Leadership Awareness and Leadership Feedback were two of the topics I spoke on this month to a local Community Hospital’s management team. The session was focused on a leaders own willingness to look in the mirror at how they are influencing the team and what impact are they making. Harvard Business School Professor Robert S. Kaplan speaks about Leadership Awareness in this short clip – What To Ask The Person In The Mirror.
Nourishing Yourself
January 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Food is my life!
I’ve been interested in food as far back as I can remember. I took a special interest in it when I decided to stay home for 3 years to nurture our 2 very young children. That is not when I started reading ingredients. It is however when I started paying attention to them though. It’s one thing to put msg into a 165 lb grown man and another thing to feed it to a 20 some pounder who isn’t yet 3 and is growing a brain at a tremedous rate. I don’t have much of a chemistry background so I used a simple guideline. If it doesn’t sound like food, it probably isn’t.
Susan, our leader, the Grand Poobah of Compassionate Leadership knows this about me and asked me to write something about the Standard American Diet (SAD). It has proven to be quite difficult. I will be happy to make a few installments on this vast topic Americans are showing more and more interest in. Should I talk about what’s in the food, or what’s not in the food? Do Americans just eat what tastes good, or something that’s ready now? We are a group on the go. No doubt about it. The traditional sit down together at a table of home cooked food where we learned the family’s daily happenings like why Dave got in trouble at school or more interesting stuff like what time our big sister got home last night and what was she doing anyway, is getting rare.
I can say eat this, don’t eat that but you can get that at the checkout line. I want to offer guidelines for nourishing yourself and loved ones by making wise choices when selecting food. Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad. Food selections are ever changing. When they market something as “Old fashioned recipe”, or “Homecooked, it’s just marketing. Mom or Grandma never put polyglycerol esters or carboxymethyl cellulose in anything! Not on purpose anyway. I’m pretty sure they never shook a little disodium guanylate to enhance flavor in anything either. Watch closely with compassion for your body what you allow into your stomach. You consist of that which you subsist on!
You are what you eat. There is a reason you feel good after a good meal. Good food nourishes. Quality food satisfies. You can eat less and feel satisfied. We can all stand to eat a little less. You’ll find it really doesn’t cost more if you do your accounting right. Don’t put substandard fuel in your vehicle. You may find yourself stalled out on the side of the road. How much will that cost you? You can’t grow a strong back on Twinkies. Do they even make them anymore? Put some effort into your meals. Strive for food that is nutrient dense.
Don’t be nutritionally dense! Ignore the processed industrial stuff. Go for the stuff that has no list of ingredients, like a cucumber. There is so much more to say but this is a start. What I want you to remember, with all this being said, and all you read, eating should be enjoyable. Trust your instincts. Spend a little time in the kitchen. You will get better and faster. It’s actually faster than going out to eat once you get the hang of it, and way cheaper.
Bon appetit,
Steve De.
Afterword
You may hear it is a noble challenge to feed the 7 billion people in this world. Industrial agriculture is necessary. Consider this from The National Geographic; If you threw a party and wanted to invite 7 billion people and wanted to give them enough room to dance. You could give everyone 6 square feet and still fit all 7 billion people in the state of Rhode Island. That leaves a lot of space for growing groceries doesn’t it.
Feeding the world’s hungry is not about coming up with enough food. It is about getting it to the people.
Stretch To Reduce Stress
January 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Simple Stretches
By Steve DeLongchamp
The best to you who strive to improve. You are already leaders.
We are at a time when we need vital, strong, healthy leaders, leaders of all types, in all walks of life, and especially all ages. When I’m running a big job my biggest challenge is leaving the stress from my job at work. We all get rattled. We all have days when our biorhythms are down, and we get up and go anyway. Leadership is about handling stressful situations and moving forward. “Shedding the effects of stress” is today’s wellness tip. Some simple stretches are invaluable and quick.
Because a body in motion tends to stay in motion, we have to act on our body which is at rest every morning and put it in motion as part of our daily preparation. What do you do to get yourself in motion? After you get your 7-8 hours of peaceful sleep. Right! Nod your head and say uhuh. Let’s leave that for another day. This is not my healthy wealthy and wise lecture. This is my object in motion message. Whatever you do to get out of bed, do that, and tomorrow squeeze in a two minute routine, 4 easy stretches. Just as breakfast sets the pace of your metabolism each day, a few nonconfrontational stretches will be your neurowakening. You know, wake your muscles up, get the blood pumping, oxygenation, all that. I usually get a great yawn out of it too.
