not be privy to the inner workings of these processes is not a reason to distrust them, but rather a reason to trust in the process despite their obscurity. The truth is, whatever practice and hard work you do will pay off eventually, whether you know it or not and whether you recognize it or not. In fact, it is more precisely true to say that whatever work you are doing right now is already paying off, because, when you choose the action, you have already chosen the consequence. Or, as the Zen master Dōgen put it, “Cause is not before and effect is not after.” Have faith in the process, commit yourself to it fully, and the results will work themselves out. As long as you are moving in the right direction, you will eventually get to where you want to be.

The Bottom Line

In every transformative journey, there are plenty of those moments that can derail us or strengthen our resolve to keep going. The choice is yours. No matter what challenges you are dealing with right now, you can choose to shift your focus to your commitments and let go of your attachments. You may not be able to quiet the noise in your head that keeps reminding you that your efforts are futile. If you suspect that there is a need to revisit your strategies, by all means, be intentional about looking at your options and engage a coach to help you see things clearly. But whatever you do, don’t give in to the notion that just because you have not yet seen the results you thought you should have, you should stop and forget about it. It is true that we cannot feel progress subtly being made—indeed, it is not clear that progress feels like anything at all—but we must always take care not to confuse how we feel with the way things actually are. In fact, when it comes to your transformative journey, you can measure your progress by just how infrequently you preoccupy yourself with doing so. Most stories with a happy ending don’t feel like that along the way. So hang in there and enjoy the ride, envisioning yourself in the designed future you are out to create.

(Since this post was inspired by my own fitness efforts, I wanted to link an article on Olympian athletes explaining how the best ones embody this commitment mentality vs. the attachment mentality. I did post this on social media previously, but I would like to offer it here again for anyone who missed it: What Separates Champions from Almost Champions)

Have a great week! May you Boldly Declare, Courageously Pursue, and Abundantly Achieve the Extraordinary! As always, I would love to hear about your victories and/or challenges. Please leave your comments below or send me an email at amir@theghannadgroup.com.

Copyright © 2016 The Ghannad Group, LLC, All Rights Reserved.

Leadership development has grown into a $360+ billion industry globally. Yet, according to a study quoted in the Harvard Business Review, the majority of efforts fail to yield anywhere near the results implied by such huge revenues and investments.

The HBR article offers a tentative explanation for this strange phenomenon, namely that “corporations [have been] victims of the great training robbery.” The article elaborates on this point by stating that “American companies spend enormous amounts of money on employee training and education […] but they are not getting a good return on their investment. For the most part, the learning doesn’t lead to better organizational performance, because people soon revert to their old ways of doing things.”

Based on decades of leadership experience, I can only say: I’m not at all surprised! During my career—both as a leader and as one being led—I have seen far too many false starts and ill-fated attempts at training and development as a result of organizations merely going through the motions to check a box. I have also seen well-intentioned leaders do everything they know to do, with the best of intentions to develop leadership capability in their people, only to see little to no sustainable behavior changes or shifts in their results.

Based on current trends, it seems almost as if training and development are doomed to forever be a futile waste of time and money. Even worse, the lack of return on investment will go on to perpetuate a self-fulfilling prophecy and vicious cycle where training and development don’t deliver results, resulting in less investment in such efforts, leading to further lackluster results, and so on. Let me assure you, however, that things don’t have to be this way!

The good news is that the solution, in many cases, does not require a major overhaul of existing programs. Traditional leadership development can be useful in many ways as long as it is delivered and received in the right context. Based on my experience leading countless successful leadership development and culture transformation efforts, that proper context has the 3 key characteristics that I am going briefly explain in this article.

1.     Leadership Development must be done in the context of accomplishing something extraordinary.

"People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things."

- Edmund Hillary

The metaphor I’d like to use to explain what I mean is the distinction between general fitness and training to win the gold medal in a particular sport. While there are fundamental fitness strategies that everyone would benefit from, when an Olympic athlete sets out to win a gold medal, they don’t just aimlessly work out. They focus on developing specific skills and gaining strength in very specific ways that serve them in achieving their specific goal. Leadership development works the same way. While everyone would benefit from developing a set of fundamental skills, breakthroughs can only be achieved when the person sets their sights on achieving something extraordinary. It is only then that they will be most effective at developing themselves into the kind of person who can achieve those goals.

This is the framework in which I conduct all of my leadership development and culture transformation work, both for organizations and individuals, and it has been phenomenally successful in every industry and locality in which it has been implemented, all over the world. If you’re curious about this approach and interested in taking it for a test drive yourself, I encourage you to check out our newly released e-course “Unlocking Your Transformative Potential.”

2.     Tools and skills are necessary, but the secret to making them work for you is in understanding what’s in the way of putting them to use…and then getting it out of the way!

Informative training – that is mastery of relevant tools and skills – is a necessary step in becoming an effective leader, but it is not sufficient. Transformative training – discovering what is in the way of progress and learning how to move it out of the way – is what’s needed if one aims to get the most out of those tools and skills and become a truly transformative leader. In the video below, I introduce a simple metaphor of driving on the highway to demonstrate how the “Hidden Saboteurs of Success and Fulfillment” work against us as long as we remain unaware of them, and how awareness alone is often all it takes for us to dramatically improve our performance.

If this resonates with you and you believe you, or your organization, could benefit from adopting this approach to training and development, I would urge you to check out our soon-to-be-released e-course “Discovering the Transformative Leader Within.” This e-course represents the first time the content of one of my most popular workshops for private clients has been made available to the public, and we are very excited about individuals and teams being able to complete the powerful experience at their own pace.

3.     Leadership development must start with the individual adopting the mindset that they are fully committed to a purpose greater than themselves.

“I am the one and It’s not about me!” – Amir Ghannad

When a leader takes full responsibility for the results they are committed to delivering, AND they get that their efforts or their results are not about them, only then are they able to discover the Transformative Leader within. It is through mastery of this paradox and constantly practicing the right balance of what Jim Collins refers to as “professional tenacity and personal humility” that leaders become the best version of themselves.

The leadership development programs that we conduct at The Ghannad Group are designed to create holistic experiences for our participants, but as I mentioned earlier, your existing programs can also be transformed if you evaluate them against the characteristics described above and make the necessary adjustments. If that sounds like something you would be interested in pursuing, I have some guidance below.

Ask yourself the following questions and act on the answers:

• Do we do leadership training and coaching in hopes that it will pay off someday, or are we intentional about persuading the participants to practice what they learn in the course of delivering extraordinary results?

• Do we only arm people with tools and skills, or do we also engage them in the practice of developing self-awareness so they can see what is holding them back from being the best versions of themselves as leaders?

• What are we doing to cultivate the right mindset in leaders such that they are willing and able to accept the personal accountability of being a leader and yet not make everything mean something about themselves?

If you’d like to take on the challenge of overhauling your existing leadership development programs or just starting fresh from the ground up, or if you simply just don’t know where to start, feel free to reach out to me and I’d be more than happy to offer my perspective based on over 3 decades of experience. Simply comment on this post, send me a direct message or email me at amir@theghannadgroup.com.

The lessons I learned about integrity didn't come from reading books or hearing about other people's experiences. I learned them through my own costly mistakes.

I had a long career in the restaurant business while I was going to school. I was a dishwasher and busboy before I started waiting tables at breakfast and lunch. Then I got my break working at a small, but fancy Swiss restaurant, whose owner decided to give me a shot that ultimately set me up to work at an upscale restaurant, where I routinely served celebrities.

The Swiss restaurant didn't have a lot of business and the owner was often frustrated. At times, he even took his frustration out on customers, scolding them for not coming back more frequently! Yes, this is true, and no, it didn’t work! Despite his frequent meltdowns, he generally treated me well. But one thing that always set him off was the slightest hint of disagreement with his opinions.

Waiters would get hired and stay for a while, but would either leave or get fired. Many of them were really good at what they did but they just couldn't get along with the guy. I can still see many of their faces moving in and out of the revolving door of working at that restaurant.

I stayed for a couple of years longer than most, because I chose not to question him. Even when I knew he was wrong for picking on the other waiters, I would stay silent or even join in on the gossip. I was 19 years old and he had given me a chance that I wasn't going to blow it. I had learned table-side cooking and I was picking up on the techniques of working in a fancy restaurant, so I felt that I had too much to lose by speaking up!

I did eventually leave, however. I was offered a job at a fancy restaurant where I was going to make at least 3 times as much money in tips. When I was interviewing, I told him it was time for me to leave and find something closer to my field because I was about to graduate from Engineering school. He wasn’t happy, but respected my choice and even invited me and my wife to come have dinner on him one night. After I got the job, I was too scared to tell him I was leaving to be a waiter somewhere else. We parted ways amicably, which was unheard of.

A couple of months later, I decided it would probably be a nice experience to go back and have the dinner that he had offered me. Don’t ask me why! Was it the free meal or was it the desire to let him know the truth? I will never know, but we went and found ourselves being greeted warmly by the owner. But things didn’t stay that way.

Sometime during the evening, he came by to chat and I couldn’t help it. I broke the news to him. And you guessed it. He blew his top! He threw one of his tantrums that I had witnessed and been subject to too many times. He proceeded to point out to me that while I went to work at that fancy restaurant, he could just go out and buy that restaurant. He stopped short of calling me names and throwing us out before he stormed off to the kitchen. We finished our meal and ended up picking up the tab before we left because, unsurprisingly, he had changed his mind about dinner being his treat. I had officially joined the countless people that he considered to be worthless.

After all I had done for him to appease him and support him, even when he acted like an immature child toward the staff and even customers, he treated me like dirt. In retrospect, it wasn’t surprising. That was the way he had treated literally every person who left the place. He talked about them like they were the scum of the earth. Why wouldn’t he do it to me? I had illusions of being special. I figured I had earned enough points not to be treated that way. Sadly, I learned that wasn’t the case.

What has haunted me about that experience over the years is the look in some of the other waiters’ eyes as they were forced to suffer through his tantrums and tirades. They were looking at me as if to say, “Do something. You know he’s wrong! You have credibility with this guy and we don’t! Why don’t you stand up for what’s right?!” I literally remember many of their faces and that image that is a constant reminder of the lessons I learned through that experience.

• I learned that the greatest thing I have to lose is my integrity. The value of everything else that I thought I was trying to protect – money, position, opportunity, etc. – paled in comparison to being able to look myself in the eye and know that, at the end of the day, I did the right thing.

• I learned that no leader worth following ever expects my unconditional loyalty or adjusts the value they place on me solely based on whether I agree with them or not.

• I learned that while I should strive to always treat others with respect, NO ONE deserves my unconditional support when their words and actions violate the values and principles that I don’t wish to compromise.

• I learned that it is much easier to see people for who they are if I ask myself, “Would I still support this person if there were nothing in it for me?”

• I learned that while people may forgive me for my mistakes and lack of competence, it is nearly impossible for me to earn their respect again when they know that I have knowingly compromised my values for personal gain.

• I learned that the cost of my lack of integrity and hurting my reputation with those who didn’t have the power to do anything to me was far too great a price to pay.

That was over 38 years ago. Since then, I have fallen short of my own standards on several occasions as I have justified my silence and inaction in favor of “trade-offs,” or failed to speak truth to power in order to protect my own interests, but I’m happy to say I have come a long way. I can say that because I can recall countless times when I gave up what was incredibly important to me in the moment because I chose the right path even if I had to lose out personally. I refused to add to the burden that I and others would have to carry if I were to sell out and let myself down and let down those who counted on me for leadership.

I’m sure each of us can think of many people who have compromised their integrity right before our eyes. You probably know of people who should read and heed the message of this post, but that doesn’t make you special. What makes you special is taking the time to be honest with yourself about whether you are compromising the values that you claim to aspire to by blindly following and supporting someone whose words and actions you would otherwise find appalling. You are even more special if you own up to it, declare it, and intentionally change your ways. And if being true to your values and maintaining your integrity means you lose the “respect” of those you look up to and follow, then that is just proof that they were never worthy of your respect to begin with.

You can now listen to the new 5-part audio series, “Transforming Your Workplace Experience!" This audio series serves as both a great standalone introduction to culture transformation, as well as a companion to our previously available free culture transformation guide. In the series, I walk you through some applications and examples of the concepts presented in the guide, so that you can more effectively put them into practice and get motivated by the progress you will start making. I know that after learning and applying the concepts and distinctions that I present in the guide and audio series, you will be more qualified than ever to create extraordinary cultures that consistently deliver breakthrough results!

The Transformative Leader Audiobook is available now! I'm so excited to announce that "The Transformative Leader" on audiobook is currently on sale now exclusively on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes! The wait is over for those of you who (like me) prefer to listen to books during their commute or while exercising or simply doing things around the house! If you aren't yet a member of Audible, you can use this link (https://adbl.co/2MZWmaF) and sign up for a free 30-day trial and receive "The Transformative Leader" audiobook for free (plus one credit per month thereafter)!

About the Author: Amir Ghannad is an international keynote speaker, author of The Transformative Leader, leadership consultant, culture transformation champion, and founder of The Ghannad Group. He has made it his life's work to guide leaders and equip them with the tools, skills, and the mindset necessary to create extraordinary workplace cultures that deliver breakthrough results. Download his free e-book, titled 5 Practical Steps to Make Your Culture Transformation Stick by clicking here.

Want to learn more about The Ghannad Group? Click here
Want to get in touch with Amir? Email amir@theghannadgroup.com

As always, have a great week! May you Boldly Declare, Courageously Pursue, and Abundantly Achieve the Extraordinary!

Copyright © 2020 The Ghannad Group, LLC, All Rights Reserved.

He is one of the hardest working people I know, and his work ethic is off the charts. The story I’d like to share today is about his perseverance. It is about one of the many instances when he personally taught me what it’s like to be 100% committed to achieving something, not through his words but by his willingness to do what it takes to get the job done.

Just for context, my dad dropped out of school when he was in high school to help his dad run their confectionery business and years later went back and pursued his education and had a successful career as an educator. He even went back to school to get his Master’s degree much later in life, at age 56, and retired as a college professor.

During his school years, the second language taught in schools in Iran was French and it wasn’t until my generation that English became the foreign language of choice. So, his English language skills have always been limited to say the least.

Now to the story. A few years ago, when he and my mom, by then in their early 80’s, were visiting, he decided that he wanted to get an American driver’s license. I tried to talk him out of it because I thought it would be impossible, given his language skills or lack thereof, but he just wouldn’t have it any other way. I had seen him in this mode before when he decided he was going to get something done no matter what, so I relented and got him the material he needed to study.

For weeks, and I mean 7-8 weeks, he studied. He would study all day long while I was at work, using a dictionary and looking up practically every word and making notes. Then he would ask me questions about the phrases he could not make out when I got home from work.

Imagine, what it would be like if you were to take the same exam in a language you don’t know. That is what it was like for him, but he was going to do it.

After weeks of studying, he let me know that he was ready. I had my doubts but again, followed his direction because there was no other way. I took him to the DMV and got him set up to take the exam on the computer. He asked for permission to use his dictionary and they agreed. Then he told me to leave him there so he could take his time.

About four hours later, he called me and handed the phone to the lady who was administering the test. She informed me that he had missed one too many questions already and had failed the exam.

Imagining his disappointment and what might be going through his mind to accept this defeat, I went to pick him up. He was shaking his head as I approached, telling me that he was so close to making it but he missed a simple question. Minutes later, he informed me that he wanted to sign up and try it again. I wasn’t sure what to say. There was nothing to say. He had to make it happen and that was that.

So, we signed up and went back a few days later. This time, I fixed his lunch and put some juice in a little cooler for him because I knew the exam that usually takes most of us 15 minutes was going to take him hours. I asked the ladies to look after him and call me if he needed anything, and I left.

About 4 hours later, I received the same dreaded phone call. He had missed too many questions! Feeling so bad for him and trying to figure out a way to talk him out of trying this again, I drove over there to pick him up and he was even more disappointed in himself for not being able to pass the exam, but you guessed it. He wanted to go for it again!

The next time we showed up the attendants knew him and were smiling and greeting him. I could see in their eyes that they were rooting for him and wanted him to succeed. I left him and his lunch and went about my business.

