In essence, we are not born, American, French, Japanese, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu or Jew. These labels are attached to us according to where on the planet our births happen to take place, or these labels are imposed upon us because they indicate our families’ belief systems.

We are not born with an innate sense of distrust of others. We do not enter life with the belief that the Divine is external to us, watching us, judging us, loving us, or simply being indifferent to our plight. We do not suckle at the breast with shame about our bodies or with racial prejudice already brewing in our hearts. We do not emerge from our mothers’ wombs believing that competition and domination are essential to survival. Nor are we born believing that somehow we must validate whatever our parents consider to be right and true.

How do children come to believe that they are indispensable to their parents’ well-being, and that they therefore must become the champions of their parents’ unfulfilled dreams, fulfilling them by becoming the good daughter or the responsible son? How many people revolt against their parents’ relationships by condemning themselves to lives of cynicism about the possibility for real love? In how many ways will members of one generation after another efface their own true natures in order to be loved, successful, approved of, powerful, and safe, not because of who they are in essence, but because they have adapted themselves to others? And how many will become part of the detritus of the cultural norm, living in poverty, disenfranchisement, or alienation?

We are not born anxious for our survival. How is it, then, that pure ambition and the accumulation of wealth and power are ideals in our culture, when to live for them is all too often a soulless pursuit that condemns one to a path of unending stress, which fails to address or heal the core, unconscious feeling of insufficiency?

All such internalized attitudes and belief systems have been cultivated in us. Others have modeled them for us and trained us in them. This indoctrination takes place both directly and indirectly. In our homes, schools, and religious institutions, we are explicitly told who we are, what life is about, and how we should perform. Indirect indoctrination occurs as we absorb subconsciously whatever is consistently emphasized or demonstrated by our parents and other caregivers when we are very young.

As children we are like fine crystal glasses that vibrate to a singer’s voice. We resonate with the emotional energy that surrounds us, unable to be sure what part is us… our own true feelings and likes or dislikes… and what part is others. We are keen observers of our parents’ and other adults’ behavior toward us and toward each other. We experience how they communicate through their facial expressions, body language, tone of voice, actions,, and so on, and we can recognize… though not consciously when we are young … when their expressions and their feelings are congruent or not. We are immediate barometers for emotional hypocrisy. When our parents are saying or doing one thing, but we perceive that they mean something else, it confuses and distresses us. Over time these emotional “disconnect” continue to threaten our developing sense of self, and we begin to devise our own strategies for psychological security in attempts to protect ourselves.

This is Part 1 of a 5 part series. I will be continuing on this post during the next week. How do you feel about this so far?

How We Become What We Are Not is a post from: Geoff Snyder's Leadership and Team Collaboration Blog - Freedom to Think and Dream Big

“Trust is a peculiar resource; it is built rather than depleted by use.” ~ Unknown

To build trust, we must use our self-awareness and self-management skills which we’ve acquired over time. Determining the level of trust we need to cultivate depends on the connection which we identify with others. For example, the barista who makes my coffee drink gets a different level of commitment of trust with me than the woman I share my life with. The project manager or resource coordinator of a business account gets a different level of commitment than a field engineer does. Now, none of these hold more or less value, simply some don’t require as much attention as others. It really comes down to focus and priority.

By using social awareness skills, we need to ask others what needs to happen to increase the current level of trust. Being sure to actually listen to the answer. This helps build trust, and overall deepens the relationship.

