I’ll be in Turkey
For the next few weeks, I’ll be in Ankara, Turkey, mixing business with pleasure, and falling in love again with this crazy, wonderful place. As time permits, I’ll blog about my trip, but if you’re interested in seeing lots of pictures (Vote YES for lots of pictures!!) be sure to Like me Facebook page: www.facebook.com/MarianneSpeaks. That’s where the majority of the pictures will be posted.
How’s your intuition?
I created this meme for my Facebook wall, but wanted to share it with all my readers. You can visit my page at www.facebook.com/MarianneSpeaks.
It seems that successful leaders in every industry and in every size and type of organization share several traits that has been a contributing factor to their success. Today, this quote has me thinking about that one trait they share – They all have that amazing sixth sense that we call intuition. They read between the lines to discern more from a situation than most of us could. They get those gut feelings that influence their decisions and direct their actions. And they trust those gut feelings – their intuition – more than most of us do.
Alan Alda says that when you follow your intuition, you’ll discover yourself. Great leaders have learned that following their intuitions can lead them to discover new paths and new directions – and that can make all the difference.
So what is the truth here? Do great leaders succeed because their intuitions are more often right? Or is it simply because they are`willing to take the chance, and bet on themselves? Either way, I see a link here that all leaders can learn from.
The first thing to change
I created this meme for my Facebook wall, but wanted to share it with all my readers. You can visit my page at www.facebook.com/MarianneSpeaks.
“Stop thinking about change as something that happens to you. Success comes when you can see change as something that happens because of you.”
A new Chapter for West, Texas
I created this meme for my Facebook wall, but wanted to share it with all my readers. You can visit my page at www.facebook.com/MarianneSpeaks.
For the people of West, Texas, a new chapter begins today. We can help to write that chapter. Our compassion and support will make it a happier ending.
You can predict the future!
You don’t need a crystal ball to see the future – you just need to spend some time thinking about it. There are countless trends that we all know are shaping our future, and if you will spend some time thinking about those trends, you can begin to see how those trends will affect your life and your business. Here’s a simple example.
We all know that the baby boomers are going to retire. Over the next 5 years, the majority of our nation’s top executives will reach retirement age. That’s a trend that is clearly written in stone. But way too many businesses are failing to plan for the inevitable transition of power. I urge you to look at your own organization, and identify who will likely leave the company in the next few years, and then identify those team members who will likely need to step into those leadership roles. We know it’s coming, and yet, most companies are going along without a plan for developing the leaders they’ll need in the very near future.
Another simple example of a trend that we know is upon us: Mobile computing. We all know that people will be using their cell phones, tablets and other mobile devices more in the coming months and years than they are today, and much more than they did last year. So think about how that trend will affect your business. Spend a few minutes pondering how that fact will change the way you communicate with your customers, your employees and your suppliers. How will it – or how could it – change the way you market your business or even run your business? What crazy new scheme could be at the far side of that vision?
Those are just two examples, but their are countless others. Look at the trends you already know are developing, and ask yourself how you can make that knowledge work for your organization The world is changing at an alarming rate, and the people who answer those questions about the future will be the big winners in the next decade. And the people who answer those questions will be the people who ask those questions. Take a few minutes and ask.
Baaaa-aaaa-aaaah!
It’s worse than bull***t; it’s sheep manure.
I need to get something off my chest. Inhale… Exhale… OK, here goes. WE ARE MORONS! OK, maybe that’s a little harsh. But honestly, why are so many people so willing to blindly trust whatever they hear, whatever they see on TV, and whatever they read… even when they read it on Facebook?
If you’ve spent any time at all on Facebook, you’ve seen the memes. A meme is an image, video, etc. that is passed electronically from one Internet user to another. On Facebook they come in several varieties, often including images of cats with cute or funny captions typed onto the picture. But my rant today has to do with the memes that include those mindless, pithy quotes that seem so deep and insightful, but that, if one takes the time to actually think about them, are total bull***t.
The quote on the left is a perfect example. ”I am responsible for what I say. I am not responsible for what you understand.” WHAT?? What kind of moron believes that? If what I say matters, then what you understand matters, and if I’m responsible for one, then I absolutely AM responsible for the other. I recently saw this idiotic quote posted on Facebook, for the bazillionth time. This time, 43 people had commented saying “So true” or some variation on that theme. One person dared to question it and he was slapped down and hung out to dry. Almost 4,000 people had “liked” the quote, and over 4,000 had shared it. I assume, having seen the behavior so many times in the past, that each of those shares was greeted with a similar response: So-true, words-to-live-by, total-agreement. Even though the quote is completely stupid. Allow me to express myself more fully – because I am responsible for your understanding of my blog posts.