I think it was about 5 hours later than my phone rang and this time, much to my surprise, he proudly informed me that he had passed the test. I couldn’t believe it. In the back of my mind I knew he was going to hang in there until he accomplished what he wanted to accomplish but I was still in awe of the amount of effort he had to put in to make it happen. I knew he wasn’t going to have any issues passing the road test now that the written test was behind him. He had done it!

I will never forget the look on the faces of the attendants when I arrived to pick him up. They all seemed so happy. We talked for a while and I couldn’t help but notice the tears in the lady’s eyes when she handed my dad his paperwork and congratulated him.

I believe the people who witnessed this relentless display of perseverance were touched by my dad’s determination and hard work as I have been all my life. I strive to live my life with the work ethic that my dad has instilled in me by who he is and how he has conducted himself as long as I have known him. I fall short often but I’m blessed to have a role model that I can relate to on a personal level.

Happy Father’s Day to my dad and all fathers who have touched not only the lives of their own children but those of others and made them better people.

You can now listen to the new 5-part audio series, “Transforming Your Workplace Experience!" This audio series serves as both a great standalone introduction to culture transformation, as well as a companion to our previously available free culture transformation guide. In the series, I walk you through some applications and examples of the concepts presented in the guide, so that you can more effectively put them into practice and get motivated by the progress you will start making. I know that after learning and applying the concepts and distinctions that I present in the guide and audio series, you will be more qualified than ever to create extraordinary cultures that consistently deliver breakthrough results!

The Transformative Leader Audiobook is available now! I'm so excited to announce that "The Transformative Leader" on audiobook is currently on sale now exclusively on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes! The wait is over for those of you who (like me) prefer to listen to books during their commute or while exercising or simply doing things around the house! If you aren't yet a member of Audible, you can use this link (https://adbl.co/2MZWmaF) and sign up for a free 30-day trial and receive "The Transformative Leader" audiobook for free (plus one credit per month thereafter)!

About the Author: Amir Ghannad is an international keynote speaker, author of The Transformative Leader, leadership consultant, culture transformation champion, and founder of The Ghannad Group. He has made it his life's work to guide leaders and equip them with the tools, skills, and the mindset necessary to create extraordinary workplace cultures that deliver breakthrough results. Download his free e-book, titled 5 Practical Steps to Make Your Culture Transformation Stick by clicking here.

Want to learn more about The Ghannad Group? Click here
Want to get in touch with Amir? Email amir@theghannadgroup.com

As always, have a great week! May you Boldly Declare, Courageously Pursue, and Abundantly Achieve the Extraordinary!

Copyright © 2020 The Ghannad Group, LLC, All Rights Reserved.

Si prefieres saltar directo a la última sección “En Resumidas Cuentas”, sírvete desplazarte hacia abajo. De lo contrario, te deseo que disfrutes este escrito en su totalidad.

En el curso de mi continuo trabajo con desarrollo en liderazgo y transformación cultural, he tenido amplia oportunidad de divertirme con los participantes de mis talleres/presentaciones y en esos intercambios aprendemos unos de otros. Uno de mis ejercicios favoritos se basa en la Teoría de Douglas McGregor la cual propone que los líderes eligen entre dos tipos de supuestos: La Teoría X y la Teoría Y donde X supone que el trabajador tiene una aversión innata al trabajo evitándolo de ser posible; mientras que la Teoría Y, por el contrario, considera al trabajador libre, maduro y responsable; alguien que disfruta resolviendo cualquier tipo de problema que se dé, de una manera creativa, ejerce autodirección y autocontrol y es confiable. De modo que proyecto en la pantalla, lado a lado, dos grupos de características bajo X/Y, le pido al público participante que me diga si conocen a ciertas personas que claramente pertenecen a la categoría X, a lo que, absolutamente todos levantan su mano. Luego les pido que vuelvan a levantar la mano si honestamente se consideran uno de esos del grupo X, y, obviamente, aquí casi nunca veo una sóla mano levantada. Esta dinámica ocurre idéntico cada que efectúo el ejercicio, lo cual, aparentemente significa que, esos “chicos malos” que realmente se beneficiarían de esta enseñanza y Coaching y a quienes realmente necesito dirigirme los que eluden y evitan mis cursos magistralmente. Parecería que, sin excepción, ¡les estamos sermoneando a los conversos!

La pregunta a continuación, afortunadamente, revela lo que en verdad está ocurriendo aquí. Les pregunto si alguien, ocasionalmente exhibe comportamientos del tipo Teoría X. Nuevamente, muchas manos levantadas. El grupo reunido generalmente aquí se carcajea y admiten estar completamente de acuerdo cuando les hago ver que la razón por la que no levantaron la mano la primera vez se debe a que consideran que su mal comportamiento está justificado, incluso si están conscientes que dicho comportamiento noes correcto, por lo que no se incluyen dentro del grupo perteneciente a Teoría X. Procedo a explicar que esto se debe a que nos juzgamos a nosotros mismos respecto de nuestras intenciones mientras que juzgamos a los demás por su comportamiento, un fenómeno estudiado por psicólogos sociales bajo el rubro sesgo de correspondencia.

Esta misma tendencia de, asumir lo peor acerca de los demás y absolvernos a nosotros mismos de toda responsabilidad, tiende a dominar nuestros pensamientos forzandonos a operar en modo piloto automático. Al menos que nos propongamos con una fuerte intención deliberada a asumir una intención positiva, tenderemos a cuestionar a los demás, y a sus intenciones, con lo cual nos desviaremos hacia un lugar enteramente aparte, donde nuestras actitudes y acciones resultantes no son las que se requieren para crear y avanzar formando relaciones plenas a través de la entrega de resultados extraordinarios. 

Lo anterior hace necesario que se configuren y monten sistemas de controles y equilibrio complejos con elevados costos que ascienden a millones de dólares en tiempo y dinero desperdiciado con el fin de monitorear a ese 5% que son las personas que abusan del sistema, en lugar del 95% que sí cumple.  Me atrevería a afirmar que para estas alturas te resulta más fácil imaginar a todas esas personas que asumieron una intención negativa de tu parte, en lugar de esas instancias donde haz sido tú quien lo haz hecho así con los demás.  Si este es el caso, queda demostrado que el sesgo de correspondencia le ocurre incluso al mejor y nadie es inmune a él.

EXISTEN UN SINNUMERO DE FORMAS EN QUE AL ASUMIR UNA INTENCIÓN NEGATIVA DE ENTRADA NOS SABOTEA TANTO NUESTRA PRODUCTIVIDAD COMO NUESTRA ENTREGA DE RESULTADOS:

1. Desvía nuestra atención alejándonos de la misión
   Mientras nos enfocamos en intentar descifrar porqué las demás personas se comportan de tal o cual forma y/o nos defendemos ante lo que los demás asuman de nosotros, la verdadera cuestión a resolver, para lograr cumplir nuestra misión, permanece sin resolver, lo cual nos propicia a reincidir.

   
   

2. Frena la resolución de problemas
   Cuando sospechamos la existencia de intención negativa, tendemos a enlistar aliados y nos aseguramos de contar con una posición fortalecida para atrincherarnos en ella, en vez de abordar directamente a la persona en cuestión e intentar remediar las cosas. 

   
   

3. Inhibe acciones audaces
   Al atacar el carácter de otra persona y cuestinarle acerca de sus intenciones aleja a las personas y las orilla a desempeñarse timidamente y a no intentar iniciativas audaces con tal de evitar ser juzgados como sospechosos.

   
   

4. Disminuye la colaboración
   Tendemos a perpetuar la división mediante “silos” y a fortalecer clichés al buscar refugio y comprensión de los demás a quienes pensamos que están de nuestro lado.  

   
   

5. Merma la rendición de cuentas
   El drama asociado con el asumir que los demás exhiben una intención negativa evita el que veamos y nos sintamos responsables por la parte que nosotros mismos le contribuimos al problema.

   
   

6. Daña las relaciones
   El resolver las diferencias de opinión cuando todos confiamos en la intención de los demás puede darse mediante productivos debates y discusiones apasionadas e incluso álgidas, sin que estas dañen las relaciones entre personas. El drama asociado con asumir la existencia de una intención negativa puede causar un daño importante a las relaciones, lo cual tomará mucho tiempo en poder ser reparado.

Si crees en el enorme poder que surge al asumir una intención positiva y buscas desarrollar y aprovechar dicho poder, será importante que comprendas las razones y los mitos que evitan que esta sea una práctica más prevalente:

ASUMIR UNA INTENCIÓN NEGATIVA...

1. Requiere de un menor esfuerzo – Es más conveniente y resulta más sencillo culpar a otro, en lugar de el enorme esfuerzo de búsqueda e identificación de la verdadera causa raíz del problema en cuestión.

2. Nos exime de toda responsabilidad de problemas que pudieran llegar a presentarse como resultado de las contribuciones que hemos realizado al problema en cuestión – Culpar la mala intención en los demás transfiere la atención lejos de nosotros mismos lo que nos permite evadir responsabilidad por todo aquello que hayamos hecho para perpetuar y tolerar el problema en discusión.

ASUMIR UNA INTENCIÓN POSITIVA SERÁ PERCIBIDO...

1. Como algo ingenuo, débil, e idealista – Por el contrario, se requiere de una gran cantidad de valentía y coraje para poder asumir una intención positiva y desde esa postura sostener diálogos difíciles con tal de identificar los verdaderos problemas.

2. No es como si estuviéramos sugiriendo que absolutamente todas las personas tienen una intención positiva – ¡En lo absoluto!  Sólo significa que el hecho que una minoría, que constituye el 5% del equipo, albergue intenciones negativas, no justifica que tratemos al 95%restante como si ellos también.

En Resumidas Cuentas:

El asumir intención positiva requiere de (valga la redundancia) una intencionalidad que va más allá de ese modo piloto automático de juzgarnos a nosotros mismos según nuestras intenciones y a los demás conforme a sus acciones. Mantiene el curso de toda la organización enfocado a la misión, acelera la resolución de conflictos, motiva a la acción audaz, inculca una cultura de rendición de cuentas y colaboración, y mejora las relaciones.

El poder masivo que surge al asumir una Intención Positiva

• Mantiene a la organización enfocada en la Misión.

• Acelera la resolución de conflictos.

• Anima a que la gente efectúe Acciones audaces.

• Infunde una cultura de asumir responsabilidades.

• Incrementa la colaboración.

• Fortalece las relaciones.

¡Que tengas una magnífica semana! Te deseo de corazón que Declares Audazmente, Persigas Valientemente y Logres lo Extraordinario, en Abundancia. Como siempre, me gustaría escuchar acerca de tus victorias personales y/o desafíos. Por favor envíanos tus comentarios en el espacio incluido aquí debajo o envíame un correo a  amir@theghannadgroup.com

Si le gustó este artículo y desea leer más, puede hacer clic aquí para descargar 3 libros electrónicos que contienen más publicaciones de blog traducidas al español.

This article was translated from the original English by the excellent Rafael Pliego Samaniego of Traduccion Perfecta En La Que Puede Confiar, a company that specializes in translating live for demanding speakers, during summit events, guided tours around manufacturing plants, and webcasts. They have provided exceptional service to us here at The Ghannad Group and come highly recommended for all your Spanish/English business translation needs. You can learn more at speedytranslation.com.mx.

Sobre el Autor
Amir Ghannad es un orador principal internacional, autor de El Líder Transformador, consultor de liderazgo, catalizador de transformación de cultura y fundador de The Ghannad Group. Ha hecho el trabajo de su vida guiar a los líderes y equiparlos con las herramientas, habilidades y la mentalidad necesarias para crear culturas extraordinarias en el lugar de trabajo que brinden resultados innovadores. (Esta parte es una traducción automática, así que perdone los errores encontrados aquí).

As always, have a great week! May you Boldly Declare, Courageously Pursue, and Abundantly Achieve the Extraordinary!

Copyright © 2020 The Ghannad Group, LLC, All Rights Reserved.

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Todos hemos escuchado sobre el poder de crear una Visión y lanzarte tras ella, tal como lo expresa Zig Ziglar de manera simple y sencilla: “Si no le apuntas a nada en absoluto, le darás al blanco cada vez”. Hace algunos años, cuando se estrenó la película “El Secreto,” mi familia y yo estabamos muy intrigados con la idea de la ley de la atracción y cómo esta refuerza la noción de que con tan solo pensar en un desenlace y ponderar en el pensamiento como si ya hubiese ocurrido en realidad, incrementa las probabilidades de atraer ese resultado hacia nosotros.

Existen diversas empresas cuyos líderes, o bien, no creen en el poder de una Visión, o no tienen idea de cómo en realidad aplicar esta metodología para ventaja suya.

Obviamente lo anterior abre de par en par la puerta más obvia de oportunidad para todos aquellos que sí creemos firmemente a esta idea y la hemos aplicado con éxito este principio para generar resultados extraordinarios.  Sin embargo, es igualmente importante señalar que incluso líderes que sí creen en el poder de una Visión o personas que creen en la ley de la atracción fracasan a la hora de producir esa clase de resultados que sueñan obtener. No sugiero con esto que contar y seguir una Visión sea un esfuerzo en vano, lo que afirmo es que existen diversas razones por las cuales muchas fracasan. Aquí debajo menciono las 10 causas más comunes:

1. Cimentamos nuestra Visión sobre barreras y creencias limitantes.
   Es importante que identifiquemos y resolvamos primero la cuestión de pensamientos y creencias que evitan que persigas y logres tu Visión. De lo contrario, intentarás ignorarlos barriéndolos debajo del tapete pero continuarán activos, saboteandote a lo largo del camino. Colocar tu Visión sobre incredulidad enraizada es como colocar una capa de hielo encima de un charco de lodo.

2. Desearíamos contar con un mejor punto de partida.
   Incluso cuando tenemos claro hacia donde nos dirigimos, a menudo nos desanimamos y sentimos atascados debido a que desearíamos contar con condiciones más favorables antes de lanzarnos detrás de nuestra Visión.  La clave no radica en tener una perfecta salida sino en partir desde ese punto en el que ahora estás ubicado.

3. No nos entusiasmamos con ese sentimiento de satisfacción de haber llegado a la meta fijada por nuestra Visión.
   Cuando la Visión únicamente trata de resultados numéricos y no nos damos el tiempo de hacerla nuestra, de personalizarla, lo que ocurre es que padeceremos de una fijación por hacer cosas con tal de, algún día, poseer alguna cosa. Aquí lo que falta es que tanto el resultado final así como el proceso nos motiven e inspiren en función de todo lo que nos brindarán en términos de sentimientos y actitudes.

4. No compartimos con todos los demás nuestra Visión.
   El poder de una visión se multiplica exponencialmente cuando se comparte. Esa declaración de nuestra visión es la llave para detonar diálogos y conversaciones que perpetúan el entusiasmo y la rendición de cuentas.

5. No regresamos suficientemente a menudo a visitar nuestra Visión.
   Prolongar tus visitas y hacerlas frecuentes o incluso colocar frente a ti esa declaración de Visión ayuda a renovar nuestra mentalidad así como a contrarrestar cualquier objeción producto de nuestro diálogo interno sobre obstáculos, nuestros temores y preocupaciones.

6. Elaboramos nuestra Visión con base en lo que no deseamos en lugar de aquello que sí deseamos.
   Una Visión enraizada en cambiar o arreglar algo es insípida y no motiva ni remotamente como otra elaborada a partir de un resultado final que todos anhelamos y que consideramos posible si partimos de cero y redactamos una nueva declaración de Visión exacta y justo a la altura.

7. Nos aferramos a patrones de pensamiento o comportamientos obsoletos toda vez que no encajan con nuestra nueva Visión y Senda.
   A menudo, nuestra respuesta automática y proceso de pensamiento continuará activo a menos que intervengamos y elijamos conscientemente modificarlo. Cuando declaramos una nueva Visión, corresponde al líder y otros a cargo el examinar y ajustar paradigmas y metodologías que resulten obsoletos o que no contribuyan a que la Visión se vuelva realidad.  