Here are few key points I’ve found that aid in building trust:

1. Open Communication  The willingness to share ourselves and what is important to us with others often helps establish a common understanding. If done honestly and wholeheartedly, the driving force of positive actions will allow for a foundation to be created, one in which can be used for continued growth.
2. Consistency in Words, Actions, and Behavior  Following through with what we say we are going to do is a huge part of building trust. When we commit to something, regardless of size, it’s still a commitment and must be followed through in order for it to have any value. Whether it be following through with a return phone call, arriving on time for dinner plans, meeting a school/work related deadline, or planning long term family goals. Any of these can “make or break” a friendship/relationship. No matter what size the commitment, no matter what level of importance, what we say to others as to what we’re going to do, it’s up to us to follow through. Otherwise, we can’t be taken seriously. We eventually establish a characteristic with others that we are “true to our word(s)” and display respect and integrity, or allow for ourselves to be seen as one who cannot be trusted, and often at times considered a liar. This is a very difficult place to be in and most often requires a deep look in the mirror. Otherwise, we’ll never be able to repair what we’ve damaged.
3. Avoid Giving Mixed Signals  How we communicate, whether it be via written word, spoken word– consisting of tone of voice, and/or body language – determine the level of accuracy which others will perceive us. The signals we send to the people in our relationships are made through proactive conversation and feedback. When we express feelings, we express truth. More often than not, these expressions are raised to a heightened level through our reactions and body language, regardless of the words we choose. In a world that is saturated by text messaging, which is usually limited to 140 characters or less, our “on the fly” lifestyles that we’ve adapted in the fast paced and fairly disconnected society, it seems that we rarely establish an accurate means of dialogue. I’ve seen some of the world’s best authors and speakers completely misconceived due to a single letter typo, improper punctuation, or quick witted answer.

Something to consider: People will always trust what they see over what they hear. Actions speak louder than words… so focus on following through with everything you commit to. Otherwise, why bother?

How is Trust Built? is a post from: Geoff Snyder's Leadership and Team Collaboration Blog - Freedom to Think and Dream Big

After a year off from blogging, it’s great to be back. Here’s why:
I hit a dry spell; a total mental block. After a few months of my previous post, I decided to simply focus on renewing my “hopper” with life experiences. And boy, I can honestly say that the past twelve months have been chock filled with experiences. Everything from friendships, relationships, stewardships, and everything in between. Just when I felt/thought I had a few more things figured out, I found that God had a few more for me.

Professionally, I was going through a reinvention process, using what I’ve learned over the yearsto aid my decision making. Having an entrepreneurial worldview, and a natural gift to connect with people on a sincere level, I took my professional sales experience, pulled it apart and meshed it with my experience in public relations. From there, I assessed what I needed to do to incorporate my extensive and vastly diverse IT experience, along with my managerial and leadership abilities. So, what did I come up with? I came up with this question for myself: “Why not become the go-to person in the state of Arizona, more specifically the metro Phoenix area, for all IT needs?” So that’s exactly what I did. I created an environment for myself and other IT professionals to work within and fully support local military, both local and federal government agencies, large scale hospitality providers, financial, legal, and medical industires; assuring personal information compliance within all network infrastructures. By networking and establishing rapport with national and international resource coordinators, project managers, and account executives, in less than a year, I’ve been able to lock down everything I’ve sought after. Some short term contracts, and some long term. I’ve been very blessed by this and am very thankful to been able to achieve such a great client list in such a short period of time.

On a personal level, I went through a break-up with a young woman which I grew very close to. We shared many great times over the course of three years. She and I met during a very rough time in my life. A failing business, financial distress, I was spiritually exhausted, and lacking confidence in myself. She was a determined pre-law student and we connected due to our mutual interest in the field. Just recently before our introduction, I had just taken the LSAT at that time, so that alone was a great opening conversational piece. We spent almost every day together during our time. With a change of location, a readjustment of domestic attachments, another relocation, a family illness, AND a long distance relationship… which neither of us really knew how to handle, we eventually went our separate ways. Of course with any break-up, emotional distraught is always a factor. I had a difficult time with it, mainly due to the unknown. No rational explanation when it occurred, so it was tough. Thank God for all of my amazing friends for being so supportive… and of course my family. I love them so much.