Bob and Jean Anderson wrote a book called, “Stretching”. It is one of the most popular fitness books of all time. It’s been translated into 27 languages, probably more by now. In the introduction Bob points out many of the benefits of stretching. Part of what he says is, “Millions of people have discovered the benefits of movement… Many recent studies have shown that active people lead fuller lives. They have more stamina, resist illness,and stay trim. They have more self confidence, are less depressed, and often, even late in life are still working energetically on new projects”. There you have it. That’s you right?
It’s a great book to have. A nice gift for the person who has everything. He even puts together groups of stretches for specific activities.
Here’s a routine I use. I got it from a doctor years ago. I love it. If you’re not already a stretcher, do the first four. You will like the way you feel. Stretching Routine for Relaxation
Please understand, stretching is done to your comfort level. Pain means something is wrong. It’s an ingenious signaling device isn’t it? Pushing to get more out of a stretch is good. It moves you forward. If you start to feel pain back off. Ease into it. Do not bounce into a stretch. It could cause damage. Just press and hold and breath. Remember. Wellness is measured by the abundance of vitality!
Leadership Wellness Essentials
January 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Leadership Wellness – how would you rate your well being? The well being of your employees?
Last year I became certified as a coach in Vital Wellness – wahoo! It was a valuable program, very interactive and I learned valuable insights into my own well being as well as how to coach others to improve theirs. I have been intrigued by this subject for many years as I have seen so many folks deal with the effects of stress. Stress from the job, loss of a job, family issues and physical concerns. I, too, have felt the stressors of a down economy, the loss of a family member to cancer and building my business.
Because I want people to enjoy their lives completely and fully, I have added a brand new section to this site on Leadership Wellness. It is my desire to share expert author insights, resources and tools that you can use to improve your own wellness and those around you. Take a moment to find or enhance your own well being!
New HR Generalist Opportunity
October 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Professional Opportunity – HR Associate
The HR consulting firm I am collaborating with, Management Impact, LLC is seeking experienced candidates to serve as HR Associates in support of onsite assignments and project work for our varied client base. We are growing quickly and have opportunities for HR professionals who are interested in working with us as independent contractors on projects representing one to four days of work per week.
Key Responsibilities
Key Attributes
Key Requirements
For further information or to submit your resume contact Management-Impact, Attn: Rowland Austin, by email: raustin@management-impact.com. All inquiries are treated in a highly confidential manner.
New Leadership Opportunities
September 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment
New job opportunities are available at our clients!
Take a look at positions open in Michigan – Leadership Opportunities.
In collaboration with Management Impact, LLC, I am delighted to share these kind of opportunities that are opening up with our clients that are growing and expanding here in metro Detroit. Please take a look for yourself or please pass on to anyone you might know who may be interested.
Influence on a Team
May 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Team Building: Power and Influence Within a Team
Every professional must master the skill of building and working within a team structure. It may be a permanent team of people or a temporary team brought together for a specific project or activity. In either case, your ability to lead a team and produce results is a critical part of your career success.
Your power and influence within a team does not come from your title, your position, or your seniority. It comes from your leadership skills and your team building skills. Without these, you will struggle to get the performance you need from the group.
Team building for permanent teams
The strategy for team building with a permanent group involves ongoing, daily effort and long-term oversight. As the team leader, you are responsible for building and maintaining an environment where each team member feels valued, respected, and fulfilled. This is a difficult job because inevitably your team is composed of different personalities, different work styles, and different ideas.
Let’s say you have been appointed team leader for an established group whose previous team leader is no longer there. This puts you in a position of coming into a group that is accustomed to a pattern of working together and probably sees you as a potential disruption to that comfortable pattern. Here are some tips for establishing your leadership in situations such as this.
1. Listen. Make a point of listening to the team members, individually and collectively. Give them an opportunity to tell you about themselves, both professionally and personally. Don’t make judgements based on hearsay or third party talk.
2. Observe. Watch how the team interacts with each other and with other people. See who tends to step forward quickly and who tends to hang back. Look for the person who others turn to for advice, guidance, and implicit leadership.
3. Expect. Even as you are listening and observing, set clear expectations for the team. Make sure they know what you expect from them in terms of communication, problem solving, performance and responsibility. This does not mean giving orders that are to be obeyed; it means laying out clear guidelines for behaviors and actions, and then modelling those behaviors and actions yourself.