8. No declaramos una razón o justificación suficientemente motivadora como para vencer nuestra tendencia a mantener lo establecido y a esa resistencia a actuar con audacia.
   Si la Visión no brinda una promesa de un futuro que nos motive a participar, involucrarnos y a emprender la acción, careceremos de esa crítica inclinación necesaria para realizar la inversión emocional requerida, o bien, a asumir ciertos riesgos sociales con tal de producir el resultado buscado.

9. Intentamos graficar la Senda a detalle en vez de actuar con base en lo que tenemos y observar como es que nuestro Plan va cobrando vida.
   Una fuerza común que dificulta el convocar a todos los miembros del equipo alrededor de una Visión común es que ignoramos cómo es que llegaremos ahí. En nuestro intento por satisfacer las inquietudes de todos en cuanto a cómo, nos olvidamos de actuar con base en lo que desde ya sabemos.

10. Intentamos inventar un modo de conseguir nuevos comportamientos en lugar de comenzar por comportarnos nosotros mismos de manera ejemplar hasta que, como consecuencia, amanezca en nuestra mente esa imágen de cómo luce un lugar así donde todos nos comportemos de una manera mejor, nueva.
    Resulta sencillo excusarnos a no participar, a no intentar, a que nuestra Visión no sea demasiado ambiciosa. La mayor parte del tiempo eso es justo lo que nuestro diálogo interno intenta conseguir. Cuando emprendes la acción en busca del resultado deseado aún mientras tu diálogo interno te sugiera lo contrario, descubrirás un poder que permite alterar y mejorar la calidad del diálogo interno.

Te exhorto a que examines tus esfuerzos de Visión y que los compares contra estas características antes descritas de modo que puedas realizar cambios de ruta que consideres necesarios para maximizar ese inherente poder de elaborar y declarar una Visión que sirva de guía para ti y para todos los demás en tu organización.

Si le gustó este artículo y desea leer más, puede hacer clic aquí para descargar 3 libros electrónicos que contienen más publicaciones de blog traducidas al español.

This article was translated from the original English by the excellent Rafael Pliego Samaniego of Traduccion Perfecta En La Que Puede Confiar, a company that specializes in translating live for demanding speakers, during summit events, guided tours around manufacturing plants, and webcasts. They have provided exceptional service to us here at The Ghannad Group and come highly recommended for all your Spanish/English business translation needs. You can learn more at speedytranslation.com.mx.

Sobre el Autor
Amir Ghannad es un orador principal internacional, autor de El Líder Transformador, consultor de liderazgo, catalizador de transformación de cultura y fundador de The Ghannad Group. Ha hecho el trabajo de su vida guiar a los líderes y equiparlos con las herramientas, habilidades y la mentalidad necesarias para crear culturas extraordinarias en el lugar de trabajo que brinden resultados innovadores. (Esta parte es una traducción automática, así que perdone los errores encontrados aquí).

As always, have a great week! May you Boldly Declare, Courageously Pursue, and Abundantly Achieve the Extraordinary!

Copyright © 2020 The Ghannad Group, LLC, All Rights Reserved.

I recently conducted a 4-hour Transformative Leadership Workshop for a client in North Carolina. There were 41 participants in the session from multiple states and a few team members from other countries. After I went over the stated objectives of the workshop, I asked each of the participants to write down one personal objective on a post-it note that, if met, would make this an extraordinary leadership development experience for them. They then took a few minutes to share those objectives at their tables of 5-6 and off we went.

At the end of the workshop, I asked them to put their sticky notes on the wall, only if their objectives had been met. What was the final tally? 39 out of 41 put their sticky note on the wall! Phenomenal, right!? And yet, if training and development sessions are being properly set up for success and conducted the right way, this kind of result should be the norm, not the exception. I have personally found that to indeed be the case. Every single time we do one of these sessions, aside from meeting the workshop objectives, the vast majority of participants have their personal objectives met as well. And you can bet that has an immediate transformative effect on their results at work, not to mention their fulfillment in life in general.

The way I see it, there are three key contributing factors to creating this kind of consistent success in any development session:

1. Plenty of pre-work with every client – I do this to make sure I understand a client’s unique challenges and opportunities and can customize my examples and instructive anecdotes in a way that makes it real for them.

2. Have each participant take ownership – I have each participate declare their personal objectives, which focuses them on what they want to get out of the experience so that they are on the lookout for the takeaways that are most useful for them and their situation. This is opposed to the regular approach of just giving participants information, which is like aimlessly drinking from a firehose and having to sift through all their notes to hopefully find something useful. This also encourages participants to take ownership of their objectives being met, and speak up if they have questions or concerns that they feel need to be addressed.

3. Invite participation – I invite participants to do exactly what they are supposed to be doing: participate! This keeps the conversation real, in order to avoid theoretical conversations that make sense to all of us on paper, but are not actionable on our actual situations. Having observers rather than participants discourages people from taking transformative insights and making them their own, which is the only way they will ever make a difference to anyone.

These are three elements you want to look for next time someone is conducting a training session, to see if participants are being set up for success from the start. Next time you attend a session, take a few minutes up-front to set your intentions on what you personally want to get out of the session. Don’t worry about missing out. Get clear on 1-2 specific problems you would like to find a solution for, or transformative insights you would like to pick up, and listen and participate with the intention to have those objectives met. Next time you conduct a training session, give the participants an opportunity to set their intentions, ask them to be the guardians of making sure they get what they came to get, and be clear that participation is the only way they will be able to make those things happen. You can use the sticky notes method that I mentioned above, a whiteboard, or get creative with your own ideas.

 Here are some (verbatim) examples of the objectives that participants set (and met) in the North Carolina Transformative Leader Workshop:

• Be a better leader via role model behavior

• More open to change, open-minded

• To transform how I view leadership in an important way

• Impact individuals in a positive way to grow in strength

• Personal goal to be more courageous

• Understand what holds me back

• Become a better leader overall in all aspects that I do

• Strategies that will help me not only be a good leader professionally but will help me transform my personal life

• Understand what is keeping me from being a better leader

• Techniques to avoid saboteurs to personal/professional development

• How to better coach and empower my team

• Improved discipline/accountability in everything I do

• Develop better active listening skills. Be a charismatic/confident leader

• Becoming the best I can be

• Be more willing to be courageous, assertive, take risks, go outside my comfort zone

• I want to lead this organization to greatness -> Be the beacon

• Cross-functional leadership tools

• Find my David, Take away something useful from today

• To develop a better sense of what my leadership skills are and how to use them

• Strategy for action with on-going inspiration

• Learn what skills I need to instill an improved culture in the facility

• Be a better manager and person

• How listening will help me lead; How to communicate clearer

• Entire group engagement

• Be less independent and work as a team member

• Tools to help get to the next level of performance and fulfillment – 100% - 0

• Enthusiasm

• A better understanding of what I do well and what I can do better

• Energize myself to act to the goal

• Personal connection to leading cultural development within the organization

• Better ability to ask for what I need and grow

• Be able to go back on Monday and do something great for my employees that day

• Discipline to maintain routine habits

• Better at making leaders, not followers

• Path towards personal transformation of habits and behaviors to improve performance and fulfillment of those around me

• A better understanding of which things are most holding me back from being a great leader so that I can focus on them

• Explosive drive and commitment to get $&!# done (communication, vision, empowerment); Don’t want to feel overwhelmed

• How to get out of my own way

• A true connection to embrace the change and apply it daily

Could your organization benefit from your team members getting this kind of head start on their leadership development journey and shifting their mindset in these ways? At The Ghannad Group, this is our specialty, and we are passionate about delivering these kinds of results for clients all over the world. So, if you’re interested, or even just curious, let’s talk about how your team members can experience the same transformation that thousands of others around the world have after attending our speaking engagements and Transformative Leader Workshops.

You can now listen to the new 5-part audio series, “Transforming Your Workplace Experience!" This audio series serves as both a great standalone introduction to culture transformation, as well as a companion to our previously available free culture transformation guide. In the series, I walk you through some applications and examples of the concepts presented in the guide, so that you can more effectively put them into practice and get motivated by the progress you will start making. I know that after learning and applying the concepts and distinctions that I present in the guide and audio series, you will be more qualified than ever to create extraordinary cultures that consistently deliver breakthrough results!

The Transformative Leader Audiobook is available now! I'm so excited to announce that "The Transformative Leader" on audiobook is currently on sale now exclusively on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes! The wait is over for those of you who (like me) prefer to listen to books during their commute or while exercising or simply doing things around the house! If you aren't yet a member of Audible, you can use this link (https://adbl.co/2MZWmaF) and sign up for a free 30-day trial and receive "The Transformative Leader" audiobook for free (plus one credit per month thereafter)!

About the Author: Amir Ghannad is an international keynote speaker, author of The Transformative Leader, leadership consultant, culture transformation champion, and founder of The Ghannad Group. He has made it his life's work to guide leaders and equip them with the tools, skills, and the mindset necessary to create extraordinary workplace cultures that deliver breakthrough results. Download his free e-book, titled 5 Practical Steps to Make Your Culture Transformation Stick by clicking here.

Want to learn more about how The Ghannad Group serve and guide you in your leadership development and culture transformation efforts? Click here
Want to get in touch with Amir? Email amir@theghannadgroup.com

As always, have a great week! May you Boldly Declare, Courageously Pursue, and Abundantly Achieve the Extraordinary!

Copyright © 2019 The Ghannad Group, LLC, All Rights Reserved.

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Dear readers and followers,

I am writing to let you know that, going forward, I will no longer be posting my weekly blog posts every Thursday. After almost 4 years of posting every single week, we have come to the end of an era!

We here at The Ghannad Group are shifting gears, and that means some changes are coming to how we interact with you. Instead of weekly posts on social media, where we are at the mercy of ever-changing algorithms, we will slowly begin moving to sharing weekly content and updates with our email list in a new newsletter (make sure you’re subscribed here so we can stay in touch!).

Until then however, weekly posts will continue as usual. Going forward, my weekly blog posts are going to be replaced with vlog posts, which you can keep up with on our new Vlog page. Podcasts episodes will continue to be posted as usual as well, and you can find them at our new Podcast page, where you can subscribe on iTunes and Stitcher. (If you’re not already subscribed to my podcast, I highly recommend it, because we have some great interviews with some great guests coming up in the next few months.)

We also have a new Blog page to house around 30 of my most impactful and foundational posts from the past 4 years. Soon, you may notice other changes to the website as well, but rest assured, every change we’re making is so that we can better serve our followers and supporters in the near future. In accordance with our new direction, my remaining blog posts will eventually be archived for use in an upcoming project, so the new blog page is where those curated posts will live indefinitely.

On top of all that, we are super excited to be gearing up for a really big launch sometime around the beginning of 2020 that we’ve been working on behind the scenes for months. After receiving feedback from readers and followers, we’re working on a product that we know leaders will love. If you’re on our mailing list (sign up here), or if you follow me on Linkedin, you’ll be the first to know about this secret we’ve been keeping, plus you’ll get “first dibs“ and a discount when we roll it out soon!

I’m so grateful for you joining me on this journey over the past four years, for your commentary and your feedback. If you’ve been with us from the very beginning, you’ll know that we’ve grown immensely, and a lot of that is due to your support. I look forward to sharing with you what’s next and hope you’ll join me and my team on that journey too.

As always, may you boldly declare, courageously pursue, and abundantly achieve the extraordinary!

With gratitude,
Amir

It happens to the best of us. From time to time, we feel stuck and our strength to move forward depends on the level of clarity we have about the causes and potential effects of our current circumstances. That clarity doesn’t always come, and so we aren’t always sure what to do next. Dwelling on potential causes of the setbacks we experience generates regret about our own actions and/or resentment toward others. Letting our imagination get the best of us relative to all the bad things that are going to possibly happen creates worry and fear. And trying to let the past go or trying not to worry, although well-intentioned, do not carry the day unless we find a way to gain clarity and look at our current circumstances through an objective lens.

I have found that there are ten questions you can ask yourself when you feel stuck, the answers to which provide clarity and a line of sight to the next steps that serve you and your mission. They are as follows:

1.       What outcome am I committed to? The answer to this question shifts your focus away from the immediate obstacles and reminds you on the size of the prize once you overcome the challenges you are facing.

2.       What is the most important step I can take right now? By focusing on the immediate next step, you reduce the overwhelm associated with trying to figure out how the rest of your journey is going to go and all the challenges you are going to face.

3.       What am I making the current situation mean about me? Although failures and setbacks are hardly ever a fun experience, what exacerbates the pain and causes us to take our focus away from taking that next step is that we interpret our circumstances in ways that hurts our self-image and confidence. Whether we make the situation mean we are not good enough or that someone doesn’t care about us, and so on, it is helpful to acknowledge our interpretation and examine whether it is true or something we have conjured up in our minds.

4.       How can the challenges I’m facing help me in my development? This is a question that is always easier to answer in hindsight. When we look back at our struggles in the past, we can see usually see how they helped us grow. We should know, therefore, that at some point in the future, we will also see benefits in having to grapple with our current circumstances. So, why not acknowledge it now and celebrate the silver lining while we are going through the storm?

5.       Have I honored my commitments? If you know that your current circumstances have been partly caused by you not meeting your commitments and not honoring your word, then acknowledge it and take action to clean it up so you can forgive yourself and restore your integrity with yourself and others.

6.       Who am I blaming for what? The baggage we carry in the form of resentment and unforgiveness weighs us down at a time when we need all the energy we can muster to recover from a setback. Getting clear on the answer to this question is the first step in evaluating whether we are willing to put some of that baggage down and move on.

7.       What payout am I getting by staying stuck? Sometimes, even though we have every intention of getting unstuck, subconsciously we find more pleasure in staying stuck than taking action. This invisible forcefield hold us back. You’ll have to look carefully to find the answer to this question, as it is normally hiding in plain sight. It could be that you see more reward in playing the victim as opposed to having to do the hard work. It could be that you’d rather not have the tough conversations you need to have and you’d secretly prefer to just deal with the negative consequences of avoiding those conversations.

8.       Who can give me honest feedback and wise counsel? Our tendency is to gravitate toward people who would commiserate with us and validate our feelings. Identifying the people who are willing to be brutally honest with you, and of course having the conversation to seek feedback, you will gain insight that may be hidden from your view.

9.       What unreasonable action can I take to change the game? Being reasonable and only taking action that is considered low risk and acceptable to others never results in a game-changer. The key is to acknowledge your reasons not to act and then act anyway. Remember that your reasons for not wanting to take bold action are based on your past experiences. If you want a discontinuous shift from the past, then you need to be prepared to go beyond your reasons.

10.   How can I contribute to someone else while I’m dealing with my own issues? Focusing on making a contribution to someone else takes your focus off of you and on a cause bigger than yourself. This is a healthy exercise for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that you are always in the center of all of your frustrations and when you shift your focus away from you, much of your pain vanishes.

Since it’s hard to keep our emotional reactions from distorting our logical understanding, and because in those moments when things are not going well, facts and fiction get intertwined, it is always a great idea to reach out to a coach or a confidant who is willing to let you vent and then guide you back to a path that leads to a proactive response. To that end, I would highly recommend that you go through the above questions with the help of a coach who can facilitate the process of you gaining clarity and objectivity in your answers. I hope you have found this post helpful, and until next time, may you boldly declare, courageously pursue, and abundantly achieve the extraordinary!

You can now listen to the new 5-part audio series, “Transforming Your Workplace Experience!" This audio series serves as both a great standalone introduction to culture transformation, as well as a companion to our previously available free culture transformation guide. In the series, I walk you through some applications and examples of the concepts presented in the guide, so that you can more effectively put them into practice and get motivated by the progress you will start making. I know that after learning and applying the concepts and distinctions that I present in the guide and audio series, you will be more qualified than ever to create extraordinary cultures that consistently deliver breakthrough results!

The Transformative Leader Audiobook is available now! I'm so excited to announce that "The Transformative Leader" on audiobook is currently on sale now exclusively on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes! The wait is over for those of you who (like me) prefer to listen to books during their commute or while exercising or simply doing things around the house! If you aren't yet a member of Audible, you can use this link (https://adbl.co/2MZWmaF) and sign up for a free 30-day trial and receive "The Transformative Leader" audiobook for free (plus one credit per month thereafter)!