This takes me to my recent relationship. During and after my healing of that break up, an old neighborhood friend reached out to me. We share very similar interests. The connection made was instant and strong. Everything previously made clear sense. Crystal clear. Same values, roots, life focuses, desires, understandings of self-awareness and motives to happiness. Learning about each other through the initial process was easy. We clicked and continued to click/reclick each and every day. It’s like God put all focus on us and made sure we had everything we needed and wanted in place. For ourselves individually, as well as together. After several months, we decided to reunite. I flew in and we spent close to a week together. I even rescheduled my flight to stay longer. We didn’t want our time together to end. After the first union, from thereafter, we took our turns flying back and forth every three weeks to spend time with each other. Be it a few hours, a few days, or a few weeks. We even spent the better part of two weeks celebrating both Christmas and New Years together and our families back home (Detroit, MI). Our time together was always golden and I cherished every nanosecond of it. We fell in love, and I know I can say that I fell in love with her over and over, each and every day. Often more than once a day. Something very special, something very personal. Over the next 5-6 months, we shared a few bumpy roads. I feel/think that most of it was misconception through poor communication, work and financial related stresses, and the big one… not being close and with each other on a more frequent basis. I discovered a very powerful force and experienced a realization that I’ve finally met my best friend. Had I known the last time we last saw each other would be the last, I wouldn’t of left. I wouldn’t have stopped hugging her. So, cherish the moment for what it is and find the moment you can replay over and over again. Mine would be when she flew in, in December; the moment we met once she got off the plane ride to Phoenix, headphones in ears and arms wrapped around each other. That’s the moment.

Lastly, to wrap up this post, I want to share a few points of spiritual growth. Our relationship with God is always a very powerful, very personal sense of peace. The understanding of His grace is something I’ve found to be an everlasting journey. A journey in which we can tailor to our liking, primarily based on our positive attitude and level of well being. If we keep our minds open and free from “social noise”, I believe that through divine guidance, we will always be able to take the right turn of the road, and that God will always create way when there is no way. This is because, by design, we were created to be victorious. We’ve be given the ability to recognize defeat and brush it off, continuing to be focused on being perfect instruments and bettering those around us each and every day. I wholeheartedly believe that we are exactly where God wants us to be, every moment of the day. And when we fall off track, and we recognize it… getting back to happiness, then, and only then, will be put where we want to be.

Thank you for sticking with me and reading this. If you have any input/comments, you know I welcome them. So please comment below and feel free to share this with anyone you think might find it insightful. God bless, Geoff

After a year off from blogging, it’s great to be back. Here’s why: is a post from: Geoff Snyder's Leadership and Team Collaboration Blog - Freedom to Think and Dream Big

After beginning a two year research to propose some leadership theories which focus on a particular characteristic of a leader, leaving out the followers and situations from the equation, I’ve been able to break down leadership into the following four categories: Charismatic Leadership, Attribution Leadership, Transactional Leadership, and Transformational Leadership.

Charismatic Leadership

The theory behind Charismatic Leadership emphasizes the ability of a leader to communicate new visions of an organization to its followers and to raise follower awareness of the importance and core value of goals, often getting people to exceed their own interests.

Charismatic Leaders are dominant, able to express their vision, are exceptionally self-confident, have a high need for power, and have a strong conviction in the moral “righteousness” of their beliefs. They strive to project a magnetic personality which emanates success and competence, and they convey high expectation for and confidence in followers. Leader who possess and exhibit these characteristics inspire trust, confidence, affection, admiration, emotional involvement, obedience, and high performance in their followers. The Charismatic Leader often appears under conditions of uncertainty or in times of crisis which are stressful and make more cognitively and emotionally receptive to the ideas and actions of someone perceived as a so-called savior.

Attribution Theory

Attribution Theory deals with trying to make sense out of Cause and Effect Relationships. When an event takes place, people want to attribute it with a specific cause. This theory states that leadership is simply an attribution that people make about other individuals. The fundamental flaw is a bias in the perception process because people tend to attribute the behavior of other people to their own motivation and ability rather that the situation. Research has found that people tend to characterize leaders as having traits such as personality, understanding, intelligence, strong verbal skills, aggressiveness, and often at time display industriousness.