4. Lead. This is a very small word with very big implications. To lead is to coach, guide, influence, decide, delegate, model, plan, implement, discipline, develop, and direct, just to name a few things. The leadership strategies you use will depend on the nature of the team, but you can be sure that if you don’t step forward and lead then someone else will. Be the leader so that you will be seen as the leader.
Team Building For Temporary Teams
Temporary teams may form for many reasons. There may be a specific project, a nagging problem, or planning and evaluation to be completed. Whatever the reason, team building and leadership of a temporary team have all of the same challenges discussed in the previous section plus many others. Your leadership task is to build a successful team in a situation where there may be time constraints, budget constraints, resource constraints, or institutional constraints.
Successful team building in these situations requires you to listen, observe, expect and lead more quickly and more effectively than ever before. Remember that team members may have another primary job in addition to serving on the team, so be sure to set expectations that are both firm and realistic. Be an advocate for your team members and foster positive team dynamics so that the group will attain success.
Self Empowering Tools
May 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Self Empowering Tools For Women
Women have many natural talents, but all too often, we are discouraged from tapping into their own self empowering tools because they are thought to be unrelated to the needs of the business world. Women’s empowerment tools, those described as natural talents, can be very powerful to success in business.
Of course, women need to master technical business skills, and we are perfectly capable of doing so, but we already have an entirely different set of skills that make us natural leaders. By simply tapping into these skills and using them in a slightly different way, women can empower themselves to do anything and everything they want.
Communication Skills
Women are natural communicators, a skill that is vital for success. Have you ever noticed how a mother just knows how important it is to talk to her children, using words and phrases that are appropriate for age and experience levels, so that each child can understand. This same skill, slightly adjusted, works perfectly in the business world.
For instance, a woman who is managing other people must know how to communicate with each person as an individual and in a manner that the other person can easily understand. Now look again at the previous paragraph the same situation that occurs with mother and child also occurs with manager and employee.
Helen Fisher, author, The First Sex: The Natural Talents of Women and How They Are Changing the World, refers to this as a flair for language. Fisher describes the increasing need for the ability to communicate with written and spoken words. To quote her, “At talking, women have the edge.” Fisher describes how the female gender, even at very young ages “excel at… verbal fluency – rapidly finding appropriate words, phrases or sentences.” Fisher writes “Women are, on average, more articulate at saying what they say.” Women embracing this knowledge and trusting their natural language talent in communication will find their confidence building.
Teaching and Coaching
The nurturing characteristics that come so easily to most women make it possible to teach and coach children to their maximum potential. The right combination of encouragement, discipline, freedom and boundaries will lead to a child whose confidence and capabilities continue to grow throughout a lifetime.
Now think of that same situation in the business world. When you are in a position of leadership, you must do exactly the same things for your employees. The right combination of encouragement to achieve, correction when mistakes are made, freedom to pursue ideas, and boundaries within which to operate will empower you and empower others to grow and succeed.
Once again Helen Fisher’s research as presented in The First Sex states, “Women are, on average, more interested in cooperation, harmony, and connections – a network of support.” She further writes, “Women characteristically believe everyone can succeed in business; they take a win-win attitude in the office world.”
Multi-task and Multi-focus
Anyone who has ever been a mom, a Girl Scout leader, a teacher s aide, or a yard sale organizer has most likely mastered the art of multi-tasking and multi-focusing. These skills are vital for the empowered woman to excel in the workplace.
Here is a perfect example. You are a team leader tasked with oversight of two smaller groups. Each has its own needs, strengths, and weaknesses that differ from those of the other group. Your role as team leader is to provide the unique style of leadership that is appropriate for each group while staying up to date on the status and progress of their respective projects. Juggling people, reports, deadlines and all the necessary resources become critical to the success of the teams’ results.
Helen Fisher references that human’s evolution, even back to ancestral times, show a woman had to rear helpless and long- dependent babies under highly dangerous conditions demonstrating the need for multitasking even then. I lover her description, “In order to rear helpless infants, ancestral mothers needed to do many things at the same time. Watch for snakes. Listen for thunder. Taste for poison. Rock the sleepy. Distract the cranky. Instruct the curious. Soothe the fearful. Inspire the tardy. Feed the hungry. Mothers had to do countless daily chores while they stoked the fire, cooked the food and talked to friends.”
The Bottom Line
Women can be just as effective at business leadership and development as men can be, they just come to this realization and demonstrate their natural talents in a different way. Women do have their own self empowerment tools and just have to take the time to tap into them in powerful ways.