About the Author: Amir Ghannad is an international keynote speaker, author of The Transformative Leader, leadership consultant, culture transformation champion, and founder of The Ghannad Group. He has made it his life's work to guide leaders and equip them with the tools, skills, and the mindset necessary to create extraordinary workplace cultures that deliver breakthrough results. Download his free e-book, titled 5 Practical Steps to Make Your Culture Transformation Stick by clicking here.

Want to learn more about how The Ghannad Group serve and guide you in your leadership development and culture transformation efforts? Click here
Want to get in touch with Amir? Email amir@theghannadgroup.com

As always, have a great week! May you Boldly Declare, Courageously Pursue, and Abundantly Achieve the Extraordinary!

Copyright © 2019 The Ghannad Group, LLC, All Rights Reserved.

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I believe we all have a “superpower.” Another way to put it might be that we all have one or two unique gifts or exceptional strengths, something that we excel at with little practice or effort on our part. Our superpower is that character trait or innate ability that comes natural to us and makes us a stronger achiever and contributor because we seem to have an inherent knack for it. I also believe that any strength taken to the extreme can become a weakness, and so we must learn to use our superpowers with discretion.

Personally, my superpower is empathy! I am a super empathizer and have been for as long as I can remember. I can walk through any workplace for a few minutes and somehow “feel” what people are feeling. I can talk to a person and immediately begin to see the world through their eyes. And I can feel people’s pain to the point that, unless I make an intentional effort to control it, it can be overwhelming when exposed to too much negativity. On the positive side, however, feeling the pain of others motivates me that much more to help them overcome whatever troubles or challenges they are facing.

This ability has been a huge blessing to me, personally and professionally. As a coach and confidant to countless people, it has given me an edge in accomplishing my mission of transforming people’s lives. As a professional facilitator, it has helped me understand the opposing views in meetings I have facilitated and help people find common ground to resolve the real points of disagreement. As a speaker and consultant, it has helped me tailor my approach and delivery in real time to ensure my communication is received as intended. Finally, my empathy has opened up a world of possibilities to me because it has made me, I believe, an above average listener, simply because I listen, not only with my ears but with my mind and my heart.

I have written about the value of empathy before and am a firm believer that a leader or teammate without empathy is missing an essential piece of the puzzle that would allow them to influence and serve others for their ultimate benefit. You don’t have to be a super empathizer to be a good leader or team member, but you do have to practice empathy at a significant level. Hence, we should all be doing as much as we can to climb higher on the empathy scale. However, while empathy is a good thing, as mentioned above, there are some things we all have to watch out for, because too much of a good thing can become a bad thing.

In this post, I’d like to list a few of the “downsides” of letting this strength go unchecked and point out a few side effects to watch out for as you practice empathy. As someone who is fairly high on the empathy scale, I have experienced every one of these potential downsides. In some cases, I have learned valuable lessons and have made course corrections. But, quite honestly, in some cases, I am still a work in progress and still experience some of these unless I remain intentional and vigilant in avoiding them.

As wonderful as empathy is as a virtue, here are its potential negative side effects:

1. You want everybody to be happy – Because you feel other people’s pain, the tendency is to want to keep everyone happy all the time, which is a recipe for disaster. Sometimes you can’t remove other people’s pain, and sometimes doing so actually harms them more in the long run. The flip side of empathizing with the pain of others so intensely is that you become so preoccupied with and demoralized by their experience of suffering that you become less effective at helping them get rid of it. Often, once you know what needs to be done, not feeling the pain of others is the best path to help them begin addressing it.

2. You misread the cues – You trust and rely on your ability to read the non-verbal cues to the point that you become overly sensitized and misread the cues. This is particularly important to look out for when the other person is from a different culture where body language has a completely different meaning than your own, but it can also apply to people whose personality type or communication style is very different than yours.

3. You let people off the hook – It’s easy to not hold a person to high standards when you understand and empathize with why they couldn’t meet the standard and what got in their way. Excuses seem much more legitimate when you see them through the other person’s eyes. Despite this, you should do your best to hold others up to higher standards and allow the possibility of them surprising even themselves with capability they didn’t know they had.

4. You don’t compel others to improve – People with problems naturally like talking to those who can empathize with them. It makes them feel understood by giving them a “pressure release valve,” but it doesn’t compel them to behave differently, so they end up back where they started a short time later.

5. You absorb toxins and become toxic yourself – The process of empathizing with others always leaves a residue of their pain and suffering with you. When the word gets out that you are a good listener and you help people feel better, people will flock to you from all directions. You will become known as “organizational toxin handler.” Eventually, you will find that the psychological and emotional “toxins” that you absorb on a regular basis will create a toxic environment for you. At this point, you won’t be able to effectively help others and you won’t be having a good time yourself, and this will continue indefinitely unless you take the time to “detox” and intentionally focus on maintaining a regular self-care routine.

6. You don’t resolve conflicts effectively – While those with a high degree of empathy can be great at conflict resolution, it is important to make sure you not only understand the opposing points of view, but help them see the other point of view and actively look for a third alternative. You must be able to cultivate a sense of empathy in others, as well as practice your own innate ability. Otherwise, you will leave everyone feeling validated and yet further entrenched in their point of view, and because everyone gets a sense that you agree with them, everyone will think you are only on their side. 

So, there are 6 ways that the superpower of empathy can go wrong if taken too far or used without discretion. What are some other superpowers that you yourself have, or that you can think of, with respect to leadership or organizational effectiveness? What potential side effects do these superpowers have? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

You can now listen to the new 5-part audio series, “Transforming Your Workplace Experience!" This audio series serves as both a great standalone introduction to culture transformation, as well as a companion to our previously available free culture transformation guide. In the series, I walk you through some applications and examples of the concepts presented in the guide, so that you can more effectively put them into practice and get motivated by the progress you will start making. I know that after learning and applying the concepts and distinctions that I present in the guide and audio series, you will be more qualified than ever to create extraordinary cultures that consistently deliver breakthrough results!

The Transformative Leader Audiobook is available now! I'm so excited to announce that "The Transformative Leader" on audiobook is currently on sale now exclusively on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes! The wait is over for those of you who (like me) prefer to listen to books during their commute or while exercising or simply doing things around the house! If you aren't yet a member of Audible, you can use this link (https://adbl.co/2MZWmaF) and sign up for a free 30-day trial and receive "The Transformative Leader" audiobook for free (plus one credit per month thereafter)!

About the Author: Amir Ghannad is an international keynote speaker, author of The Transformative Leader, leadership consultant, culture transformation champion, and founder of The Ghannad Group. He has made it his life's work to guide leaders and equip them with the tools, skills, and the mindset necessary to create extraordinary workplace cultures that deliver breakthrough results. Download his free e-book, titled 5 Practical Steps to Make Your Culture Transformation Stick by clicking here.

Want to learn more about how The Ghannad Group serve and guide you in your leadership development and culture transformation efforts? Click here
Want to get in touch with Amir? Email amir@theghannadgroup.com

As always, have a great week! May you Boldly Declare, Courageously Pursue, and Abundantly Achieve the Extraordinary!

Copyright © 2019 The Ghannad Group, LLC, All Rights Reserved.

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Have you ever tried to do something nice for someone, only to be disappointed in how they received it? Perhaps you went out of your way to express your gratitude or demonstrate that you care about and value them, only to receive a lukewarm response, as if it didn’t quite hit the spot for them. I think it’s safe to say that we have all experienced this every now and then. While this can definitely be discouraging when it happens in our personal lives, even the fear of such a response keeps us from taking our work relationships to that next level, instead keeping many of us at the level of “transactionships” alone. Well the good news is that there are ways to take your communication and relationships to that next level, both in your personal life and at work, and that’s what I want to talk about in this post.

Several years ago, I was exposed to two teachings that opened my eyes to how I could have an even better relationship with the people who were closest to me, at work and at home. The first was Dr. Gary Chapman’s writings on the “5 Love Languages,” and the subsequent discussions that led to my wife and I clearly understanding each other’s preferred love language so we could become proficient in them. The second was a course called “Sex at Work,” which, contrary to how it sounds, was a series of lessons on the implications of gender diversity at work. Both of these works reinforced the central message that making someone feel loved, or valued in the case of work colleagues, is not a one-size-fits-all game, and that we often fall into the trap of assuming that what motivates us or makes us happy will have the same effect on others. We treat others as we want to be treated, which works very well when it comes to the virtues that we all value, but not so well when our preferences vary. What we ought to be doing is treating others as they want to be treated!

Both of these teachings also emphasize the fact that communication is not a one-way street. Everyone, especially if they consider themselves a leader, has a responsibility to not just communicate clearly, but communicate in such a way that their message lands with the listener as they intended. So, effective communication requires us to constantly change our approach to match the listener we are addressing according to their preferences. Really, this is what the “love languages” are: different modalities in which we prefer people to express their care and concern to us. All of us appreciate it more when someone communicates with us in a way that matches our preference, because that alone shows that the other person respects and values us enough to put us before themselves. And if you take the “language” metaphor a little further, you can see why learning the other person’s preferred form of communication is so important. When you go to another country, if you want to be understood, you don’t require that everyone else learn your language; rather, you take on learning their language so that you can communicate effectively with the people there. In many cases, refusing to even attempt do so is seen as rude or arrogant, and in all cases, it is completely counter-productive if you want anyone understand what you’re saying!

When it comes to leadership and engagement, these same principles apply to organizations, perhaps even more so than in our personal lives. While everybody wants to be trusted, treated fairly, respected, and so on, what makes us tick and what has the greatest impact on us often differs from one person to another. This is why learning each person’s workplace “love language” and using it effectively has a profound effect on employee engagement, and is an indispensable skill that every leader must strive to practice.

By now, just about everybody is practicing some sort of personalized marketing when it comes to customers. From the grocery stores that collect data on the shoppers and send them coupons for the items they regularly purchase, to the intel that is collected on social media so you get ads for weeks about what you just Googled a few minutes ago. If we are so eager to cater to the specific needs and desires of our clients, most of whom we maintain only transactionships with, wouldn’t it make sense to find out and act on the preferences of our employees, who by the way, are the ones serving our clients?!

Of course, this is being done in a variety of ways in different places. I came across one company a few years back who kept a database on each employee, which was partly filled out by the employee and partly populated by others who found out about the employee’s preferences. They had information like the employee’s favorite store, so when and if they wanted to recognize the employee and reward them with a gift card, they would give them a gift card from their favorite store. This actually isn’t a bad approach, but it would probably need to be done in a close-knit, high trust workplace, or some people might have misgivings about a “1984”-style database of their personal preference and it possibly being abused.

For people working in a (national) culture other than their own, one way to show that they care about others is to take the time to understand and abide by the local traditions, or at least be sure not to commit acts that signify total disregard for their coworkers. For me, personally, I have seen that even the smallest gestures have always gone in a long way in the dozen or so countries that I have done work in. By the same token, I have seen the opposite cause irreversible damage, where “minor” faux pas on the part of people who think certain traditions aren’t a big deal or “shouldn’t” matter almost cause an international incident! While working in Thailand, I literally had to ban a highly sought-after technical resource from coming back after he repeatedly ignored the feedback on how serious an offense it was to use one’s foot to keep the door open or kick the chair someone was sitting in.

A great place to start with practicing this communication skill is to begin paying attention to what the people around you value most, and then serve it up every chance you get. This has to be done sincerely, because you actually care about treating others in the way that they want be treated, not just so you can exploit people’s preferences to get a better response from them. Again, just like the 5 Love Languages, while everybody probably appreciates receiving a gift or hearing words of affirmation, we appreciate some gestures more than others in accordance with our preferred mode of communication.  Below are a few ideas to get your started.

The most prevalent of the workplace love languages I have some across are as follows:

• Appreciation and Acknowledgement – While we all want to know that our efforts are appreciated, some people are infinitely more affected by words of praise on one hand, or acts of recognition on the other.

• Availability and Accessibility – Making yourself available and ensuring that people have access to you goes a long way. They may hardly ever take you up on your open door policy or the fact that they can call you if they need you, but just knowing that you are there for them makes a difference.

• Information Sharing – While everyone prefers to have the information they need to do their work, some people thrive on being in the know and being the first to be let in on new information that isn’t common knowledge yet. I knew one such person for whom “breaking news” was like oxygen and I made sure that they were one of the first ones who had the scoop on what was going on, even if it was just a few minutes before others found out.

• Challenge – Some people thrive on being given a challenge. Otherwise, they get bored and feel underutilized, or maybe even undervalued and disrespected. Giving them the opportunity to tackle some of the greatest challenges that the organization faces is a win-win proposition for everyone.

• Development Opportunities – Here again, while everyone would appreciate the opportunity to grow, some are much more energized by being given the opportunity to lead an initiative or attend a class that will help them grow and expand their influence.

• Interest in their personal life – This one is not for everyone. Some people would prefer to keep their personal affairs private and not necessarily discuss what they have going on at home with people at work. However, for those who appreciate that you care enough about them as a whole person to remember their kids’ names and ask them about the specific things that are going on in their lives, this hits the spot.

• Solicitation of opinions – When you go the extra mile to specifically ask someone’s opinion about something and then listen, it says something about how much you value them. For some, this intentional inclusion, if nothing else, means the world to them.

To reiterate a point, I must stress identifying and practicing the workoplace love languages must be done authentically and with the genuine intent to create a positive experience. That can never be effectively done if your motive is to manipulate and use any of this as a strategy to get what you want, because people can sense that a mile away. If you are sincere in your attempts, however, even if you don’t get things perfect, people will appreciate the fact that you are even trying and give you the benefit of the doubt.

I’m sure you can think of many other ways in which to make others feel valued, but rather than getting overwhelmed with figuring out the countless ways in which you can approach this, start with the categories mentioned above. Begin to figure out which ones apply to the people you work with, by observing how they prefer to receive communication and acknowledgement. You can always build on this when you get a few wins under your belt.

Thanks for reading this post all the way through, I hope it made a difference for you! I just want to let all my followers and readers know that some big changes are coming to the blog and the website this summer. My team and I are very excited about what we have planned, and we know our community of readers and followers will be too! I can’t wait to share the news with you, so make sure you keep up with me on Facebook and LinkedIn.

You can now listen to the new 5-part audio series, “Transforming Your Workplace Experience!" This audio series serves as both a great standalone introduction to culture transformation, as well as a companion to our previously available free culture transformation guide. In the series, I walk you through some applications and examples of the concepts presented in the guide, so that you can more effectively put them into practice and get motivated by the progress you will start making. I know that after learning and applying the concepts and distinctions that I present in the guide and audio series, you will be more qualified than ever to create extraordinary cultures that consistently deliver breakthrough results!

The Transformative Leader Audiobook is available now! I'm so excited to announce that "The Transformative Leader" on audiobook is currently on sale now exclusively on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes! The wait is over for those of you who (like me) prefer to listen to books during their commute or while exercising or simply doing things around the house! If you aren't yet a member of Audible, you can use this link (https://adbl.co/2MZWmaF) and sign up for a free 30-day trial and receive "The Transformative Leader" audiobook for free (plus one credit per month thereafter)!

About the Author: Amir Ghannad is an international keynote speaker, author of The Transformative Leader, leadership consultant, culture transformation champion, and founder of The Ghannad Group. He has made it his life's work to guide leaders and equip them with the tools, skills, and the mindset necessary to create extraordinary workplace cultures that deliver breakthrough results. Download his free e-book, titled 5 Practical Steps to Make Your Culture Transformation Stick by clicking here.

Want to learn more about how The Ghannad Group serve and guide you in your leadership development and culture transformation efforts? Click here
Want to get in touch with Amir? Email amir@theghannadgroup.com

As always, have a great week! May you Boldly Declare, Courageously Pursue, and Abundantly Achieve the Extraordinary!

Copyright © 2019 The Ghannad Group, LLC, All Rights Reserved.

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If you’ve ever worked in organizations where people were working in silos, you know how counterproductive it can be. In organizations like this, rather than working together to create synergy, team members work against each other with the aim of optimizing their own interest, at the cost of significantly sub-optimizing the interests of the organization as a whole. And since even those working toward their own ends are part of that whole, by pursuing their own interests they are also paradoxically working against them at the same time.

