Do you use your power of positive persuasion or negative persuasion when selling your ideas and influencing your co-workers?

Check out our side-by-side comparison and evaluate yourself, or better yet, ask one or more co-workers, who will be candid and open with you, to objectively assess you!

Check out this article plus more in A-CHIEVE! (July 2011).

In last month’s “Top 3 Forward-Looking Global Trends” article, cultivating creative leaders was identified by 707 Chief Human Resource Officers across 61 countries as the #1 challenge facing organizations as they compete in the dynamic global marketplace (IBM’s 2010 “Working Beyond Borders” Study). 

In this issue, we were initially going to examine how cutting edge organizations aggressively develop their creative leadership bench strength. While conducting our research, Cornell University ILR School’s study “Recognizing Creative Leadership: Can Creative Idea Expression Negatively Relate to Perceptions of Leadership Potential?” (2010) caught our attention. Their statistically-driven and evidenced-based approach revealed the following three ‘Creative Idea Pitcher’ (aka Idea Pitchers) and ‘Leadership Potential Evaluator’ (aka Evaluators) outcomes:

Study 1: Idea Pitchers who presented creative (novel) and useful ideas were perceived as having less leadership potential by the Evaluators in a sample study involving employees working in jobs that required creative problem solving.

Study 2: Idea Pitchers who were presenting creative (novel) and useful ideas were perceived as being competent by the Evaluators, but having less leadership potential than Idea Pitchers who were presenting useful (but not novel) ideas.

Study 3: Idea Pitchers who were presenting creative (novel) and useful ideas were perceived as having leadership potential when the Evaluators were introduced to a ‘charismatic leadership’ definition (nonconformist and unique) prior to assessing the Idea Pitchers.

The study’s first conclusion…all things being equal, creative employees who are perceived as being charismatic ‘have a leg up’ on creative employees who are not perceived as being charismatic. In fact, being creative but not charismatic is a promotional liability. Why would that be the case?

The reality…organizations are not as receptive to filling leadership positions with creative thinker candidates even though, according to the study’s author, Jennifer Mueller, “There is research that shows that those who have their own creative ideas are open to them and know how to get creative ideas through [the organization].” Per Mueller “It is not easy to select creative leaders…it takes more time and effort to recognize a creative leader than we might have previously thought.” Mueller believes that negative creativity bias is fueled by traditional leadership philosophies. “The value that leaders bring to groups is in creating common goals so the group can achieve something. And goals are better the clearer they are – you don’t want uncertainty. So leaders need to diminish uncertainty and create standards of behavior for everyone in the group. And they create those standards by conforming to them.” But the negative bias doesn’t stop there.  Leveraging academic literature, Mueller found that creative people are labeled ‘quirky’, ‘unfocused’ and ‘non conformist’ in addition to being perceived as ‘visionary’ and ‘charismatic’. Mueller concluded “The fact is people don’t feel positive about creative individuals – they feel ambivalent about them.” The net result is that original thinkers may be overlooked “…in favor of selecting leaders who would preserve the status quo by sticking with feasible but relatively unoriginal solutions.”

The challenge…those leaders who were promoted based on their status quo styles “…now find themselves in a world that has vastly changed, one that requires much more creative responses and thinking” per Mueller. It’s no wonder that cultivating creative leaders was identified as the #1 hurdle facing organizations given the pervasive stereotypical barriers that are not generally recognized, understood or proactively addressed by most organizations.

What’s the solution? Mueller suggests that organizations consider the following:

How do you break through stereotypes? The very first step is to build awareness among your organization’s leadership ranks plus develop and execute an actionable plan. We recommend constructing executive/senior leader working sessions that are designed to:

Where do you start? We’ve compiled the following creative leader characteristics and traits that you may wish to introduce during your working sessions – creative leaders:

Check out this article plus more in A-CHIEVE! (June 2011).

In our Facing the Leadership Chasm article, we cited multiple key points from Cornell University ILS School’s study “Recognizing Creative Leadership: Can Creative Idea Expression Negatively Relate to Perceptions of Leadership Potential?”, including:

• Creative employees who are perceived as being charismatic ‘have a leg up’ on creative employees who are not perceived as being charismatic; and  
• Being creative but not charismatic is a promotional liability.

