Enjoy:

Another great product from Cincopa Send Files. Cincopa video hosting solution for your website.

Umair Haque @ Daytona Sessions vol. 2 – Constructive Capitalism from Daytona Sessions on Vimeo.

Take Our Survey

Again, simply, FOLLOW THIS LINK, to give us your suggestions!

Have You Fully Leveraged The Talent of Your Executives?

When done well – development has a very direct return on investment.  One of my earliest entries provides a first step in determining your leadership development strategy.   The key is to be targeted in your approach and to hold who ever works with you accountable for real measurable results.  But when done well – the research shows the value of investment:

• Booz Allen Hamilton’s own research shows a 650% return on investment from their executive coaching program ¹

• Extraordinary leaders generate four times the results over good leaders in areas like profitability, employee loyalty and customer retention ²

If you have no real strategy or leadership development program – find yourself a seasoned and results-focused executive coach and take a test drive!  If the coach is worth their weight – the leader being coached should be generating results greater than your development investment within 90 days as long as you have also picked the right executive to develop (see our blog article on the one remaining stumbling block in executive development).

Yes, the past year was tough and we are not out of the woods yet AND the ones who will get you out of the woods faster are your executives – especially when they have the principles and critical approaches that only a great executive coach can provide.

Where is The Feedback?

Can you imagine the implication if guided missiles, satellites, GP-S’s, or your own body’s temperature gauge had no feedback mechanisms built in?  Bottom line, they would not work and in the case of the later the lack of a feedback mechanism would lead to death!  Now look at your organization and ask yourself -

• How effective are we at giving each other constructive feedback?
• If and when we do – what impact does it have on our performance and profitability?
• What, if anything, keeps us from having a more feedback rich culture (e.g. we are too polite to each other, we live in silos, etc.)?

Here are some common challenges that hinder an organization’s ability to improve performance through feedback:

• Engaging the performance review system is seen as a hassle and task to get checked off rather than an opportunity to provide substantial feedback and an opportunity to improve performance overall.  In addition, performance reviews are typically done once a year (sometimes there is a mid-year review).  While such reviews are valuable – they are not enough in and of themselves.
• People hesitate to give tough feedback to others or only give positive feedback. Time and time again I have seen this come back to hurt the manager, the person receiving feedback and the organization.  When less effective or disruptive behavior is swept under the carpet for even the best performers you run the risk of the behaviors escalating to the point you hurt team chemistry and/or lose valued employees.
• Even if an organization has a clear set of values or operating guidelines (and many are even lacking this) – they are rarely discussed let alone leveraged as feedback tools.  The benefit of having articulated values (or operating guidelines) is to ensure you are setting a context for how you work with your clients as well as within the organization.  Quite frankly, taking the time to develop values without integrating them into the feedback system is a waste of time!

Any of these sound familiar?  I would be surprised if none of them resonate for you.  To create a feedback rich culture you must:

• Create a context for feedback (e.g. your vision, mission, values, and key priorities) and make sure people know these will be used as vehicles to improve focus and performance.
• Provide feedback on approaches and behaviors that either support or detract from the context above.
• Make sure you have a process to support giving feedback that focuses on the items above and not the person.
• Leaders must model this and be open to receiving feedback themselves when they are not living up to expectations.

Again, feedback is necessary for any goal to be achieved.  Failure is part of the process of succeeding and failure must be embraced BUT ALSO LEARNED FROM!   Internal and external feedback is what provides those learning moments that allow us to navigate more quickly to our desired destinations!

Are You Ready to Evolve Your Impact?

Take Your First Step Toward True Evolution of Your Impact!

Ever wonder why you repeat the same negative thoughts in your head? Why you keep coming back for more from hurtful family members, friends, or significant others? Why you keep falling into the same detrimental habits or limiting attitudes—even when you know that they are going to make you feel bad?

Dr. Joe Dispenza has spent decades studying the human mind—how it works, how it stores information, and why it perpetuates the same behavioral patterns over and over. In the acclaimed film What the Bleep Do We Know!? he began to explain how the brain evolves—by learning new skills, developing the ability to concentrate in the midst of chaos, and even healing the body and the psyche.