The leading cause of silos being formed is that team members feel that nobody has their back and they feel compelled to seek refuge in the company of those they find to be most like them. In this sense, silos, or any other kind of insular group, is really just the result of our natural human tendency to seek out community, especially when we feel that we have been abandoned by the larger group. Before you know it, people in these silos lose all sense of what is right or wrong with respect to the organization, and they become entrenched in what they consider to be in the best interest of the group of people they identify with.

Again, this is done in ignorance of the fact that every silo is still part of the larger organization, and preferentially favoring the former over the latter is the equivalent of cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face. Eventually, having multiple silos all compete against each other, while the organization languishes as a result, becomes a self-limiting and self-defeating situation. As Lincoln famously put it, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Of course, not everyone understands the truth of this situation, usually because they can’t see the forest for the trees, or because they are ignorant of the laws of interdependence that govern all cultures, society, and reality itself. Sometimes, it is simply because, as humans, we often fail to practice foresight to see what future effects our current behaviors will lead to down the road, and as such, we prioritize our present enjoyment over our future well-being, even in cases when the trade-off should be obvious.

Then, there are also those who cravenly exploit this no-win situation for their own benefit, and then pack up and move on once it has reached its inevitable goal of ruin for everyone involved. In fact, I knew one so-called leader who would actually leverage this dynamic to his personal advantage. He would intentionally pit people against each other and while they were at odds, he would control and manipulate them. He was, of course, not a leader at all, but people didn’t realize it because they were too busy fighting amongst each other while he threw gas on their fire to keep himself warm. It eventually became clear to the entire organization that this person was more of a “cult leader” than anything else, but by that time much damage had been done and they had presumably moved on to their next victim.

What becomes prevalent in divided organizations is the extreme levels of hypocrisy and double standards. People pointing to the speck in “the other people’s” eyes while they have a plank sticking out of their own. But it is not always an evil-intentioned leader with a divide-and-conquer strategy who instigates this problem. Left to our own devices, and in the absence of intentionally breaking down barriers, we tend to migrate to such a state anyway. Good organizational design and a healthy collaborative culture are supposed to help counteract this natural tendency to break into silos, by uniting the organization around a common vision that benefits everyone, but we all know that that isn’t always present. So, when it starts, at first, it seems like no big deal. As our allegiance to our silos builds up slowly, just like a frog slowly being boiled, we don’t realize just how disconnected we’re becoming from each other, the organization, and reality until it’s too late. Eventually we develop one set of standards for everyone in our silo, and another set of standards for everyone outside of it, with no thought to consistency or integrity.

I once worked in an organization where I had the responsibility to deliver the annual wage and benefit changes to employees who were on two different systems, depending on whether they were salaried or hourly employees. Traditionally, the hourly employees were more outspoken about their disapproval of the amount of increase, while the salaried employees would get together and talk about the hourly employees and how ridiculous it was that they complained so much, and so on. They would get on their high horses and criticize to their heart’s content. Then, one year, the changes made to the salaried people’s benefits turned out to be less than ideal. You should have seen the reactions of the same people who routinely ridiculed others for their supposedly “childish” behavior. It was ten times worse! And yet, as this was pointed out to them, they had all kinds of reasons why their situation was different, and their behavior was justified, which just made them look even pettier and hypocritical by comparison. And all that could have been avoided if they had just practiced empathy from the beginning!

The simple cure to divisiveness and hypocrisy is indeed just a little empathy. If we could just look at the world through someone else’s eyes before we echo others in our silo and join in on the chorus of criticism, we would eliminate so much pain and suffering and improve the results and morale of the organization by leaps and bounds. Putting ourselves in others’ shoes would also counteract the tendency to even form competing silos in the first place. Because, by guarding against our natural tendency to fall into the naïve solipsism of a child, which assumes that only our experience is real and only our interests matter and that everything is “mine,” we naturally become more receptive to win-win solutions that benefit us, others, and the entire organization, and lay the groundwork for a virtuous cycle of continuously improved results and satisfaction. This solution is simple, but by no means is it easy! But the hard truth is that either we must choose to practice empathy on our own terms or eventually, when everything comes crashing down and we have nothing except the people around us, we will be forced to do so to survive.

Sometimes empathy is thrust upon us when we least expect it, but when we most need it. I witnessed this years ago when my wife and I lived in a city that was still pretty much segregated along racial lines, in the late 1980’s. As dismaying as it is that this happened only 30 years ago, at the time, as an inter-racial couple, we were limited in where we could live because of the bigotry entrenched in the culture of this society. Despite the fact that we were simply trying to live our lives the same as everyone else, we weren’t afforded that basic decency that empathy would have revealed as everyone’s fundamental right. Some people would have preferred that she stay on her side of the tracks, and, I’m sure, that I “go back to where I came from.” (Obviously we didn’t acquiesce before these racist “unwritten rules,” but that’s another story for another day.)

Things had been like this as far as I can remember, probably as far back as anyone can remember, until one day, there was a flood that affected 70% of the homes. And for a season, while the city was recovering from the devastation, the most beautiful thing happened. People set aside their feelings of superiority and animosity and bigotry, and they came together as one community and worked shoulder-to-shoulder to restore the homes and neighborhoods. They had been forced to empathize with one another as human beings, rather than demonizing and dehumanizing one another, because failing to do so was the difference between surviving or perishing. The key here is not that they gained some brand new ability when catastrophe struck, but that they were forced to practice their ability to empathize, an ability that they all had all along, because the world made them see that, in the grand scheme of things, it’s either united we stand or divided we fall.

Do we have to wait for a natural disaster to force us to see the good in each other? Does the world need to be invaded by aliens for us to set aside our bickering and recognize that we’re in this together? Do we have to put up with a dictator for a boss and suffer the divisive nature of how dictators operate, to recognize that coming together and collaborating creates a better workplace for all of us? Worse yet, do we have to create such a dire situation in our organizations or our communities that practicing empathy and civility and basic human decency is literally the only thing preventing us from going under? I should hope not! And I know that most of us, even those in silos, don’t want it to come to that. But, as I’ve mentioned before, the world doesn’t respond to how we feel or what we want, only to what we do. And the world is a strict taskmaster; if we fail to learn its lessons the first time, they just keep getting harder until we do!

Whether you are a leader in your organization or not, you can and must take steps to unite people. You can facilitate dialogue between silos, rather just finding one and crawling into it. You can stop shouting out the same thing that the people in your silo are chanting and begin to examine whose thoughts you are actually thinking and who it benefits for you to do so. You can begin to try imagining the world through the eyes of others and use foresight to work towards what is in the greater interest of the whole organization or community. You can take steps to equalize the power between the “haves” and “have nots,” rather than trying to make sure you don’t end up being one of the “have nots.” You can reject your boss’ ways of dividing and conquering people and take a chance on speaking up for what’s right. If nothing else, you refrain from judging someone else’s actions if you’ve never been in their shoes. Above all keep in mind that “this is the character of perfection: that the more a unity consists of diverse elements, the more that unity is perfect.”

There is no honor in perpetuating the status quo for your own benefit at the expense of the greater good. And there is no ultimate benefit of doing so either, because whatever short-term or narrow gains you make in the present come at the expense of the long-term wellbeing of that society or organization in which you “live and move and have your being.” There is no better time to develop and practice empathy than the present, while we have the choice and opportunity; if we don’t do it now, we risk having neither in the future.

Thanks for reading this post all the way through, I hope it made a difference for you! I just want to let all my followers and readers know that some big changes are coming to the blog and the website this summer. My team and I are very excited about what we have planned, and we know our community of readers and followers will be too! I can’t wait to share the news with you, so make sure you keep up with me on Facebook and LinkedIn.

You can now listen to the new 5-part audio series, “Transforming Your Workplace Experience!" This audio series serves as both a great standalone introduction to culture transformation, as well as a companion to our previously available free culture transformation guide. In the series, I walk you through some applications and examples of the concepts presented in the guide, so that you can more effectively put them into practice and get motivated by the progress you will start making. I know that after learning and applying the concepts and distinctions that I present in the guide and audio series, you will be more qualified than ever to create extraordinary cultures that consistently deliver breakthrough results!

The Transformative Leader Audiobook is available now! I'm so excited to announce that "The Transformative Leader" on audiobook is currently on sale now exclusively on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes! The wait is over for those of you who (like me) prefer to listen to books during their commute or while exercising or simply doing things around the house! If you aren't yet a member of Audible, you can use this link (https://adbl.co/2MZWmaF) and sign up for a free 30-day trial and receive "The Transformative Leader" audiobook for free (plus one credit per month thereafter)!

About the Author: Amir Ghannad is an international keynote speaker, author of The Transformative Leader, leadership consultant, culture transformation champion, and founder of The Ghannad Group. He has made it his life's work to guide leaders and equip them with the tools, skills, and the mindset necessary to create extraordinary workplace cultures that deliver breakthrough results. Download his free e-book, titled 5 Practical Steps to Make Your Culture Transformation Stick by clicking here.

Want to learn more about how The Ghannad Group serve and guide you in your leadership development and culture transformation efforts? Click here
Want to get in touch with Amir? Email amir@theghannadgroup.com

As always, have a great week! May you Boldly Declare, Courageously Pursue, and Abundantly Achieve the Extraordinary!

Copyright © 2019 The Ghannad Group, LLC, All Rights Reserved.

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A menos que seas Jefe de Estado o tengas un cargo importante en el gobierno, lo más probable es que te preguntes, “¿Qué tiene que ver mi carrera profesional con la paz del mundo?” Mi respuesta es “¡absolutamente todo!” Es así de sencillo. Mientras que algunos nos ocupamos por cerrar tratos o por encontrar soluciones parciales para evitar que la gente se mate por un pedazo de tierra o por sus creencias ideológicas, la mayoría nos hemos olvidado de la simple verdad que la clave para un mundo de paz son personas de paz.

No pretendo ser una autoridad en el tema de cómo adquirir paz interior, pero existe al menos una faceta de lo que es en sí la paz y la prosperidad respecto de lo cual sí se al menos una o dos cosas, y eso es, cómo crear ambientes de trabajo donde las personas se sientan inspiradas y satisfechas y con ello evitamos que regresen a sus casas y “pateen a su perrito”. Simplemente existen demasiadas personas,  rebasan el 50% según algunas estadísticas, quienes simplemente no se sienten satisfechas con sus trabajos, lugar en el que invierten la mayor parte de sus horas despiertas. He sido testigo del efecto dominó dentro de un lugar de trabajo sano, donde las personas se sienten satisfechas con sus trabajos /carreras profesionales, generan paz en abundancia y prosperidad en las vidas de los demás. Existe tal demanda que me he podido dedicar a crear justo ese tipo de culturas de trabajo donde las personas prosperan y las empresas florecen, así como desempeñándome como coach para enseñarle a otros a hacerlo también. Cabe aclarar, en esta ocasión, nuestra publicación se centra en qué podemos hacer, cada uno de nosotros, no nuestros jefes ni los altos directivos, para conseguir una plena satisfacción en el trabajo justo donde nos encontramos, o bien, para liberarnos con tal de perseguir y lograrlo en otro lugar.

Comencemos por examinar la naturaleza de un trabajo o carrera poco satisfactorio y cómo es que podría alguien encontrarse atascado en un lugar así. Existen una variedad de factores que contribuyen a que nos sintamos insatisfechos con nuestros trabajos. Un mal jefe se ubica hasta arriba en la lista porque todos sabemos que un buen líder generalmente nos ayudará a superar y nos compensará de alguna manera por todo aquello que nos disgusta de nuestro trabajo. Más allá, existen muchas otras causas tales como el carecer de amor y pasión por la carrera que hemos elegido, o bien el carecer de habilidades y destrezas especiales o de la competencia requerida para desempeñarnos con éxito en nuestro trabajo logrando resultados extraordinarios y recibiendo el merecido reconocimiento. Otras causas comunes incluyen el sentirse marginados de alguna manera, que no están recibiendo un salario o un trato justo, o el simple hecho de estar aburrido al no lograr visualizar adelante un futuro que entusiasme.

Sea lo que sea que detone a las personas a sentirse infelices en sus carreras profesionales, existe algo que tienen en común aquellos que se sienten atascados en trabajos poco satisfactorios: Todos han elegido permanecer ahí y continuar insatisfechos en lugar de emprender la acción. Si la palabra “elección” captó tu atención, por favor no cambies de canal. Te aseguro que esta edición hará una diferencia en tu vida si pones en práctica lo que aquí sugiero y si eres perseverante.  Nadie queremos otro sermón sobre cómo todos tenemos siempre una elección. Elegimos presentarnos a trabajar todos los días en un lugar que no soportamos sólo porque sabemos que de no hacerlo correrían graves consecuencias. Me he encontrado varias veces en mi vida en ese lugar sofocante donde permanecía por pensar “no encontraría un mejor trabajo” o, “no puedo perder los beneficios asociados con mi antigüedad y prefiero aguantar unos años más,” o, “no considero que pueda ganarme la vida haciendo lo que en verdad amo,”  o, “No quiero echar por la borda años de experiencia en un campo especializado para empezar de nuevo, desde abajo, en un campo que realmente me apasiona,” o, “podría poner mi propia empresa, pero no quiero asumir los riesgos de ser emprendedor,” — existen diversos. Cualquiera que sea tu razón, comprendo que para ti, es válida y real. También quiero que consideres que muchos de estos pensamientos están enraizados en temores, creencias falsas que te limitan, así como supuestos que simplemente no son reales, aún cuando aparenten serlo. Permíteme desempacar un poco más este asunto y brindarte algunas acciones concretas que deberías considerar a lo largo de tu expedición rumbo al éxito profesional.

1. Responsabilízate por tu satisfacción profesional – Tú y sólo tú eres responzable y el encargado de buscar y obtener satisfacción profesional. Las demás personas jugarán un rol crucial en tus logros pero deberás dejar de culpar a otros cuando las cosas no resulten como planeabas.

2. Toma ya la decisión de no conformarte jamás con un trabajo poco satisfactorio y cargate de intención y busca esa recompenza ya sea en tu actual trabajo o ve tras el éxito y logralo fuera. Puede que aún no sepas cómo lo lograrás, quizá no ocurra mañana mismo, y puede que tengas una larga lista de preocupaciones. Sin importar todo lo anterior, esta decisión por sí sola generará una posibilidad, si eliges ir tras ella tu experiencia en relación a tu actual situación de inmediato se transformará porque ahora ya sabes que no importa que tan mal estén las cosas hoy día, ESTARÁN MEJOR en el futuro.

3. Define en términos concretos lo que para ti significa el éxito  – Ve más allá del cargo que desearías ostentar y considera todos los aspectos de tu carrera incluyendo el tipo de trabajo, su ubicación, nivel de contribución, sueldo y prestaciones, etc. Luego, divide tus preferencias en aquellas cosas que “tienes” que tener, cuestiones que no estás dispuesto a negociar, y por otra parte esas cosas que “te gustaría” tener. El contar con esta clase de claridad guiará tu proceso de toma de decisiones.

4. Haz una evaluación de tu actual trabajo tomando en cuenta los siguientes tres factores, primordialmente pasión, destrezas, y demanda para dicho producto o servicio.  Tal como si ilustra aquí debajo, los trabajos que detonan máximos niveles de satisfacción son aquellos que se alinean con tu pasión y destrezas, lo cual tendrá como resultado final la producción de un producto o servicio con mucho potencial de mercado. Pero si llegara a faltar tan sólo uno de estos tres factores, te verás obligado a elegir entre tomar el curso indicado o cambiar de trabajo y buscar el éxito en otro lado, pero si eliges quedarte atrás atorado, repara en las palabras de Stephen Stills, “¡… si no puedes estar con quien amas, … ama a esa persona con quien estás…!