Let’s first take a step back and define ‘charisma’. According to Wikipedia, charisma is a “…compelling attractiveness or charm that can inspire devotion in others.” The term is derived from a Greek word meaning ‘favor given’ or ‘gift of grace.’ Charisma can arise from two opposing foundations:

• Honorable, collaborative and authentic
• Dishonorable, manipulative and disingenuous (e.g., narcassism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy)

Our context is the former vs. latter.

In today’s society, charisma is referred to as the ‘it’ factor — either you have ‘it’ or you don’t. But what is ‘it’? According to Psychology Today’s contributing author Ronald E. Riggio, Ph.D., charisma is “…a constellation of complex and sophisticated social and emotional skills” that includes the following six key ingredients:

According to research, charisma is shaped by one part temperament and personality (innate qualities) plus two parts life experiences (developed qualities over time). Per Dr. Riggio, charisma “…is deeply rooted in [one's] ability to communicate emotionally (related to the notion of ‘emotional intelligence’ and relationship skills that allow charismatic individuals to make deep connections with others. Oratorical skills being positive and optimistic, and being emotionally expressive are also part of the building blocks of charisma.”  

What does charisma look like? According to Dr. Alex “Sandy” Pentland, MIT Human Dynamics Lab Director and Harvard Business Review contributing author, charismatic people:

• Are positive and energetic
• Exude self-confidence
• Talk more but are also great listeners
• Spend more face-to-face time with others
• Pick up cues from others, draw people out and get them to be more outgoing
• Appear to know what they’re talking about in the short term
• Prove they know what they’re talking about in the long term

Mr. Pentland and his colleague, Mr. Daniel Olguin, have drawn these conclusions based on quantitative data. They’ve developed charismatic measuring devices that, when affixed to business executives in competitive situations, record ‘social signals’ or ‘social cues’  that analyze the executives’ tone of voice, gesticulation, proximity to others and more. The collected data is used to successfully predict who will succeed in competitive business situations without the data analyzers being privy to the business executives’ pitches. The results — those business executives who convey the above attributes consistently succeed in selling their ideas, products and services. Although that outcome may be jaw-dropping for individuals who are not charismatic and/or who don’t genuinely value the importance of connecting with people both emotionally and socially, the results are far from surprising to those who are charasmatic.

Charisma is, no doubt, a highly powerful and influential tool when built upon an honorable, collaborative and authentic foundation. The good news…if you have a ‘charisma conducive’ personality and temperament, which is one-third of the equation, you can develop your abilities to emotionally and socially connect with others. Like any behavioral change, your transformation will not occur over night and will require a targeted plan, dedicated time investment, focused energy, a positive attitude plus practice, practice and more practice!

Check out this article plus more in A-CHIEVE! (June 2011).

UNLEASH CREATIVITY | MOBILIZE TALENT | CAPITALIZE ON COLLECTIVE INTELLLIGENCE

“…while businesses have traditionally managed their workforces with an eye toward operational efficiency, they have not necessarily done so with the creativity, flexibility and speed to capitalize on the growth opportunities that spring from an ever-more dynamic global marketplace.”

Working Beyond Borders, IBM Study, 2010 | Summary Insights from 700 organizations across 61 countries

We thank companies like IBM who have the capital and reach to conduct expansive and thoughtful global surveys and share results with us so we can leverage their work within our own organizational microcosms. Unfortunately, great surveys like “Working Beyond Borders” come and go with little fanfare because we read a title, and in our age of information overload, quickly decide “Oh, that doesn’t apply to me and my organization because:

• We don’t have a global footprint 
• Our industry and culture are unique
• We’re just fine the way we are
• The study is ‘blue sky’ thinking
• IBM is just trying to sell their services”

– when, in fact, the over-arching concepts apply to each and every one of us. Even more ironic, the study’s first of three challenges – cultivating creative leaders – defined as “nimbly leading in complex global environments”, speaks to our inability of being open to then creatively translating (connect-the-dots between) high-level concepts, trends and statistics into goal-driven, realistic and practical strategies and tactics that scream competitive advantage, unique differentiators, exceptional results, continuous improvement and marketplace relevancy. We love studies like IBM’s because we are anecdotally seeing and experiencing within small, mid size and large organizations, exactly what the study’s 707 Chief Human Resource Officers (CHRO) and Workforce Strategists are seeing and experiencing across the globe. So what are the “top 3″ challenges and how can they be remediated?