At the organizational level, attribution theory explains why people are prone to attribute either the extremely negative or the extremely positive performance of an organization to its leadership. This theory fails to take in consideration influences or forces from the external environment. Therefore, people have a “built-in” tendency to give too much credit to other people or to place too much blame on them.

Transactional Leadership

Transactional Leadership takes place when leaders and their followers are in some type of exchange relationship which satisfies needs for one or both parties. The exchange can be economic, psychological, or political in nature; and examples might include exchanging money for work, loyalty for consideration, and political favors. Transactional Leaders help organizations reach their current goals and objectives more efficiently by connecting job performance to valued rewards or by ensuring that employees have the needed resources to get the job done. Transactional Leadership is very common but tends to be transitory, in that there may be no lasting purpose to hold parties together once a transaction takes place.

James MacGregor Burns noted that while this type of leadership could be quite effective, it did not result in organizational or even societal change and, instead tended to perpetuate and legitimize the status quo. In conclusion, Transactional Leaders view management as a series of transactions in which they use their legitimate, reward, and coercive powers to give commands and exchange rewards for services rendered.

Transformational Leadership

The Transformational Leadership process is currently the most popular leadership perspective, and it moves way beyond the more “traditional” transactional approach to leadership. Transformational Leadership is related to charisma in that these leaders motivate people to exceed their personal interests for the sake of the larger community. It also produces levels of dependent efforts and performance that go beyond what would occur with a Transactional Leadership approach alone. In addition, Transformational Leadership is much more than just charisma. While the purely charismatic leader may want followers to adopt his or her “world view” and go no further, the Transactional Leader will attempt to instill in followers the ability to question not only the established views but eventually those established by the leader.

Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus have defined four skills of leadership, which are required for the Transformational Leader to be successful: First, is a strategic vision or goal that evokes people’s attention. Second, is the ability to successfully communicate that vision through words, manners, or symbolism. The third skill set is to have the capacity to build trust by being consistent, dependable, and persistent. And lastly, the fourth skill required for a Transformational Leader to be successful is the capability of positive self-regard–by striving for success. The use of these four skills builds follower commitment and pumps them up to adopt the leader’s vision as their own. They also perform their jobs better, engage in more organizational citizenship behaviors, and make better or more creative decisions.

To close, Transformational Leadership is closer to the prototype of leadership that people have in mind when the describe their ideal leader and is more likely to provide a role model in which dependents want to identify.

This wraps up an 24 month long journey down the leadership road. One in which I’m very grateful to have traveled and will continue to do so. Thank you to everybody who supported me along the way. If you have any insight or wish to share your experiences – please consider leaving a comment to my closing questions.

Of the four categories of leadership I described above, which one do you feel fits best into your daily life? Is there anything that you disagree with? If so, what is it and why do you?

Emerging Approaches to Leadership is a post from: Geoff Snyder's Leadership and Team Collaboration Blog - Freedom to Think and Dream Big

Something I’ve echoed for years is “Problems stem from the lack-of or poor communication.”

Sometimes overwhelming emotions or uncertainties can throw us off track when searching for solutions, either large or small. Regardless, they need to be attended to and handled with thorough thought and mature reasoning.

How do you find a medium that works for you; between verbal and non verbal communication?

A recent speech given by Michael Hyatt at the Liberty University touched on some great elements on how we can communicate more effectively; by dealing with offenses. I think we often forget that offenses are a choice we make and until we understand that, we will continue to inhibit out ability to communicate effectively. And by allowing ourselves to accept the inevitable, we grow as people, for our families, for our friends, and for our communities.

Spoken Words: Know when to hold them, and know when to fold them.

God has given us two ears and only one mouth for a reason. By listening to others, we open ourselves to have a better understand them. Being able to set aside our own need to be heard, and listening to others, allows us help increase the likelihood to better understand them. Who they are, what their interests are, what the dreams and goals are, and most important–what they have in common with us.