How about you? Which of your natural abilities can you use and empower yourself just by applying them in a new way? Think carefully and take notes for yourself. Make a list of your own self empowerment tools that, if viewed and acted upon from a slightly different perspective, empower you to soar to new heights.
Intuitive Skills in Business
May 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Capitalizing on Intuition in the Workplace
Every person has experienced a feeling when something occurs or is about to occur. This feeling may be accompanied by chills, accelerated heart rate, sweaty palms, or a sense of calm. Whatever the signs, intuition is the cause. Intuition explains how people know of events or outcomes before they take place. Intuition can also be used to influence an outcome. This may mean speaking up at during a team meeting and focusing on a topic that no one else wants to discuss, but one that is important. Using intuition in business is one way to judge how a situation is turning out, when to speak up and when not to. Intuition can also be used to predict trends that may make the company more money. Recognizing and capitalizing on intuition skills is a must for every effective leader.
Honing in on this leadership skill can take some time, but after awhile people who concentrate on being more observant, looking at body language, and reading between the lines, will be able to predict quite a bit. Everyone has this ability; it’s just that some people have learned early on how to use it.
It is worth pointing out that intuition is based on feelings and not fact. Although facts may prove that ones intuition was correct, this does not mean that all intuitions should be acted upon. Assumption is another pitfall of intuition. Never assume anything until there is proof. Many times, leaders just use intuition as a guide to read other people’s reactions.
There are a few ways to use intuition when trying to gauge people’s reactions in team meetings, product planning, and in many other situations. Understanding these reactions will help when trying to sell’ an idea or product, training new employees, leading a team project, and even to tell when someone is lying.
Body language, tone of voice, facial expressions, and eye movements are cues that intuitive people use to prepare for possible outcomes. These are not the only factors that intuitive people use, but they are useful when trying to improve intuition.
Body language the most obvious way to gauge what a person is feeling. If a person is contributing to a conversation, they will lean forward, if they are bored, they will lean back and slouch. Body language is a good indication to follow when giving a speech or leading a meeting. Meetings that go on for too long are never productive. As soon as people begin to withdraw physically from the discussion, it is best to close the meeting quickly.
Tone of voice is an indicator of mood, acceptance, denial, and emotion. When a person is interested in the discussion, they may talk faster and be more expressive. When disinterested, a person may speak slowly and quietly. If a person does not understand the material being presented, they may end their statements as questions. When this happens, it is best to summarize what is being said so that they will begin to understand.
Facial expressions are used in conjunction with body language and tone of voice. Facial expressions can tell how a person is feeling as they are being told information. These expressions can indicate hundreds of emotions from confusion to anger. In meetings, it is important to look around the room and watch facial expressions. If the majority of the people seem confused, then summarize what is being said and ask if anymore clarification will be needed.
Eye movements are more subtle because they can happen very quickly and then change. People who are lying will usually look down or to the left in order to avoid other people’s eyes. People who are being honest or who want another person’s full attention will look at them directly. While there are other factors that contribute to eye movement, it can still give an indication of how a person is really feeling in a situation.
Taking the time to actively observe and use the ideas presented here will begin to enhance leadership skills and soon any leader will be amazed at their ability to capitalize on their intuitive skills in business.
Leadership Development Promotion Letter
May 27, 2011 By 2 Comments
Leadership Development: Promotion Letter
Here is a copy of a sample letter format that can be used for expressing your interest in furthering your career.
Date
[Recipient's address]
Dear [Name],
Please consider me as a candidate for the position of [....... ]
The enclosed resume indicates my broad experience in the area of [........] and my considerable (and growing!) experience in [area].
I believe that this experience, together with my education has given me the ideal preparation to assume the role of [....... ].
All my professional experience has been in [area of expertise]. Since I have worked for [ company name] for four years, I understand your core business and am quite familiar with the kind of issues, problems and challenges I may face as a [position] working for you.
On my attached resume, I have described my concept of successful [sales] management. I am convinced that this function can make an enormous contribution to growth and profits, and I am most eager to prove it to you.
Also, I must say that I have been very happy with [company], my present employer.
However, I can see no further opportunity in the near future here as it is a relatively small concern and I am very ambitious and eager to become established with a larger and more progressive company where I can assume a much broader range of responsibility.
May I have the privilege of an interview? If you will let me know when it is convenient for you to see me, I will arrange my calendar accordingly.
You may telephone me at [xxx-xxx-xxxx], e-mail me at [....@xxxx.com ] or if you prefer you can write to me at the address given.
Sincerely yours,
[Your name]
[Job title]