Challenge #1: Cultivating Creative Leaders

The CHROs concluded that organizations must develop “…energized leaders with a flair for thinking about opportunities and challenges in completely different ways. These leaders must be able to provide direction to, as well as motivate, reward and drive results from an increasingly dispersed and diverse employee base.” We 100% concur with the CHRO’s assessment. Here’s our practical, on-the-ground, living-it-day-in-and-day-out take…creative leaders, as defined above, are not around every corner. In fact, they are few and far between. We believe in the 80/20 rule, so we would suggest that creative leaders account for about 20% of the leadership population. The other 80% typically fall into one of the following categories – the leader:

Has the right creative leader capabilities but…

• Is consumed with ‘in the weeds’ work to a degree where he/she is not contributing as a high performing leader
• His/her creative leadership efforts are being blocked by the person’s manager, who is not a creative leader and therefore, has no appreciation for creative leadership  

Was once a creative leader but…

• Has allowed his/her leadership skills to atrophy for a variety of reasons  
• Is now personally motivated by achieving his/her short-term goals, such as retiring, rather than being concerned about the long-term health and welfare of the organization and its people

Was never a creative leader but was promoted into and continues on in a leadership role because he/she…

• Is a subject matter expert in a particular field, meaning a person who has mastered his/her craft such as a highly skilled technologist, sales person, engineer, lawyer, physician or even a task-completer, but falls short in having mastered the art of amassing followers, breaking through barriers and achieving his/her vision through a sincere, charismatic and transformational style
• Feels ‘locked into’ a management position since stepping down would result in a title, span of control, office location and/or monetary adjustment
• Is self-unaware and doesn’t realize that he/she does not have what it takes to be a creative leader

In each case there is a common theme  – it is up to the most senior leaders to instill, inspire and expect nothing less than creative leadership at all organizational levels. How is the before-mentioned achieved? We suggest that you read our March article, Retaining Pivotal Talent – Your Company’s DNA, and take the first step toward assessing your Creative Leadership talent pool. In a future A-CHIEVE! publication, we’ll dedicate our feature article to how organizations can cultivate creative leaders.   

Challenge #2: Mobilizing Talent

The CHROs concluded that organizations “…must be willing to simplify processes and provide fast, adaptive workforce solutions to meet the requirements of a quickly changing marketplace. A responsive human capital supply chain and the ability to fluidly allocate resources are essential for competitive differentiation in today’s tumultuous environment.” They further stated that while organizations are somewhat to generally adept at sourcing talent, managing labor costs, evaluating workforce performance, enhancing workforce productivity and retaining valued talent, few organizations are proficient in properly and efficiently allocating their workforce, aka mobilizing talent – a capability deemed critical to high performing organizations. In our world, we consistently see this gap. We would also suggest that if an organization isn’t proficient in properly and efficiently allocating their workforce, they are not positioned to optimize their labor costs, workforce performance, workforce productivity and ‘top talent’ retention, since all of these components are tightly coupled from a systems (cause and effect) perspective.

How does an organization tackle workforce allocation? We suggest implementing a highly effective Demand Intake and Fulfillment Management process that is designed to provide customers with positive business outcomes, results and experiences through predefined and transparent workflows and deliverables that optimize time, cost and resource utilization. We guarantee that those organizations who fail to establish some type of predictable and consistent end-end-end supply chain delivery process have little to no value-add visibility into resource utilization and therefore, cannot properly or efficiently allocate their workforce. It’s simply not possible.   

Challenge #3: Capitalizing on Collective Intelligence

The CHROs concluded that “…application of collective organizational knowledge and experience is essential to building an agile and responsive workforce…yet many organizations lack the structure and resources to facilitate institutional knowledge sharing and collaboration.”