5. Ten muy claro si el trabajo que realizas:

a.      Contribuye a alguna causa que te sea relevante a ti
b.     Tiene un impacto, contribuyes y recibes el merecido reconocimiento
c.      Está apuntado hacia un futuro brillante lleno de éxito cósmico
d.     Te brinda conocimiento práctico y oportunidades de crecimiento
e.      Está bien remunerado

Siguiendo la lista a continuación, haz una a una las preguntas a modo de auto-reflexión y de manera periódica pídele su perspectiva a tu jefe directo:

6. Elabora un Plan y Ejecuta tu Plan – Prepárate para ser espontáneo y aprovechar oportunidades no previstas que se presenten en tu camino, pero siempre cuenta con un Plan Base que señale importantes Eventos con los que habrás de cumplir.

7. Construye y Cultiva tu Red de contactos – No esperes hasta que necesites algo. Descubre oportunidades para establecer relaciones mutuamente benéficas con un genuino interés de brindarle valor a los demás.

8. Pide retroalimentación, escucha y ponla en práctica – Busca comprender el punto de vista de los demás en cuanto a tu nivel de desempeño y destrezas.  Si tu jefe no es el más elocuente comunicador del mundo, toma la iniciativa haciéndole preguntas específicas.  En vez de decirle, “Déjame saber si tienes alguna retroalimentación para mi,” exprésale, “¿Qué hice, una cosa en particular, como facilitador durante la reunión de esta mañana, que a ti te haya parecido que fue muy buena??” or, “What is one thing I could have done better in running the meeting?”

9. Haz ese trabajo que amas hacer en tu tiempo libre, de forma gratuita en caso de ser necesario – Esta es una muy buena estrategia por diversas razones: Mejorarás con la práctica, estarás realizando una contribución, y estarás rodeado de espíritus afines a ti quienes muy posiblemente serán un enlace a oportunidades.

10. Trabaja ardua y continuamente en mejorar – No esperes una progresión extraordinaria donde rápidamente asciendes de un puesto al siguiente si tu contribución es promedio. Siempre deberás buscar y capitalizar esas oportunidades donde aprenderás y mejorarás tus habilidades y nivel de contribución.

Incluso si no encontraras relevantes estas sugerencias, te recomiendo que identifiques algunas y que intentes aplicarlas y que te comprometas a mantenerte ahí hasta completarlas. Estás dando un primer paso en la creación de la paz mundial, comenzando por ti. Como siempre, me encantaría que me escribieras relatando tus victorias así como tus desafíos y que incluyas cualquier consejo que quieras añadir a este tema. Te deseo que declares audazmente, que persigas valientemente, y que logres lo extraordinario en abundancia.

¡Que tengas una semana fantástica! Por favor, déjame tus comentarios aquí debajo o envíame un email a amir@theghannadgroup.com.

Si le gustó este artículo y desea leer más, puede hacer clic aquí para descargar 3 libros electrónicos que contienen más publicaciones de blog traducidas al español.

This article was translated from the original English by the excellent Rafael Pliego Samaniego of Traduccion Perfecta En La Que Puede Confiar, a company that specializes in translating live for demanding speakers, during summit events, guided tours around manufacturing plants, and webcasts. They have provided exceptional service to us here at The Ghannad Group and come highly recommended for all your Spanish/English business translation needs. You can learn more at speedytranslation.com.mx.

Sobre el Autor
Amir Ghannad es un orador principal internacional, autor de El Líder Transformador, consultor de liderazgo, catalizador de transformación de cultura y fundador de The Ghannad Group. Ha hecho el trabajo de su vida guiar a los líderes y equiparlos con las herramientas, habilidades y la mentalidad necesarias para crear culturas extraordinarias en el lugar de trabajo que brinden resultados innovadores. (Esta parte es una traducción automática, así que perdone los errores encontrados aquí).

As always, have a great week! May you Boldly Declare, Courageously Pursue, and Abundantly Achieve the Extraordinary!

Copyright © 2020 The Ghannad Group, LLC, All Rights Reserved.

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Over the weekend, I got an unscheduled call from one of the employees at a company that I’m currently doing some consulting with. There was nothing unusual about that in itself, as I had made it clear that I was available to pretty much anyone within the organization whenever they felt the need to reach out. This particular person was calling specifically to ask for my help in getting out of “the stands” and getting back “on the court.” He had just found out that he had been turned down for a promotion that he felt he deserved. He had been doing all the right things and he just knew the formal announcement was coming, only to find out that someone else had gotten the position. Needless to say, the news had left him seriously demoralized and disappointed in himself, and he made the wise decision to seek a little outside support.

After some back and forth, it became clear that this person, whose capabilities I respect a great deal, was basically ready to give up on even trying to be a leader. He felt he had been sidelined and he sounded this close to taking his place “in the stands,” where you just talk about the game and criticize others and settle for never being able to make a difference. I knew he was better than that. More importantly, he knew he was better than that, and that is one reason that the experience took so much out of him.

In the beginning, the conversation was understandably a lot of doom and gloom and, quite frankly, I wasn’t sure if there was anything I could say to make a difference for him. But within 15 minutes, we discovered the true source of his anguish, and he was able to completely shift his mindset to getting back “on the court” like never before. Although we talked about a few topics on our short call, clearing up one very important misconception ended up being the key to him completely turning his outlook around, and that’s what I want to share in this post.

What we discovered was that he was making himself wrong for being disappointed, but to add insult to injury, since he knew better than to make himself wrong for anything, he was making himself wrong for making himself wrong! It wasn’t necessarily that he had been passed over, and not even that his initial reaction to it, but rather what he was making that reaction mean about him, that was causing him all this anguish and despair. More than anything, his disappointment in himself for being disappointed and demoralized was responsible for the downward spiral of his morale and self-esteem.

It wasn’t necessarily his boss’s opinion of him, but his opinion of himself that had him concerned. He basically said that he had previously thought of himself as a good leader, but after seeing how much being passed over for the promotion bothered him, he concluded that he must not have what it takes, because a true leader wouldn’t let such “petty” things upset them.

What I was able to have him see was that feeling disappointed or even angry did not disqualify him as a leader. On the contrary, it is completely natural to feel such emotions when you’re committed to achieving a certain goal and then you fall short; feel bad when something bad happens is exactly how it is supposed to be. We all experience negative thoughts and emotions that aren’t fully within our control, but that’s just part of what it means to be human. And if there’s one thing that I know, it’s that being an imperfect human does not disqualify you from being a leader. In fact, being human means that, even though we don’t always get to choose our thoughts or feelings, we do get to choose what we do in response to them.

Back on the call, I reminded him that, while he couldn’t be blamed for the immediate emotions that showed up, only he was responsible for the intentional actions he took as a result. Since he was quite familiar with the chapter in my book titled “Keep the Passion, Ditch the Drama,” we were able to quickly come to the conclusion that while it is ideal to identify and prevent drama when possible, the next best thing would be to acknowledge when we have entered the drama zone and work on getting back in the passion zone.

By definition, we all experience negative thoughts and emotions more than we would like, and we have all had bad days, weeks, or months. We all have different flaws that make us susceptible to these reactions, but there is one thing that is true for all of us, and it is this: There is almost nothing else that exacerbates our negative experiences quicker than thinking that we shouldn’t be experiencing them to begin with! So, some of the best advice I can give to my fellow leaders out there is, “If at all possible, don’t ‘should’ yourself.” And when you inevitably do just that, try not to make yourself wrong.

Through abundant personal experience, I have found that, without a doubt, making ourselves wrong always creates more anguish and strife than whatever it is we are making ourselves wrong about. We suffer most not from the way things are, but from the belief that they should be otherwise, and this is especially true when we believe that we should be otherwise. And as I always say, it happens to the best of us. In fact, the deeper you are into your leadership journey, the higher your expectations of yourself will become, and the easier it will be to condemn yourself fail to live up to them. But, as a leader, since your reach must always exceed your grasp, it couldn’t be any other way. Likewise, the bigger the transformation you are out to create, the more likely it is that you will find yourself falling short of being able to do just that. We have to remind ourselves that failure is part of the process, and so is feeling bad about it when it happens. And the key here is that there is nothing wrong with any of that.

If there is one thing I want to leave you with, it is this: you don’t have to be perfect to be a leader. In fact, you can’t be perfect if you want to be a leader, so there’s no point in even trying to be. Unless you have tasted defeat in that arena, and wiped the dust, sweat and blood out of your eyes, and unless you know what it feels like to fail over and over again only to get back up just one more time, you can never help others do the same. You can’t lead other human beings without being human yourself, with all the frailty and imperfection that comes along with it. So, be grateful that you aren’t the perfect leader you aspire to be, be grateful that you get to walk the path of excellence.

So, by all means, do what you can to remain proactive and positive, but when your emotions get the best of you, remember that it doesn’t mean anything. If you’re making yourself wrong, there’s nothing wrong. And if you are making yourself wrong because you’re making yourself wrong, there is still nothing wrong. Don’t use your feelings as an excuse to label yourself and take yourself out of the game, and when you end up doing just that, don’t use that as an excuse either! Instead, take the time to experience whatever is there and focus on getting back on track. One easy way to do that is to answer the three questions outlined in the chapter in my book titled “Life Lessons from a GPS,” which you can download for free right here. And, of course, don’t hesitate to reach out to those willing to support you in getting yourself out of a rut, especially when you think you “shouldn’t” have to.

Thanks for reading this post all the way through, I hope it made a difference for you! I just want to let all my followers and readers know that some big changes are coming to the blog and the website this summer. My team and I are very excited about what we have planned, and we know our community of readers and followers will be too! I can’t wait to share the news with you, so make sure you keep up with me on Facebook and LinkedIn.

You can now listen to the new 5-part audio series, “Transforming Your Workplace Experience!" This audio series serves as both a great standalone introduction to culture transformation, as well as a companion to our previously available free culture transformation guide. In the series, I walk you through some applications and examples of the concepts presented in the guide, so that you can more effectively put them into practice and get motivated by the progress you will start making. I know that after learning and applying the concepts and distinctions that I present in the guide and audio series, you will be more qualified than ever to create extraordinary cultures that consistently deliver breakthrough results!

The Transformative Leader Audiobook is available now! I'm so excited to announce that "The Transformative Leader" on audiobook is currently on sale now exclusively on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes! The wait is over for those of you who (like me) prefer to listen to books during their commute or while exercising or simply doing things around the house! If you aren't yet a member of Audible, you can use this link (https://adbl.co/2MZWmaF) and sign up for a free 30-day trial and receive "The Transformative Leader" audiobook for free (plus one credit per month thereafter)!

About the Author: Amir Ghannad is an international keynote speaker, author of The Transformative Leader, leadership consultant, culture transformation champion, and founder of The Ghannad Group. He has made it his life's work to guide leaders and equip them with the tools, skills, and the mindset necessary to create extraordinary workplace cultures that deliver breakthrough results. Download his free e-book, titled 5 Practical Steps to Make Your Culture Transformation Stick by clicking here.

Want to learn more about how The Ghannad Group serve and guide you in your leadership development and culture transformation efforts? Click here
Want to get in touch with Amir? Email amir@theghannadgroup.com

As always, have a great week! May you Boldly Declare, Courageously Pursue, and Abundantly Achieve the Extraordinary!

Copyright © 2019 The Ghannad Group, LLC, All Rights Reserved.

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I have been abundantly blessed with the success I have enjoyed during my 31-year corporate career and now as an independent consultant. Looking back, I can clearly see that much of my personal growth as a leader came about while I grappled with the challenges of the turnaround situations I was deployed to. There were at least 7 of those that I can recall, and they all served a purpose in some form or fashion.

I also earned a great deal from my bosses many of whom were completely supportive leaders who believed in me and role-modeled servant leadership through the ups and downs of the process. I owe much of my success to them as they provided coaching, positive reinforcement, constructive feedback, and at times, told me things I didn’t want to—but needed to—hear.  

On the other hand, I also had to deal with my fair share of bosses who did everything they could to make things difficult, both for me and for the organization. Most were more concerned with their image than the health of the organization, lacked emotional intelligence and tactfulness, didn’t believe transformation was possible or even worth pursuing, and so on. There were those who constantly sowed seeds of doubt and cynicism, those who didn’t lift a finger to help with transformation efforts, and even those who actively seemed to create roadblocks for any initiatives that were actually gaining traction. I can’t say they were all bad bosses, but many did behave like bad bosses pretty consistently, so make of that what you will!

What I realize now, in retrospect, is that I indeed learned just as many valuable lessons from the bad bosses as I did from the good ones. In fact, having to fight for the support and resources we needed to transform the workplace under bosses who were not on the same page just strengthened our resolve that much more. Although it was painful at the time, I can’t help but credit the most rapid and powerful growth spurts in my career to behaviors I saw that I was clear I should never emulate.

The following represents a few specific scenarios where my bosses behaved in less than admirable ways, as well as the invaluable lessons that I gleaned from those situations:

• The Wednesday Night Massacre – My boss had been clear that when we planned a maintenance outage, we had to plan every detail far in advance and make no changes during the week prior to the event. My fellow maintenance managers and I knew the expectation and yet we made a principle-based decision to add a minor task to the list to address an issue that had recently been discovered. In our professional judgment, this was a prudent decision for the company before we shut down a multi-million dollar piece of equipment for maintenance. Later, we were at our monthly social outing with the boss where he’d buy us a few beers and get the inside scoop on what was really going on. At one point, one of the maintenance managers let the boss in on what we had done, thinking he wouldn’t have a problem with it. This brought the pleasantries to a halt, and the boss went into “Incredible Hulk” mode and proceeded to chew us out in the most vicious and disrespectful manner in front of the other ten or so of our peers. Then he abruptly dismissed everyone else, who quickly scurried out of the place, and proceeded to chew us out some more. Finally, he stopped and asked us how we felt, because, of course, he cared so much about us!! When we were honest about our feelings, he chewed us out some more and then dismissed us! A few days later, he gathered us around to reflect on the incident, which by then had gone down in history as the “Wednesday Night Massacre,” and then delivered a “non-apology!”

Lessons Learned:

1. When it is necessary to deviate from arbitrary standards in order to meet a real business need, go ahead and do it, even though you may have a scar on your hind parts to show for it later. Ideally, when such deviations are warranted, extend the courtesy to inform those who have set those standards as soon as possible.

2. Embarrassing people in front of their peers, or anyone else for that matter, serves no productive purpose, and will do irreparable damage to your reputation that you will never really recover from. Just don’t do it. And if you do, apologize and make it right.

• Rehearsed Intimidation – My operation was having a tough time in the early stages of a turnaround (which eventually had a happy ending) and my boss and his boss came to pay us a visit. As I met with the two of them, my boss’s boss went off on a tirade and was literally yelling and screaming at me for not having fixed the problems yet. I was bewildered, as I thought they were there to find out what support I needed from them, but she continued to dish out more incoherent insults. I remained quiet and only answered the questions she asked. I later found out that the two of them had rehearsed the details of this meeting, including where each of them was going to sit in my office and what each of them would say!

Lesson Learned:

3. Never shy away from delivering the tough feedback people need to hear, but do it while keeping your composure and, certainly, do not rehearse premeditated drama for effect. It causes you to lose credibility, makes you look like a buffoon, and gets nothing useful done.

• No-win Situation – While dealing with the challenges of the aforementioned operation, my boss and his boss decided that it was time for them to come and camp out at the plant, take matters into their own hands, and lead my operation. They were under the illusion that we had “simple issues” that they would be able to easily figure out and address. However, they both discovered that this was (obviously) not the case, and eventually, left us to do what we needed to do. Meanwhile, it was clear that, in their minds, had they succeeded, they would be heroes, and had they failed to make any more progress than we were making, it would have been because we had screwed up so badly that even they could not fix it.

Lesson Learned:

4. Leaders must be the guides and supporters, not heroes. Even if you have the answers, and even if you deem appropriate to take a hands-on approach, do so with the aim of supporting, elevating, and building capability in the people who have been entrusted to lead.

• Caught in the Crossfire – My regional boss and my local boss were friends personally, but were like fire and water professionally. The regional boss did everything he could to not support anything I was doing in my operation, and my local boss knew what was going on but didn’t want to intervene. I was unsuccessful in pleasing either of these two powerful figures as they often provided conflicting direction. As I ended my assignment in a less than glamourous way, the regional boss admitted to me that I had gotten caught in the crossfire. In his mind, my local boss “didn’t know which end of the hammer to hold,” and they never saw eye to eye, yet I was the one who paid the price for their unwillingness to let go of their pettiness and work for the good of the organization.