If I am a teacher, a blogger, a pastor, a counselor, a consultant, a salesman, a parent or any other kind of influencer, then to suggest that I am not responsible for what you understand is outrageous. And I believe that when we say something – almost anything – we do so in an attempt to influence others. But my point here is not just about the truth or validity of that popular quote. My point in writing this blog post today is to point out that we have become a world of sheep. We don’t question what we hear or read. We just accept it all as fact, and join the bandwagon. I hope that I have made my point clear to you, and helped you understand it. I believe I am responsible for your understanding what I say. So if you don’t get my meaning, please let me know. I’d like the opportunity to express it differently or in more descriptive detail, so that you can understand. And the next time you see one of those flowery quotes on Facebook, take a moment to question its validity. Sheep make great sweaters, but they make lousy citizens.
My 4 simple truths
No lives are at stake.
Change is tough. No one likes it, and some people really, really hate it. I used to be one of those people. But over the course of my life, I’ve had a few life experiences that have helped me learn to cope with change, even when it’s not something I’m especially thrilled about. One of those experiences was a little jaunt I took in 2003, to Camp Anaconda in Iraq. The six months I spent there were absolutely horrible, don’t get me wrong. But the lessons I learned there – lessons about myself, about people, about war, about commitment, and about sacrifice – those lessons have changed and enriched my life in many, many ways.
Today, when I am faced with difficult decisions, or I have to face a challenge that has me worried, I think back on those days in Iraq and put some perspective on the problem at hand, by focusing on four simple truths:
- My family is here to help and support me.
- My basic needs are met, and I’m physically safe.
- No lives are at stake.
- I have survived times when those things were not true.
That which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. That’s so true. And you can use that fact to your advantage. I have listed my four simple truths as an example. What truths can you use to help you cope with your next tough challenge?
Leaders and Managers
The thesis expressed in the box on the left is a load of crap. In recent years, the Leadership Development industry has worked hard to convince us that what the world needs now is fewer Managers and more Leaders. Maybe that’s because true leadership is harder to learn than true management. Or maybe it’s because Leadership Development gurus need to sell the need for more and better leadership – because that’s what they’re selling. Whatever the reason, the result has been that the role of Manager has been downgraded and maligned to the point that we’ve almost convinced our workforce that Managers are practically unnecessary. That’s a load of crap, and thinking that way is detrimental to the success of your business.
Yes, we need great leaders with vision and charisma and foresight. But we also need great managers to implement the vision, to move it forward, to allocate resources, direct the workforce, hold people accountable and monitor progress. Without effective management, all the magnificent leadership in the world won’t guarantee your success In fact, I believe that leadership and management are like air and water. You can do without either one for a time, but if you don’t have a healthy supply of both, you will not survive.
Develop a System for Change
If you’re implementing a significant change in your company this year, you’re going to need to carefully track and monitor the progress of the change project. You can’t afford to let the timelines slip any more, because the world is just changing too damn fast. If your change initiative is related to IT, your service provider may have systems already developed to serve that purpose. You should ask. And if they have them, you should use them.
If the change initiative isn’t strictly related to IT, leaders may need to create their own systems for tracking and monitoring their progress. In this situation, leaders should identify critical roles and responsibilities, timelines, outcomes and measurements, and communicate these fully to the responsible personnel. Someone – quite often the CEO herself – has to track and monitor the progress of all the key players, so assuring a system is in place to facilitate that role will be invaluable.
FYI, Cisco offers a white paper on this topic that may be helpful to you as you work to develop your own systems. You can download it for free here. www.cisco.com
It happens in a vacuum cleaner
Now there’s some food for thought. This is a great analogy, once you get the full gist of it. So picture the typical change initiative. Someone decides that change needs to happen, so he (the leader/manager) commands from above to start the process in motion. (He turns on the vacuum cleaner.) Then all kinds of hell breaks loose inside the vacuum cleaner. People, and data, and processes, and schedules, and ideas, and policies, and a whole lot of junk, all get thrown into action, spinning and bouncing around, and ramming into each other, frantically scurrying to protect their own interests and promote their own agendas. In the final analysis, the desired change might actually happen (The carpet might get clean.), but the process almost always produces some collateral damage. And if the wrong junk (a puddle of water, for example, or your wedding ring) get sucked into the mix, the whole idea could come to a screeching halt… or worse. Similarly, if the wrong personalities or the wrong systems are engaged in the change initiative – or they are introduced into it at the wrong time – the results can be equally disastrous.
So how can you avoid this vacuum cleaner scenario in your own change initiatives? I believe the answer lies in the creation of the perfect coalition. While perfection in your coalition may not be attainable, the time, effort, money and other resources that you invest in creating your coalition will be well spent. My experience and industry research indicate that the success and ROI from a major change initiative is directly related to the quality of the transformation coalition. People make change happen, and the right people can make it happen more quickly, more efficiently, more effectively and with less collateral damage.