We express ourselves verbally to receive feedback, to be understood and heard. Even those who don’t understand exactly what they are saying often learn to separate the emotion from intellect, thus allowing for effective communication. When it comes to non verbal communication, adapting or “blending” our body language opens up an whole new level of effectiveness. This supports most communication studies that state body language being the dominating factor to human interaction. Putting our tone of voice in second place and the actual words we say in third. Again, this supports my delay of incorporating written word into my personal life.

Based on your experience; when finding yourself in a confrontational situation, how do the roles of listening, verbal and non verbal communication, as well as passively speaking play? What are the typical outcomes?

Communication is Key is a post from: Geoff Snyder's Leadership and Team Collaboration Blog - Freedom to Think and Dream Big

When there are people who share a common goal, things happen. Progress happens. Leadership happens. Results happen. Awesome happens.

Each one of us has something different to offer the world. We have the ability to connect with people that share a common goal or dream. When we embrace what is important to us, ideas are shared and stories begin to surface.

The other night, I attended a collaboration event of local writers to the Phoenix area. Inspired by The Domino Project, both Tyler Hurst and Jeff Moriarty organized its focus on writers and storytellers who are looking to do more with their current projects.

There were about 15 of us, each with something to share and discuss with others what we think we need to do, to better ourselves. Most of us seem to be at a stop with our current (projects) because (1) we either feel that our content is lacking, or (2) we don’t know how to get to the next step.

After Tyler and Jeff spent a few minutes going over what brought us all together and we answered some questions. We then proceeded to go around, one by one, and describe what each of us could teach others about storytelling, as well as, the things we would you like to learn from it. There was a great mix — from technical writers to creative writers, from screenplay and sketch work writers to humorists and bloggers.

I’ve never considered myself a writer, I probably never will. I’m not sure why but I can say that while growing up and going through school, my least favorite classes and activities were any of those that had a lot of writing. I’m not 100% sure how or why, but I think some of it stems from early communication courses. Both verbal and non-verbal communications are of essence when it comes to interacting with others. And considering that 15-20% of what we say (in words… by themselves) are effective. While the remaining 80-85% pertains to tone of voice and body language, I guess I never saw the point in writing.

When it came time to share with others what we were doing and why we were there, I broke my introduction into two parts. The first part was a brief history of how and why I communicate with others, while emphasizing on the emotional intelligence and the use of relevant and effective analogies. The second part was a description of my current book series project and the reasoning behind it, which you can find here.

This is how the first part of my introduction was summarized:

Analogies – are seedlings to stories. During some time working in the IT industry, we found that most clients needed to have a good understanding as to what was going on with their network infrastructure, most being medical, legal, or finance professionals – their focus was their industry. Learning about what they did and understanding their lingo, per se, allowed us to use various analogies, which gave us the opportunity to communicate with them effectively and efficiently.

Engagement – connecting with who you communicate. While we experience life as it comes, we learn that through storytelling, we create a connection with our audience. Listeners and readers, leaders and followers, and, speakers and writers; each and not limited to their own way in relating to others. Focusing in on how we connect with others allows for us engage and continues the way we relate.

With the use of analogies, storytellers are able to engage with their audiences. While we are still able to individually recognize and respond to those we are speaking with, we also create something; a bond, a common and distinct connection. Sometimes the fragments of our past, help align us to project our futures. So, by using analogies for the sake of engaging with our audience(s) — keep in mind who you are speaking to and what common objectives are sought.

How do you effectively communicate with others outside your industry?

Can Storytellers Be Part of a Domino Project? is a post from: Geoff Snyder's Leadership and Team Collaboration Blog - Freedom to Think and Dream Big

Have you ever been asked to help with a great cause to share and make a difference within your community?

A couple of months ago, I was approached by Shawn Murphy of Achieved Strategies to see if I wanted to contribute a guest blog post. It was for a blog series titled “Revive and Thrive” and its focus was for this new year of 2011. Of course I was willing to participate and help add value to the cause. Being able to contribute alongside the many great members within the leadership community was a great privilege.