We hold a very different perspective based on our experiences. While we whole-heartedly agree that the gap is real and pervasive, we believe that while a lack of structure and facilitative resources is a contributing factor, the root cause can be traced to leaders and teams lacking the attitude, know-how and skills required to behave in a truly collaborative manner. The cold, harsh truth – if a person isn’t collaborative, he/she will only share knowledge if it benefits the individual vs. the organization. During our Collaboration in Action workshops, we discuss this very topic – why aren’t human beings inherently collaborative? We would suggest that as a species, human beings are wired to be competitive and self-preserving (the survival of the fittest), which doesn’t help. To make matters worse, educational institutions focus on  individual performance starting Day 1, when we take our first step into the classroom. Although team activities and sports are thrown into the mix here and there, we are generally evaluated based on individual vs. team performance. We then enter the workplace and find ourselves in highly competitive environments where individual performance is king, managing upward to appear collaborative is possible, our leaders aren’t setting the right collaborative tone, our organization’s culture is anything but collaborative, and we rarely receive the essential tools required to break our bad, non collaborative habits. The good news – collaborative behaviors can be learned and then instilled and sustained through awareness-building, consistent practice and accountability methods and measures.

Want to take a deeper dive into the “top 3″ trends? Download IBM’s Working Beyond Borders Study.

Check out this article plus more in A-CHIEVE! (May 2011).

In our February professional development newsletter A-CHIEVE! , our feature article addressed The Disengagement Epidemic – a pervasive problem impacting approximately 33%+ (or 25 million) of the U.S. workforce resulting in a $416 billion productivity drain (per Gallup). In fact several of you, our newsletter subscribers, reached out to let us know that YOU’RE part of the 33% — either ‘disengaged’ or ‘actively disengaged’. Overwhelmingly our readership asked us “Why doesn’t leadership ‘get it’ and why aren’t they doing anything about it?” One of our readers, let’s call him ‘Jeff’, agreed to be interviewed so we could better understand how an employee could arrive at a place of being ‘actively disengaged’ — which is where Jeff is at. His story is all too familiar.

Jeff was excited to join XYZ Company. The possibilities seemed endless. He was looking forward to being a part of a highly engaged, agile, innovative, collaborative and customer-centric team where he could certainly contribute toward the bottom line in a meaningful and measurable way. Like most employees, for Jeff, it was about feeling that he was a part of the team, feeling respected and valued and feeling that he was learning and growing as he was advancing organizational goals. At first, all was going well because Jeff was in accelerated learning mode. He was hungry to acquire as much knowledge as he could, develop strong team and internal customer relationships where he could, and deliver quality results when he could. He knew that being perceived as highly responsive, competent, confident, credible and consistent by his manager, peers, co-workers and internal customers, would translate into ‘value-add.’

Then an organization change came down the road. Actually, the change had been in the works previously, however the leadership team had managed to botch several attempts at successfully planning and implementing ‘the change’. We can’t share the exact nature of the change or the particulars around the change in order to protect Jeff’s identity. So what happened next? The short version — the organization’s leadership team focused so exclusively on ‘their ideas’ as to how to proceed with the organizational change, that they totally lost sight of their people. Even worse, the leadership team didn’t engage the staff in the organizational change — the very staff who had the know-how to move the organization forward in an effective, seamless and customer-centric manner — from their Current State to their Desired Future State. The leadership team also (and probably inadvertently) kept the staff ‘in the dark’ plus made false promises to the staff without realizing the gravity of trust erosion — which happens when there is a communication void compounded by the leadership team saying X but doing Y.

Fast forward to today…Jeff is actively disengaged and is about ready to gear up for a full throttle job search. The ‘take note’ part — even though Jeff isn’t actively marketing himself as of yet, he already has several job opportunities in the pipeline (he is actively interviewing) because Jeff has a great reputation, he knows how to genuinely and effectively leverage business relationships and his talents are in high demand — even in this economy. A word of warning to leaders who think that their employees can’t find new jobs — that’s a myth. Successful people can easily open up new opportunity doors because talent will always be in high demand. Back to Jeff’ workplace, his immediate manager has no clue that Jeff is dissatisfied and is looking for other opportunities. The irony — Jeff would tell his manager if his manager would even do the bare minimum as a leader — care about his/her people and simply ask Jeff “What is your commitment level and what can I do to help you strengthen your organizational commitment?” The manager, who Jeff thinks is passively engaged, has wrongfully assumed that all is well (picture the ostrich with its head in the sand). So while Jeff is doing just enough to ‘get by’ (and stay below the radar screen), the same can’t be said about all of Jeff’s team mates.  One person in particular is actively disengaged to a degree where he is just ‘this side’ of sabotaging the organization. The person is intentionally creating much more complexity than needed as a way of ‘getting even.’ And again, the manager is clueless with what’s occurring right under his/her nose because the manager is emotionally not in tune with and is actually disconnected from the employees. The same holds true for the two levels of leadership above the manager. They have no idea what’s really going on in the trenches. 