Lessons Learned:

5. If you have multiple bosses who give you different direction, do whatever you can to bring them together to resolve their issues, rather than trying to keep them both happy. The latter most likely won’t work.

6. As a leader, get aligned with your peers rather than pushing the complexity down the line and putting your people between a rock and hard place. Forcing them to choose between following your direction or your peer’s, means ensuring that the organization will suffer because of your lack of interpersonal integrity.

• Lack of Integrity – My boss would invite me and a couple of other colleagues out to dinner and would order expensive bottles of wine. Then, even though company policy stated that the highest-ranking person must pick up the tab for business entertainment, he would always ask one of us to pay the bill so he could approve it in order to hide the unreasonable expenses from his boss.

Lesson Learned:

7. Integrity matters, all the time! That goes triple for leaders! When you demonstrate lack of integrity in one area, you lose credibility and respect as a leader, and as a person, in all other areas of your life.

• Absent-minded and Unapologetic – My boss consistently raved about my performance for months and repeatedly let me know I could expect a great pay raise in a shorter period of time than average. I had been getting raises every 9 months. Nine months came and went and no raise. Right around 12 months, I decided to inquire about the raise. She was shocked that I had not received it and said she had turned the paperwork in. Then she found out she had actually not processed it properly, so it would be another month before I got may raise. I was not surprised, as managing the details wasn’t her thing and I had to remind her to do many of the routine tasks she was responsible for. (On more than one occasion, I had to ghost-write her memos and do other things to make her look like she had it under control.) When I asked if she would be willing to make the increase retroactive, she blew up and not only refused to acknowledge that she had dropped the ball, but became very aggressive in basically calling me greedy for asking for what she had promised and failed to deliver for months!

Lesson Learned:

8. We all make mistakes. When it happens, at least own up to it. If you can make it right, do so, but if it can’t be done, apologize and try make it up to the person who was affected.

• Jealous Boss – On one occasion, I joined the company President’s leadership team, and as I quickly earned his trust, he asked me to spearhead a certain effort. Excited about this opportunity, I approached one of the other team members whose responsibilities were along the lines of what I had been asked to lead, so we could collaborate and make it happen. I was shocked when this person, who was higher on the organizational chart than me, became visibly irritated and stated that the work I had been asked to do was their job and that he didn’t understand why the President would have asked me to lead it. I did my best to let him know that I would be happy to follow his lead and we could work together, but our relationship was never the same. While I considered him to be a ranking member of the team, he continued to see me as competition that needed to be defeated.

Lesson Learned:

9. Be secure enough in your contribution that you are not worried about others, especially those in more junior roles, taking away your “credit.” Jealousy and insecurity diminish your standing and credibility in the eyes of others.

• No Personal Life Allowed – During a tough turnaround, when we had all been working extra hard to get the results on track, I took a few hours off to attend my son’s high school graduation. While I was at the ceremony, my boss’s boss—yes, the same person mentioned earlier—was blowing up my cell phone over an insignificant issue that could have waited a few hours until I got back. She knew I was at the graduation, but she wanted my attention and she refused to take no for an answer. I ended up taking her call after the ceremony and getting yelled at, again, over something my team clearly had under control already. It was clear to me she wanted to inflict as much pain on me as possible, because of her own insecurity and fear that he value to the organization would be undermined if those more junior to her were to succeed.

Lesson Learned:

10. Treating people with dignity and respect and extending the courtesy of respecting their personal lives should not depend on their performance at work. Failing to demonstrate that you can care about people when the going gets tough shows them your true colors. Mistreating people in such a way means that you can pretty much say goodbye to any goodwill you might have built up until this point.

So, there are a few lessons I learned from my bad bosses, and I’m very grateful to have had the opportunity to do so. The bad bosses we all have to deal with in our lives have chosen to act in such a way that, instead of being our allies and supporters, they have turned themselves into obstacles we must overcome or work around. But, to paraphrase Marcus Aurelius, it is not obstacles that block our path, rather, it is that the obstacles themselves are the path. The heavier the burden you have to shoulder, the stronger your muscles become in response. As I like to say, nothing bad has ever happened to me, because it all eventually worked for good in the end. Every experience is a teacher, and that goes even more for negative ones.

Thanks to my bosses who didn’t believe in me, until they saw the results anyway, I had to believe in myself and my people. Because a few of my bosses had no faith in a brighter future, I had to develop faith in the transformative vision I had for the organization. When they withheld the resources I needed, I had to become wiser at using what I had available. Because I didn’t get support from them, I had to engage my peers so that we could support each other. And because many of them did whatever they could to drag me down, it only ensured that I would have to surpass them and essentially render them obsolete.

What invaluable lessons have you been lucky enough to learn from your bad bosses? Or are you currently in a situation with a bad boss, and would like help trying to figure out what lesson you should be taking away? Let me know in the comments below.

You can now listen to the new 5-part audio series, “Transforming Your Workplace Experience!" This audio series serves as both a great standalone introduction to culture transformation, as well as a companion to our previously available free culture transformation guide. In the series, I walk you through some applications and examples of the concepts presented in the guide, so that you can more effectively put them into practice and get motivated by the progress you will start making. I know that after learning and applying the concepts and distinctions that I present in the guide and audio series, you will be more qualified than ever to create extraordinary cultures that consistently deliver breakthrough results!

The Transformative Leader Audiobook is available now! I'm so excited to announce that "The Transformative Leader" on audiobook is currently on sale now exclusively on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes! The wait is over for those of you who (like me) prefer to listen to books during their commute or while exercising or simply doing things around the house! If you aren't yet a member of Audible, you can use this link (https://adbl.co/2MZWmaF) and sign up for a free 30-day trial and receive "The Transformative Leader" audiobook for free (plus one credit per month thereafter)!

About the Author: Amir Ghannad is an international keynote speaker, author of The Transformative Leader, leadership consultant, culture transformation champion, and founder of The Ghannad Group. He has made it his life's work to guide leaders and equip them with the tools, skills, and the mindset necessary to create extraordinary workplace cultures that deliver breakthrough results. Download his free e-book, titled 5 Practical Steps to Make Your Culture Transformation Stick by clicking here.

Want to learn more about how The Ghannad Group serve and guide you in your leadership development and culture transformation efforts? Click here
Want to get in touch with Amir? Email amir@theghannadgroup.com

As always, have a great week! May you Boldly Declare, Courageously Pursue, and Abundantly Achieve the Extraordinary!

Copyright © 2019 The Ghannad Group, LLC, All Rights Reserved.

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A couple of weeks ago, I attended a conference where a behavioral scientist was making a case for the fact that having information does not necessarily lead to behavior change. As I like to put it: it isn’t knowing what to do, but doing what you know, that makes all the difference. While we all accept that we have to know better before we can do better, many of us confuse the former for the latter, and this is where we end up getting held back. This point, that simply knowing better isn’t the same as doing better, is what the behavioral scientist was trying to convey. To demonstrate this truth, she took us through an exercise where she asked us a few questions which went like this:

“How many of you have heard that exercising three times a week is good for you?” Almost every hand went up.

“How many of you believe that is true?” Almost every hand went up again.

“How many of you believe that this applies to you, and if you did exercise three times a week, your health would improve?” Just about everybody raised their hand (with the exception of a few who had figured out where this was going).

Then she asked the question that she had been waiting to ask. “How many of you have been exercising three times a week for the past few weeks?” A quick glance around the room, and I could count on my fingers the number of hands that went up in the audience of about 200 people.

To drive her point home, she then presented us with some mind-boggling data that said, based on a meta-analysis of 188 research studies, The Effect of Financial Literacy and Financial Education on Downstream Financial Behavior, only 0.1% of variance in financial behaviors are explained by content-based, financial education interventions. To put that another way, more financial knowledge and training only significantly impacted the financial behavior of 0.1% of people studied. Out of the over half million people studied, extra education only made a difference for about 500! That’s one tenth of a percent, as in 1/1000, which is a pretty pathetic ROI no matter where you sit.

How could this be? Is training and education that useless? Should we just abandon education and training altogether? Of course not! We know that training and education are invaluable and irreplaceable when they are actually needed. Construction workers need to be trained in the proper use of their tools and machinery, accountants need to be educated on the tax code, electricians need knowledge and training to work with circuits and appliances, etc. I believe education and training is necessary in any area of life where you want to develop mastery, but they not sufficient alone to bring about a transformation in your behavior and ultimately your results. That requires something more than knowing what to do, more than just tools and skills.

In my experience, this is even more true when it comes to leadership development. Some training is necessary and helpful in the beginning, especially if one has learned their way through the school of hard knocks, but at a certain point, you reach the point of diminishing returns when it comes to equipping the person with more knowledge of even skills. Truly transformative leadership development, the kind that creates consistent growth in success and fulfillment, is about getting leaders to see how their current mindset and behaviors are working against them, and then cultivating in them the inclination, opportunity, and desire to change.

From there, it’s about making sure that they have a supportive community of accountability partners doing this same work, having them make bold declarations that force them to grow beyond the person they have been relating to themselves as until now, and about putting accountability structures in place that keep them moving toward the transformative vision that they have created. Ultimately, what makes the difference is going for something big, difficult, and important and seeking out the knowledge and skills that you need overcome the actual, real-life challenge of pulling it off. Without that, you will invariably end up spinning your wheels in more “useless” training classes, learning a bunch of information and perspective and tools that have a 0.1% chance of maybe someday impacting your life.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I have been a proponent of training and development for my entire career. They are important and necessary. The fact is, you can’t even really begin to work on shifting your mindset in earnest until you have the requisite training and education to develop a certain level of competence. So, why do I say “the last thing you need is training?” Well, for one thing to pique your curiosity so you would read my blog post! But seriously, because I believe we all need to put more thought into how we approach training and education when it comes to the workplace. Our current approach isn’t helping those attending these trainings, those paying for the training, and it is giving the false impression that all training and development are useless.

Again, that’s not what I’m saying here. Training and education are essential, but only up to a certain point and in a certain context. Just giving people more knowledge and skills doesn’t help them with how to actually put that knowledge and those skills into practice to make a difference for themselves or their community. At a certain point, once they achieve competence or expertise, more tools and skills just don’t move the needle anymore. How to shift their mindset, how to use the tools and skills they already have to overcome the specific challenges they are facing, and how to deliver specific results that represent a step-change from the past: these are the missing keys when it comes to most training and education.

I appreciate the investment that was made in my development over the years, and I have invested a lot in making sure that those in my organizations had the knowledge and skills they needed to succeed at work and in life. Unfortunately, I must admit that I have also attended many “useless” training sessions and I have invested in many, many more of those for my people out of ignorance. I’ve had experience on both sides of the spectrum, and, now in my own leadership development practice, I’m proud to say that I do my very best to incorporate as many of the missing keys necessary to turn insight into action and training into success in all of my sessions, even on short-term engagements.

Next time you are looking to conduct training, make sure the following components are considered and intentionally integrated into your plans:

1. Stretch Goals – Why are the participants attending this training? What bold future are they creating? Have they set some goals that they are working toward that compel them to get something tangible and practical out of the session or program and do something with it?

2. Coach – Who will coach the participants beyond the training session?

3. Community – Is there a community that will encourage each other and keep each other honest in action with their commitments?

4. Accountability Structure – What structure do you have in place to ensure that following through and doing the work doesn’t take a back seat to everything else that is going on?

5. Immersion – How are you going to make sure that the participants are reminded of their takeaways often and remain immersed in a conversation that elevates them to the next level of performance and fulfillment?

One of our programs, The Transformative Leadership Academy, brings all these necessary ingredients together. This 3.5-month program is one that I have been conducting for about 14 years, first in my own operations, then as a consultant for my clients. Every single time I have conducted one, it has delivered breakthrough results on an almost unimaginable scale for those who have participated.

How it works is that we identify 8-12 participants who are doing well and have shown potential to take their influence and effectiveness to the next level. Each participant takes on an actual project within the organization—not a test case or hypothetical—and declares stretching targets that they only have a 50/50 chance of delivering. They declare the characteristics and skills and that they want to develop in themselves and a target community in the course of delivering on their project, then we agree on monthly milestones, and off we go!

We start the program with a 3-day face-to-face intensive session, where the participants not only receive personal and culture transformation training, but most importantly come together as a community and set the tone for the rest of the program. Each participant is assigned a coach within the organization and we establish a structure for the participants to develop weekly plans and meetings with their coach. We also meet as a team every week, or every other week in some cases, to not only further train and develop the participants but give them coaching and support in getting their project done.

In the end, what happens consistently is that not only the participants deliver extraordinary results that they didn’t think were possible but they also begin to relate to themselves differently. They develop the skills, characteristics, and mindset that set them up for success no matter what challenges they may face in the future, and they begin to cultivate a level of influence that enables them to begin guiding others in the organization down this path as well. As a bonus, most, if not all, report significant benefits in their personal lives, which go on to enhance their performance and satisfaction at work, and vice versa.

Click here to learn more about The Transformative Leadership Academy. Let us know if you are interested in having a conversation about bringing The Academy to your team and accelerating your progress in delivering extraordinary results and experiencing unprecedented growth and fulfillment.

You can now listen to the new 5-part audio series, “Transforming Your Workplace Experience!" This audio series serves as both a great standalone introduction to culture transformation, as well as a companion to our previously available free culture transformation guide. In the series, I walk you through some applications and examples of the concepts presented in the guide, so that you can more effectively put them into practice and get motivated by the progress you will start making. I know that after learning and applying the concepts and distinctions that I present in the guide and audio series, you will be more qualified than ever to create extraordinary cultures that consistently deliver breakthrough results!

The Transformative Leader Audiobook is available now! I'm so excited to announce that "The Transformative Leader" on audiobook is currently on sale now exclusively on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes! The wait is over for those of you who (like me) prefer to listen to books during their commute or while exercising or simply doing things around the house! If you aren't yet a member of Audible, you can use this link (https://adbl.co/2MZWmaF) and sign up for a free 30-day trial and receive "The Transformative Leader" audiobook for free (plus one credit per month thereafter)!

About the Author: Amir Ghannad is an international keynote speaker, author of The Transformative Leader, leadership consultant, culture transformation champion, and founder of The Ghannad Group. He has made it his life's work to guide leaders and equip them with the tools, skills, and the mindset necessary to create extraordinary workplace cultures that deliver breakthrough results. Download his free e-book, titled 5 Practical Steps to Make Your Culture Transformation Stick by clicking here.

Want to learn more about how The Ghannad Group serve and guide you in your leadership development and culture transformation efforts? Click here
Want to get in touch with Amir? Email amir@theghannadgroup.com

As always, have a great week! May you Boldly Declare, Courageously Pursue, and Abundantly Achieve the Extraordinary!

Copyright © 2019 The Ghannad Group, LLC, All Rights Reserved.

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As many of you know, I consider it my mission to help each person live an extraordinary life by fulfilling their unique purpose in the world. Specifically, through my work at The Ghannad Group, I guide others in transforming their workplace culture such that they experience unprecedented success and fulfillment, no matter where they are on the organizational chart. Part of that effort involves outreach, and that’s where this new speaker demo video comes in!

https://vimeo.com/340751172

I’d love for you to check it out and see if it resonates with you. If you think I would be a good fit for your organization or event, or you feel that someone in your network could benefit from what I bring, you would be doing us a huge favor by sharing it with the relevant people. (You can either link them to this post, or share the video link with them directly.)

Thanks so much for your support,

Amir

You can now listen to the new 5-part audio series, “Transforming Your Workplace Experience!" This audio series serves as both a great standalone introduction to culture transformation, as well as a companion to our previously available free culture transformation guide. In the series, I walk you through some applications and examples of the concepts presented in the guide, so that you can more effectively put them into practice and get motivated by the progress you will start making. I know that after learning and applying the concepts and distinctions that I present in the guide and audio series, you will be more qualified than ever to create extraordinary cultures that consistently deliver breakthrough results!