Evolve Your Brain presents this information in depth, while helping you take control of your mind, explaining how thoughts can create chemical reactions that keep you addicted to patterns and feelings—including ones that make you unhappy. And when you know how these bad habits are created, it’s possible to not only break these patterns, but also reprogram and evolve your brain, so that new, positive, and beneficial habits can take over.

This is something you can start to do right now. You and only you have the power to change your mind and evolve your brain for a better life—for good.  This book is also written in common sense language and the principles are explained in common sense ways.

Success is Inside Out!

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”

At first take – it does not appear these two quotes are related but they very much are!   For example, we are at a time of year when millions are inspired to set big goals both personally and professionally that they feel will lead them to a happier and more successful life experience.   Unfortunately, by the time February ends – many of our resolutions and the hope we felt will be a distant memory.   Why is this?  It is because the New Year generates a mood of hope in many.  It is an opportunity to make a fresh beginning!  Those making resolutions are tapping into this hope yet over days and weeks that follow the hope – we get hit by the tyrant of the urgent and our grand ideas shaped at the new year no longer seem “realistic”  in the face our “reality.” As Mr. Einstein says, insanity is doing the same thing over and over – expecting different results!

Now, I am all for setting goals and big ones!   In fact, as human beings we are quite goal directed and we accomplish many things effortlessly because of our unique gifts that others find amazing.  That being said, we do not apply the underlying principles that allow for success in one area of life in other areas where we are frustrated with!   One of these powers is our imagination.  Imagination is the foundation of vision, of great athletic accomplishment, and of great breakthroughs in our life and businesses. Most Goal Setting Approaches Do Not Take Into Account The True Human Powers That Allow Goal Setting to Be More Effective!

What if Results from Goal Setting Come With Far Less Effort?

This can become your common experience!  Yet, it takes a different approach to make it so and involves taking time to reflect, engage our imagination and become intentional.   For the most part, these are true powers we have as human beings that for the most part go untapped.  Yet, when they are, the produce far more powerful outcomes than traditional goal setting and strategic planning.  And these are no longer woo-woo or touchy feeling concepts – the power of intentionality and imagination has been proven in cross discipline research that includes medicine, quantum physics, biology, psychology and spirituality.  In short, the power of the mind is far underutilized.   A pioneer in exposing these powers, Maxwell Maltz, MD, said it just about as succinctly as you can.  Paraphrasing Maltz “The brain is stupid and waiting for your instructions – if you do not take charge of the instructions – your programming will.“  And bottom line, when we do not tap into this and take charge – we are using a very small portion of our true power to achieve and live a fulfilling life!   We are allowing the messages we took in from a young age to run the show and many of these messages for what Maltz calls “our failure mechanisms.”

As I mentioned in my last article on “Power Networking” – research studies have proven time and again the power of our imagination and the use of intentionality and this research comes solid science that includes quantum physics, medicine, biology, athletics, business/sales and general success psychology.

Creating Your Unique Success Mechanism

You have far more power to draw success to you than you realize.  When we begin to take charge of the programming of our brain through our imagination and intention – we turn our brains into success mechanisms!  To do so means we have to do things a bit differently and find the time to take for engaging our imagination and taking time to reflect.  Yes, I know you are grumbling “when am I going to find the time?”   Well if you want more success and fulfillment – you can not afford not to find the time.  Quite frankly, in my experience and in the experience of many others – it is time well spent!   By taking the time you are engaging in power moves that will generate results.  It goes against the grain of what you think you may know but then again science and research does not lie!   Here is a general overview of how to begin to build and fortify  your success mechanism:

1. Yes, first take time to consider what you care about the most and set your goals.   Don’t worry so much about being S.M.A.R.T. (specific, measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely).  That is old school but we can take something away from this.  For me it is MST.  First, when you are creating goals think first about what will be the most important end measures that will indicate success (amount of money, number of new customers, new ideas, experiences that matter, etc.).   And yes be as specific as possible because this will aid in engaging your imagination!  Finally, provide a time frame. As for achievable and realistic – I leave that to you.  Maltz indicated that we must match our goals to our sense of self and this means understanding our strengths and limitations.  As your self-image grows in strength you will be able to expand what you can go after.
2. Be honest with yourself by looking at both the things that will support your success as well as those things that may generate obstacles to it. When you consider supports and obstacles – look at them from an internal and external perspective.  Externally they are usually the things we may or may not be able to influence (e.g. the economy, emerging opportunities, corporate edicts, supportive relationships, negative relationships, etc.).  Internally you want to honestly assess your strengths and blindspots (e.g. habits that support or don’t support you, internal beliefs about success, etc.).  Now this is not about “buying into the limitations” or getting overly enamored with the positives.  It is about being brutally honest about things so that you can reframe what you must to succeed.
3. Yes – develop a plan that breaks down actions you can take daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly etc. This can be a very general plan (e.g. make contact with all my legacy clients and set meetings with at least 60% of them) or more specific (e.g. I will make five calls a day or attend 3 networking events per month).   When establishing sub goals – first look at how you will measure success incrementally (e.g. senior leadership knows I am ready to take on a larger role and realize my capabilities, I engage in 5 meaningful conversations that lead to next steps, etc.).  Pick measures that you feel are most leveraged at getting you to your larger goal.
4. Engage your enthusiasm for the goal each day! Do not only read it – take 10 minutes to imagine it coming true, experience the feeling of satisfaction you will have when it happens, see how it positively impacts you and others, feel the passion for it.   In essence when you do this you are filling your tank with fuel while you are opening your mind to look for ways – not already thought of to succeed (remember your brain is stupid and waiting for instructions!).   This is tapping the imagination in a powerful way.
5. Beware – your failure mechanism may rear its ugly head! While holding a strong intention – obstacles may appear in your mind and may seem very real.  This is part of the work of reprograming your mindset.  A way to develop a practice to deal with this is to set an intention each day or week for how you want to be in forwarding your goal.  As you go through your day – things will happen that might derail you or your gremlins who do not believe in your success may rattle around in your head!   At the end of the day ask yourself these questions:

• On a scale from 1 to 10 (10 being absolute focus) how did I do in holding my intention today?
• What if anything distracted me and how did I deal with it?
• If I felt stopped or delayed – what was I telling myself?
• Were those words supportive or destructive to my efforts?
• If they were destructive – how can I reframe those beliefs in order to support my efforts more powerfully?

That is a formula that works for me and my clients.   Yes, it means you will likely have to buy into what is proven but seems irrational to your training.  But look at it this way – are you as successful and fulfilled as you want to be right now?  If the answer is no – try the process diligently for 30 days and let the results speak for themselves!

And feel free to call me 410-381-9155 or email me dutts@executiveskillworks.com – And please offer any comments you would like!  For those locally, I hope that you will join me for my upcoming session “Unveiling True Human Powers That Lead to Greater Success and Impact”

Bring Power to Your Networking!

Consider a typical day in most executive’s lives. You walk into the office with grand plans and while nothing goes according to plans you do feel you accomplished some key outcomes for the day. As the afternoon wares on you look at the clock and realize you have a 5:30 networking event you had committed to attending. You close down for the day, grab a stack of business cards and let your executive assistant know you are off to the event and will see him or her in the morning.

You pull into the parking lot of the hotel where the event is to be held and prepare to enter the fray. You walk into the room full of buzzing conversations and at some level you are wondering how to navigate the event. You may be one to stand around and wait for someone to approach you or you look for a familiar face or you move right in to talk to a key person you were hoping to meet. By the end of the event, you may feel you had some good dialogue, got to share a bit about your business with some key prospects and collected a bunch of business cards in your pocket. Yet, before you know it – it is the next day and you are off tackling the key issues in your office – the networking event you attended is fading in the background. Sound somewhat familiar? If it does read on because I promise if you do – you will approach networking in a totally different way!