At the time, I focused on four key areas in which I found to be important based on discussions with leaders from several communities, such as: Lead Change Group, Twitter’s #CustServ chat which is focused on Customer Service and is held every Tuesday night at 9PM Eastern Time, and those from the 2010 World Business Forum Blogger’s Hub.

In a post titled “What’s Next” – The four areas in which I felt were important for us to ‘Revive and Thrive in 2011’ were:  Relationships, Following, Leading, and Experience.

I believe that each of the four, are key areas in which we need to focus on during the rest of this year. The relationships we have in our lives today are paving the way we choose to live our lives tomorrow. With positive communication, we are able to help others achieve their goals and dreams. If any of these become hindered, we need to recognize and respond to it immediately. Almost all problems stem from lack of and/or poor communication.

The next two key areas I feel go hand and hand, a ‘yin and yang’ of principals if you will. Following and Leading. This is always a great topic of discussion, as many times people will ask “What makes a great leader?” “How can somebody lead all the time and never follow?” “If somebody is following others, how are they able to lead?” – I think you get the idea.

The fact of the matter is that both are equally important and tend to feed each other. Who we follow today are those we will lead tomorrow. And, those who we lead today will help those we want to follow tomorrow.  If we continue to follow the “Define, Learn, Do” model – we continue to keep things moving in the right direction. Forward.

Lastly, I touched on the importance of: Experience. All of us are here for a very short period of time. When we are able to connect with others, we are opening the doors to new experiences. Whether it is personally, professionally, or spiritually – what we do today cannot be taken away from us. There is so much opportunity available to us, only we can make the decision to make our goals and dreams become realities.

Right before the turn of the year, most of us reviewed 2010 and used it as a guideline for 2011. As of today, how are you making this year your best year ever?

Community Leadership – What’s Next for 2011? is a post from: Geoff Snyder's Leadership and Team Collaboration Blog - Freedom to Think and Dream Big

Have you ever taken a step back to look where you are in your career? Do you have yourself positioned to move forward if you so choose to? Sometimes advancing is easier than you think.

Just the other day, I reconnected with an old friend. Currently working at a Help Desk she expressed an interest in both Project Management and Business Analysis, IT related.

Here is what I told her I saw based on previous experience:

The ITIL (glorified glossary but some staffers love seeing the cert) seems to be gaining more and more weight within the IT industry. When it was first introduced, it was a joke. Nothing more than a test of one’s understanding of terms… no focus on fundamental platforms, understanding of code, or overall logic. But, it now actually contains some good placement. You probably already see the ridiculous amount of certifications that are available. Most are in place to appease employers, but I’ve found experience outweighs any certification I’ve ever obtained, and I stopped counting after 20. It just got out of control past that.

While consulting, I found that both areas (project management and business analysis) of interest that you have can blend together very well. A project manager for IT based rollouts doesn’t need to be much of a techie, just the ability to have a basic understanding of what is going on and how to efficiently and effectively communicate with the buyer, the vendor(s) and his or her internal workforce. Some of my best paying jobs were when I would oversee and new rollout or system integration. If you’re easy to get along with and can communicate well with others, it’s a piece of cake.

Unfortunately, true “business analysts” are in a tough position right now. Due to the current upswing in the marketplace, companies are not looking at cutting costs (surprisingly) as they are looking at preparing for the next 10 to 15 years of growth and revenue generation. Expect to see a lot more small businesses pop up and loyalty based cultures get put in place amongst them. The ‘big box’ corporate strongarms are going to get gobbled up by larger/merging markets and will flounder as (cough) “standards” – for the masses.

What you are doing now… is it scalable? Is it helping you? Or is it hindering your opportunity for advancement in the workforce?

Take One Step Back, and Two Steps Forward is a post from: Geoff Snyder's Leadership and Team Collaboration Blog - Freedom to Think and Dream Big