Now one could assume that this particular leadership team consists of ‘duds’, but the reality is, all three have strong leadership, background and educational credentials — on paper — which just goes to show that even those leaders that appear to be the ‘best and the brightest’ may be missing key capabilities, preventing them from being truly effective leaders who:

What are they missing in spades? At a minimum — their ability to emotionally connect with their people. Could the leadership team, if they wanted to, turn around the situation? For Jeff — probably not. Jeff’s trust in the leadership team’s capabilities has been irreparably damaged. But it’s never too late to start anew. The first step is to heighten your awareness that 33%+ of the workforce is disengaged and, rather than going to a place of denial (that can never happen to my organization or my team), accept the likelihood that your workforce is also being impacted by this widespread epidemic. The second step is to commit to do something constructive about it. The third step is to take action! We’ve offered some ‘getting started’ tips in our Disengagement Epidemic blog and can offer more assistance if desired. The time to stop your high caliber employees from ‘checking out’ (both mentally and physically) and plug the $416 billion productivity drain is now!

How Engaged are You, Your Team and Your Organization?

Did you know that we’re in the midst of a Disengagement Epidemic? According to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ 2010 data, 33% of the workforce is highly disengaged as compared to 20% in 2008 and 10% pre 2008. And they’re not the only ones presenting alarming statistics. Gallup 2010 reports that 33% of employees in world-class organizations are either not engaged or actively disengaged and 67% of employees in average organizations are either not engaged or actively disengaged – which equates to a 1.83:1 ratio of disengaged to engaged employees. Gallup further reports that “more than 25 million people are actively disengaged with their jobs and workplace at a cost to U.S. employers of $416 billion in lost productivity.” But the picture is even worse than that. Gallup 2010 research statistics show that organizations comprised of not engaged or actively disengaged employees additionally experience the following:

What does the epidemic look like at the employee level? According to the Society for Human Resource Management, non engaged employees:

 Actively disengaged employees:

If you’re in a formal leadership role, the question of the day becomes “How do you keep your team members engaged?” The “net/net” answer…you must genuinely create mutually beneficial relationships that embrace sharing, belonging and professional intimacy (aka “human connectedness”) between and among you and your team members where your employees feel that they’re a part of the team, feel that they’re respected and valued, and feel that they’re learning and growing. What does “human connectedness” look like? Your employees: 

But what if you’re not serving in a formal leadership role – what then? If you’re an informal leader, you can increase your and your team’s engagement by strengthening your own “human connectedness” capabilities. Where do you start? We recommend the following, which, by the way, mirror collaborative behaviors:

If you’d like to receive more information regarding how to assess employee engagement, develop “human connectedness” and instill a sustainable collaborative culture that positions you, your team and your organization for success, just let us know!

Check out this article plus more in A-CHIEVE! (February 2011).

Prior to leaving Corporate America to build-out my ‘Achieving Performance Excellence’ consulting practice and partner consortium, I was employed by various organizations in executive leadership roles. While in one such role, I met an individual contributor and value-add team member, who I’ll call ‘Rob’. A few weeks ago I had the honor of reconnecting with Rob, but before I share more about ‘the Rob of today,’ I’d like share a bit about ‘the Rob of the past.’

The first day I joined a former organization and met my staff, I immediately recognized that Rob was a 20-something-year-old, gem-in-the-rough. But he was more than a knowledgeable, skilled and high producing team member. Rob was amazingly conscientious and highly trustworthy ~ characteristics which immediately caught my attention. He also conveyed a genuineness and humbleness about him that, without Rob even realizing it, further enhanced his “likeability factor.” And then there was Rob’s sense of humor, again, another leader-in-the-making attribute.

Rob and I worked together during a time and at a place that, well, let’s say this, our work life was never dull. We lived through organizational expansion, transformation, downsizing and upheaval resulting from 09/11, the dot-com crash, telecommunication provider deregulation/bankruptcy plus more. While the world was churning, we also had to navigate our way through internal, organizational churn, e.g., handling a highly publicized CEO meltdown; turning up then quickly shutting down global offices; replacing previously neglected, broken and obsolete equipment, systems and applications; identifying and exiting non producing partners and employees at first, then somberly laying off high producing employees second ~ those who had become tech sector implosion casualties; operating on a high growth then shoe string budget.