First, if your experience of networking even comes close to what I just described – you are NOT power networking! I suggest you either shift your approach or don’t waste your time. Exchanging pleasantries, giving your elevator speech, and having some great conversations are nice but this approach will rarely lead to more business. In order to do networking right you need a strategy the includes not just grabbing your business cards and nonchalantly entering an event with out a plan!

Here are the Five Steps to “Power Networking”:

1. If you have not already done so – clarify your ideal client and understand your true value to them (not you).
2. Find the places and organizations where your clients and prospects are most naturally going to show up
3. Take time prior to any networking event to set an intention for the event and make sure that intention is big!
4. Yes, be prepared to share about your business in a compelling way but more importantly be prepared to ask questions, listen and give away valuable insights and resources – FOR FREE!
5. Have a follow up plan in place for what you are going to do to maximize your connections after the event.

Let’s take each of these steps one at a time:

I. Clarifying Your Ideal Client

Yes, these days we can appreciate any opportunity that comes our way – after all the economy is still not in great shape. Yet, in my experience and that of those I have personally coached – those opportunities come to you more frequently when you are focused on the ideal. In order to develop the ideal client profile ask yourself the following questions:

• What are the top qualities of those clients I have had the greatest success with?
• If I were to ask them (and you might consider doing so) – what did they find most valuable in hiring me?
• What trends do I see in business type, size, revenues, stage of growth, etc. that would allow me to categorize my ideal client/prospect?
• Where do these kinds of business people hang out or where do compatible but non-competitive business leaders hang out who also serve this business population?

You get the idea – if these questions don’t work for you develop ones you are comfortable with.  The key to consider in developing these questions is what will engage the person most in their top of mind concerns and that can be asked in a genuine and caring way?

II. Find the Places Where Your Ideal Clients/Prospects Hang Out and Get Involved!

Once you have answered these questions and clarifying potential places or networking organizations – sign up as a non-member and check them out. You will know after some trial and error where are the places to best spend your time. When you find one or two – do not rely on the after work mixers to give you access. I will talk about a general approach below that will help you here but to magnify your power in the organization you must volunteer on a committee that leverages your strengths. Through your work to support the networking organization – you will form strong relationships that over time will bare fruit – that is if you follow the rest of these suggestions.

And remember this is but the second step in your strategy!

III. Engage Intentionality

Whether you are attending a mixer, a conference or a committee meeting you must both set an intention for the outcome you want as well as be prepared to show the value you can bring. Let’s look at the issue of intentionality first. Intentionality is defined as “having to do with intention or purpose” ¹. Research across the fields of leadership, quantum physics, biology and medicine have powerfully shown that when we hold a clear and personally compelling intention that the world around us will begin to conform to our desire. If that is too much to swallow then consider the power of purpose. When you are purposeful in any endeavor your mind and nervous system will tend to focus your efforts in the right direction. Bottom line, walking into any conversation – networking or not – without a purpose only wastes your time. So make sure you create a clear intention for what you want to achieve prior to any networking opportunity.

IV. Give It Away – Become a Valued Resource!

Now for the central principle that makes networking work. In Part I of this series, I mentioned how all senior executives walk around with open issues they are trying to resolve. Not only that – when they are in an atmosphere they feel comfortable in and are talking to someone they feel a rapport with they are very likely to share what is keeping them up at night. Therefore your primary approach to networking must be to ask and listen! Now this is a challenge whether you are an extrovert or an introvert. The extrovert’s challenge is talking too much and about themselves and the introvert’s challenge is to engaging at all. The strategy of asking and listening solves both problems! For the extrovert, they must realize that speaking is a Privilege granted once we understand the person’s concerns we are speaking to. If we don’t seek to understand another person’s point of view and merely excitedly share ours – we are dead in the water in most networking conversations. For introverts, I have found the ask and listen strategy a relief because they are natural listeners all ready and really need to do some internal processing in order to share more openly. Here are some questions that can get you started in an interaction:

• So tell me a bit more about your business?
• Are you a member of this organization and what is most valuable for you being a part of it?
• How has the current economic environment affecting you?
• What are your biggest challenges right now?
• What concerns are top of mind for you right now?
• What are you finding to be your client’s biggest concerns at this time?