The Transformative Leader Audiobook is available now! I'm so excited to announce that "The Transformative Leader" on audiobook is currently on sale now exclusively on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes! The wait is over for those of you who (like me) prefer to listen to books during their commute or while exercising or simply doing things around the house! If you aren't yet a member of Audible, you can use this link (https://adbl.co/2MZWmaF) and sign up for a free 30-day trial and receive "The Transformative Leader" audiobook for free (plus one credit per month thereafter)!

About the Author: Amir Ghannad is an international keynote speaker, author of The Transformative Leader, leadership consultant, culture transformation champion, and founder of The Ghannad Group. He has made it his life's work to guide leaders and equip them with the tools, skills, and the mindset necessary to create extraordinary workplace cultures that deliver breakthrough results. Download his free e-book, titled 5 Practical Steps to Make Your Culture Transformation Stick by clicking here.

Want to learn more about how The Ghannad Group serve and guide you in your leadership development and culture transformation efforts? Click here
Want to get in touch with Amir? Email amir@theghannadgroup.com

As always, have a great week! May you Boldly Declare, Courageously Pursue, and Abundantly Achieve the Extraordinary!

Copyright © 2019 The Ghannad Group, LLC, All Rights Reserved.

Blog RSS

I remember interviewing someone for a key leadership position at my operation in Thailand, and halfway through the conversation, as he was telling me about his qualifications, he announced, with much pride, that he was an alcoholic and had a lot of passion for what he did. Startled at this revelation and puzzled as to why he would so freely divulge this information and wear it as a badge of honor, I circled back to the comment and asked him to elaborate a little. He went on to mention a few more times that he had been an alcoholic for as long as he could remember and that his job always came first. Upon further questioning, the poor fellow realized that he had been saying “alcoholic” when he meant to be saying “workaholic!”

Most workaholics are indeed proud to sacrifice everything else for their career. As for the rest of us who actually want a life, there is something called work-life balance that we are constantly trying to achieve! The idea of work-life balance sounds like a great solution, I suppose, if you are in a situation where balancing your work and your life is a zero-sum game. In other words, if your work sucks the life out of you, you ought to not let your work interfere too much with your life. And if pursuits and hobbies in your personal life preclude you from bringing your best to work, then you have to take action to keep them both separate.

Over the years, there have been some attempts to redefine work-life balance. Instead of calling it balance, it has been given other names like “integration” or “flow.” In the end, no matter what you call it, it comes down to a give and take between your work and the rest of your personal life, because these two areas comprise the entirety of most people’s experience.

Instead of attempting to redefine the problem, the alternative I would offer is to stop addressing the symptom of the real problem and get down to the root cause of the issue. The true reason we struggle with attaining work-life balance is that 80% of people are not excited about or fully engaged in their work to begin with! It is difficult to achieve balance when most people hate or dread one side of the equation by default, so that’s where we need to start. And, as the saying goes, if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life!

What if we stopped trying to “balance” or “integrate,” or whatever other term you want to use, and started making a commitment to ourselves to be intentional about the kind of life we want and then do the kind of work that would enhance that life, and vice versa? What if we stopped obsessing over the money and the status and other tangible benefits of having a job that we may or may not enjoy, while trying to salvage what is left of us for our families and an occasional vacation? Why not design a life where work-life balance is not something we must strive to achieve, but rather comes about naturally because each flows into and supports the other?

This practice doesn’t have to involve giving up your desires for material possessions or living a life on some secluded beach that involves no challenges and therefore no growth and development. Just the opposite. Designing and living an extraordinary life requires us to figure out what kind of lifestyle we intend to have, what kind of work speaks to our soul, what kind of contribution we would like to make in this world, in what ways we want to grow, and so on. And the more grounded we are in what our ideal life would look and feel like, the more likely we are to pursue a profession that enriches our life and provides us with challenges that we look forward to overcoming. And I would argue that doing this is much more likely to result in our compensation and experience of reward increasing, rather than requiring us to give up on the supposed benefits of a job that we don’t even enjoy. Doing this also means that we are clear at what point the pursuit of more notoriety or wealth simply detracts from the life we want to live.

Does this mean we should never do anything that makes us feel uncomfortable or requires us to stretch ourselves in some way? Absolutely not. I believe when you are doing the work you love, you are much more likely to declare a bold future and go for it, and I am convinced that doing so will bring about more growth and development than constantly trying to under-promise and over-deliver. It is actually very invigorating and exciting to figure out how to overcome challenges in the course of going after something we are truly committed to, rather than being relatively comfortable in a job we have no passion for. As I always say, it is not the size of your challenges, but the size of your commitments that determine your experience of life.

If you are committed to living an extraordinary life, you may endure small detours that are either necessary or unavoidable, but your internal GPS will constantly bring you back to the path that is your ideal life experience as a whole person. Then all you have to do is pay attention to the guidance and resources all around you, and make decisions in service of creating the life you want to live, which includes the work you want to do. But if you want to be successful, you have to believe that achieving this type of work-life balance is possible in the first place.

If you don’t believe that you can make a great living at doing what you love, or that your work can actually be fun and exciting and it can enhance and enrich your life, you won’t have the wherewithal to pursue it and you will end up settling for being one of the 80+% of the people who are not fully engaged in their work and hoping in vain to find that work-life balance somehow. If you do believe it is possible, however, you ought to begin by imagining what a fulfilling life would look like, both in terms of your personal and professional life. Believe that it can happen will end up setting your internal GPS to keep you on the right path, and even if it takes you a while, you can trust that you will make whatever course corrections are necessary along the way to reach your destination.

I hope you have found this perspective to be thought-provoking and a call to action to go beyond work-life balance by designing and living a life you love. I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences on maintaining work-life balance. Have you been successful? Have you found it challenging? What tips and tricks do you have for others? Let us know in the comments below.

You can now listen to the new 5-part audio series, “Transforming Your Workplace Experience!" This audio series serves as both a great standalone introduction to culture transformation, as well as a companion to our previously available free culture transformation guide. In the series, I walk you through some applications and examples of the concepts presented in the guide, so that you can more effectively put them into practice and get motivated by the progress you will start making. I know that after learning and applying the concepts and distinctions that I present in the guide and audio series, you will be more qualified than ever to create extraordinary cultures that consistently deliver breakthrough results!

The Transformative Leader Audiobook is available now! I'm so excited to announce that "The Transformative Leader" on audiobook is currently on sale now exclusively on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes! The wait is over for those of you who (like me) prefer to listen to books during their commute or while exercising or simply doing things around the house! If you aren't yet a member of Audible, you can use this link (https://adbl.co/2MZWmaF) and sign up for a free 30-day trial and receive "The Transformative Leader" audiobook for free (plus one credit per month thereafter)!

About the Author: Amir Ghannad is an international keynote speaker, author of The Transformative Leader, leadership consultant, culture transformation champion, and founder of The Ghannad Group. He has made it his life's work to guide leaders and equip them with the tools, skills, and the mindset necessary to create extraordinary workplace cultures that deliver breakthrough results. Download his free e-book, titled 5 Practical Steps to Make Your Culture Transformation Stick by clicking here.

Want to learn more about how The Ghannad Group serve and guide you in your leadership development and culture transformation efforts? Click here
Want to get in touch with Amir? Email amir@theghannadgroup.com

As always, have a great week! May you Boldly Declare, Courageously Pursue, and Abundantly Achieve the Extraordinary!

Copyright © 2019 The Ghannad Group, LLC, All Rights Reserved.

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Where do you start when it comes to changing the culture at your workplace and putting an end to the vicious cycle of poor results, low morale, disengagement and dissatisfaction? This is a question that will eventually have to be addressed by any leader who is up to anything worthwhile. However, if you have ever tried to do just that, you know finding the right answer is much easier said than done.

I’ve been there myself many times in my career. It seemed like every time I found myself in a turnaround situation, it was different than all the previous ones. It seemed like every crisis had its own brand of unique challenges I had never seen before, and in some ways, this was very true. One situation might involve poor planning for a multi-million dollar manufacturing operation start-up, while another might have been complicated by a deep-rooted silo mentality within the organization. Yet another crisis was being made worse by the fact that the resources brought in from other countries to solve our technical problems didn’t understand or respect the local traditions and were routinely offending people. On the other hand, in an acquisition that had gone wrong, the people from the two companies involved were speaking the same language and came from a fairly similar cultural background, and yet, they didn’t understand each other’s corporate lingo, so I had to literally translate from English to English!

I’m not sure exactly when it happened, but at some point, I had a revelation about all of these “unique” workplace culture issues. It became clear to me that, even though every one of those organizational challenges was superficially different and the symptoms were expressed differently in every case and the solution had to be customized to the particular situation, in the end, the solution to the problems always came down to a few fundamental, timeless, and universal principles. This realization alone has helped me stay calm and collected, and apply a methodical approach to culture transformations that consistently delivers breakthrough results, whether I was personally leading the effort or guiding other leaders through the process.

The metaphor that comes to mind is one of an ER doctor. When you take your sick child to the ER, you expect people to immediately drop everything and move fast and get your child the care they need. After all, you are likely in panic mode, so you somewhat expect the same from others. Instead, they ask you a few questions and then give you a few forms to fill out and then wait, and wait, and wait, until it’s time for them to take you in. Meanwhile, you are wondering, “Why are these people moving so slow when my child is dying?!” I won’t deny that some hospitals and urgent care facilities could be a lot more efficient, but for the most part, these people are professionals and the truth is that they have seen thousands of patients who come in and they have the ability and experience to discern the risk, determine the right course of action, and triage the patients if necessary.

People may wonder, how can ER doctors and paramedics and, for that matter, soldiers be so calm in what are clearly emergency situations? Some people may even misconstrue their lack of panic as a sign that they don’t care. But the fact is, the reason they are so calm and collected in situations where everyone is going crazy is because they do care and they know that when people panic, things don’t work. Panic mode prevents people from being effective at the times when effectiveness matters the most. So, emergency personnel are trained to be dispassionate so that they can be as effective as possible, and their experience means that they know what to do even when they don’t know what to do. This is why when someone presents with a mystery illness, rather than freaking out or throwing their hands up in exasperation, doctors systematically go down a diagnostic tree to single out what they’re dealing with, apply the treatment appropriate for the diagnosed condition, and move on to the next patient once they see progress is being made.

The ability to calmly and systematically diagnose and prescribe a treatment for a certain condition is not something that comes quickly or easily, but it also isn’t outside the realm of possibility. It is the result of repeated training and years of experience learning from these exact situations. Since panic arises from a feeling of not being in control, which comes from lack of knowledge and experience, repeated exposure to these situations makes their solutions clearer and simpler over time. This is just as true for leaders dealing with workplace culture issues. They know a thing or two, because they have seen a thing or two, as they say.

Each person is different, and each illness is different, but a doctor doesn’t have to guess what to do with a patient who has overdosed on a certain drug, or has alcohol poisoning, or someone who is having a stroke; these conditions and their treatments are etched into their very being to the point that the response becomes basically automatic. This is because, like the timeless and universal principles of leadership and culture transformation, there are baseline parameters for health that don’t really change. Your heart need to be pumping, your organs need to be working, you need to be breathing, your blood needs to be flowing, your brain needs to be generating electrical impulses, and so on.

Successfully treating an illness does require some discernment and customization, because you need to know which unique pathway to take back to health, but health itself isn’t the mystery. Similarly, while every organization has a unique situation that requires some expertise to address, every treatment involves moving it in the same direction: commitment, integrity, accountability, communication, engagement, and so on. Critically, the treatment for a known condition works as long as the patient complies with it; if you have scurvy, vitamin C will cure you every single time. Likewise, when it comes to culture, the solutions work if you actually work them, regardless of whether or not you believe in them or understand them or think they are too simple/complicated.

The question for us as leaders is whether we are going to act like the panicking parent or the seasoned ER doctor when it comes to our sick organizational culture. Are we going to panic and run around like chickens with their heads cut off, randomly taking action only to be disappointed because the results never come? Or are we going to remain calm, take responsibility, understand the fundamental issues and begin to address them methodically? Are we going to over-complicate the situation by focusing on the fact that we have never seen a situation quite like the one at hand, or are we going to first look at the vital signs, draw some conclusions, make our diagnosis, and then prescribe the treatment that will bring our organization back to life?

If you’re thinking, “It can’t be that simple!” that thought itself is the problem! The greatest challenge that most leaders face, aside from the fact that they may not have had the experience to recognize the symptoms of an unhealthy culture or decide on the right treatment, is that they believe that organizational problems are too complicated and their solutions must be as well. As a result, leaders all the way up to the CEO position end up shying away from even trying to understand and solve their organizational issues, because they believe it will be too difficult and require too much from them. But again, this is going into panic mode, and this is where external resources with the knowledge and experience to deal with these issues can be a great option.

To be clear, I am not suggesting that the solution to all organizational problems is some one-size-fits-all approach; far from it. But what I am suggesting is that once you have developed some mastery in the fundamental causes of the unique symptoms that show up, you are able to assess the situation much more clearly and accurately without getting stuck in the weeds. Only then can you formulate an effective, customized solution that is uniquely right for the particular challenge the organization is facing.

I am also not suggesting that the answer is to move slowly. Sometimes there is cause for urgent action, just as in the ER. If a gun shot is involved, it warrants immediate and meaningful action. Likewise, if an organization is dealing with unacceptable norms and behaviors that are disruptive and damaging, one must get in action to address them immediately. However, even the urgent action must be taken deliberately and not in panic mode. And it takes discernment, training, and experience to know when to act with urgency and when to take a more measured approach. This is exactly what I mean by workplace culture triage.

You might be thinking, “That sounds good if you have the experience to know what you’re looking at, but what about me?” To that, I would say, the most important thing is to trust yourself and get in action to do the best that you can. In other words, don’t shy away from attempting to understand and address the issue simply because you are not an expert. No one was an expert when they started out. The other most important thing you can do is recognize and be honest with yourself when you come to the limit of your knowledge or expertise. Just as some patients require the intervention of a specialist, some organizational situations may call for engaging external resources who have dealt with organizational issues and can guide you through the process. And when you do get external resources involved, I would suggest that you engage a resource who not only has the proper expertise, but is willing to treat you like a talented intern who has the potential to develop into a skilled ER doctor one day, rather than someone who is just in their way as they work their magic.

I’d love to hear your stories of workplace culture triage. Has culture work become clearer and simpler for you with experience? Are there any tips and tricks you can offer to those just starting out? Let me know in the comments below.

Resources related to this post:

• TTLP 019: 10 Practical Steps for Creating High Performance Organizations

• Ten Necessary Ingredients for Creating a High Performance Organization

• TTLP 005: Three Key Elements of Culture Transformation

• Three Key Elements of Culture Transformation

You can now listen to the new 5-part audio series, “Transforming Your Workplace Experience!" This audio series serves as both a great standalone introduction to culture transformation, as well as a companion to our previously available free culture transformation guide. In the series, I walk you through some applications and examples of the concepts presented in the guide, so that you can more effectively put them into practice and get motivated by the progress you will start making. I know that after learning and applying the concepts and distinctions that I present in the guide and audio series, you will be more qualified than ever to create extraordinary cultures that consistently deliver breakthrough results!

The Transformative Leader Audiobook is available now! I'm so excited to announce that "The Transformative Leader" on audiobook is currently on sale now exclusively on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes! The wait is over for those of you who (like me) prefer to listen to books during their commute or while exercising or simply doing things around the house! If you aren't yet a member of Audible, you can use this link (https://adbl.co/2MZWmaF) and sign up for a free 30-day trial and receive "The Transformative Leader" audiobook for free (plus one credit per month thereafter)!

About the Author: Amir Ghannad is an international keynote speaker, author of The Transformative Leader, leadership consultant, culture transformation champion, and founder of The Ghannad Group. He has made it his life's work to guide leaders and equip them with the tools, skills, and the mindset necessary to create extraordinary workplace cultures that deliver breakthrough results. Download his free e-book, titled 5 Practical Steps to Make Your Culture Transformation Stick by clicking here.

Want to learn more about how The Ghannad Group serve and guide you in your leadership development and culture transformation efforts? Click here
Want to get in touch with Amir? Email amir@theghannadgroup.com

As always, have a great week! May you Boldly Declare, Courageously Pursue, and Abundantly Achieve the Extraordinary!

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