Asking these questions is not meant to be a way just to find out how you can be a paid resource. They are, however, a way for you to become a resource to help the person you are speaking to in any way you can. A key law of influence states that when you give of yourself genuinely without any expectation – the other person will feel an obligation to assist you ². In addition, I find that people who go to networking events with this mindset often find they enjoy the entire experience much more. The whole key to this as I said in Part I is to be seen as a valued resource. As you build your reputation in this way – you may have less business cards in your pocket but far more qualified leads!

V. What is Your Follow Up?

If you are exiting a networking opportunity make sure you have a follow up plan. You might have had a very compelling conversation with someone who could be a great client but it is one conversation. Relationships are built on a number of conversations and experiences. You must make sure you link each of these with some type of next step. The next step might be to put a tickler in your to-do list to follow up to set up a lunch or you may have a resource you promised to share that you you need to take action on, or you may be working on a committee and you need to take some action to move forward the committee’s agenda. The key is to make sure there is a good reason to follow up and then to make sure you do so.

In conclusion, it is important to remember while “Power Networking” is not an exact science yet it does bare fruit if you work it consistently.  Remember a key goal is to build a network of great resources that you can share with others. This is the other reason for actively networking. The more you do – the more resources you know – the more you can help. Finally, if you find yourself a member of an organization that is not giving you what you want – quit and find another. Yet, in my experience if you do your research up front you won’t have to make such a decision.

In the mean time, happy networking and feel free to write or call me if you want to talk about a specific question or concern!

A Network of Conversations

First attending networking events and being able to clearly articulate what you have to offer is not the foundation of networking.  Certainly attending networking events as well as being able to clearly articulate your value is important but these are tactical areas that support something more important.  Networking is founded on the following principles:

1. As mentioned in the outset of this entry, to become a consummate net-worker you must hold the fundamental belief that relationships are what drive your business and personal success.   If you do not hold this as a fundamental belief you will not have much success networking.
2. Relationships can be boiled down to being a series of conversations that when done well lead to deeper value and trust. The core driver of conversations, whether they be business or personal, is the innate desire to forward something of importance.  The way we move things forward is through the commitments we make with each other.
3. At any given point, most executives have a series of concerns that are open. Meaning – they have yet to reach commitments with anyone that will allow them to leverage specific opportunities or mitigate their most nagging challenges.  It is also important to realize that every concern that an executive has open is not of equal priority.  Most savvy executives are more or less aware of their priorities and eager to take action to resolve them.
4. Most executives tend to make a large amount of their commitments with people they know, trust and like. Again, when you are highly involved with your network [whether it be through a networking organization (e.g. your local chamber), conversations with clients, your volunteer work, etc] you will tend to establish a natural rapport that allows for deeper concerns to be more openly expressed.  Developing this rapport and being present to listen puts you in the position to be helpful!
   
5. By placing yourself in the right networking circles – you can develop rapport with a broad range of people and create a reputation that generates a lot of business opportunity.
6. Networking will start baring fruits once you are perceived as a go to person who can:
   1. Solve deep and complex issues in the area of your expertise.
   2. Refer a broad range of resources that can assist other executives outside your realm of expertise.
   3. Be a skilled sounding board to help clarify and prioritize issues for others.
   4. Expand people’s thinking about an issue.

As mentioned earlier – your job in networking involves far more than making sure people know you and what you do – your primary purpose is to become known as a high value resource with a lot to give. When you become known as such a resource – business will come more regularly and at times from resources you never even considered.  Why – because someone in your network started a conversation and you became the resource they referred!   Now that we have set a more powerful context for how to view networking – the next entry in this series will focus on helping you develop a clear strategy for your networking efforts.