Throughout the physical and emotional roller coaster ride, I could always count on Rob to help the company, his internal customers, his team, and quite frankly me, through thick and thin. I clearly remember walking up to his desk one day, with yet another horror story to share that would translate into yet another project for Rob to add to his already maxed-out queue. Rob had this predictable way of receiving news. As I approached his desk, he would keep his eyes affixed on his paperwork. It wasn’t until I was within inches of Rob’s desk that, with just a slight upward tilt of his head and eyes, he uttered those two oh-so-familiar words “Now what?” But here’s the astonishing part about this twenty-something-year-old. No matter what kind of news I had to share with Rob and no matter what kind of a request I had to make of Rob, he ALWAYS listened intently, asked great questions, applied ‘can do’ thinking and suggested viable options ~ no matter how sticky or uncomfortable the situation was, and some certainly were, especially when employees were being investigated and exited for questionable behavior and/or lackluster results.

Fast forward to several weeks ago when I reconnected with Rob. We’re both a little bit older, a little bit more experienced and hopefully, a little bit wiser. This time, however, the tables were turned. Having much history with plus respect for Rob, who he is and what he stands for, it was my duty, as a seasoned Achiever Leader, to listen intently to Rob, ask great questions, apply ‘can do’ thinking and suggest viable options ~ in the context of helping Rob progress along his Achiever Leader journey. As we all do, Rob has encountered some life and work challenges that are causing him to reassess and to question. While all of that is fairly normal as we’re strapped into life’s never ending roller coaster ride, the down side of the ride can feel daunting and outright overwhelming at times. Again, most of us have been there. Bright shining stars like Rob, however, can become discouraged and make questionable choices, such as continuing to work in organizations that appear not to value the professional growth, development plus fulfillment needs of Achiever Leaders. He is at a pivotal crossroad in his career where he must make a choice ~ seek out a new and challenging opportunity where Rob can thrive while further growing his leadership capabilities plus increasing his contributions, or accept stagnation which is the ‘kiss of death’ for an Achiever Leader. You may be asking yourself, “Why on earth would an Achiever Leader accept stagnation?” One of the many oddities regarding human behavior, is our propensity to accept our situation, even when it’s negative. Marshall Goldsmith, author of Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back If You Lose It, calls this ‘The Acceptance Paradox,’ which he characterizes as the following: 

Per Goldsmith “…our most common, everyday process ~ the thing we do more often than anything else ~ is to continue to do what we’re already doing.” Goldsmith further explains “If you’ve ever come to the end of a TV show and then passively continued watching the next show on the same channel, you know the power of inertia. You only have to press a button on the remote (an expenditure of less than one calorie of energy) to change the channel. Yet many of us cannot do that. Quite often, inertia is so powerful that we can’t even hit the remote to turn the TV off! We continue doing what we’re doing even when we no longer want to do it.”

Back to Rob…because I’m currently at a place of peace in my life, in my work and in my leadership journey continuum, I can put the needs of others before my own, and freely provide guidance and assistance to Rob so he doesn’t have to ‘go it alone’ as he continues his leadership journey. I’m not doing this for a fee. I’m doing this because it’s the right thing to do and because I owe it to Rob, I owe it to the next generation of Achiever Leaders and I owe it to society. Reflecting back on my 20′s and 30′s, I was fortunate that several Achiever Leaders who were 20+ years my senior, carved out their time and energy to provide sage advice to me when I most needed it. For me, the time has come to pay it forward.

My goal in sharing my ‘Rob story’ is to hopefully inspire other successful Baby Boomer Achiever Leaders to reach out to the next generation of Achiever Leaders, quickly assess who might be at a crossroad like Rob is, and freely and openly offer him or her your Achiever Leader guidance plus assistance, aka Adopt an Achiever Leader. As a side note, Rob, being the gracious and caring person (yes, more leadership attributes!) that he is, specifically asked me what he can do to ”thank me” for ‘being there.’ My only request of Rob…when he arrives at a place of peace in his life, in his work and in his leadership journey, that he reaches out to next generation Achiever Leaders and continues to pay it forward. That will be thanks enough!

I always like to start off at a place of common understanding, especially when I use phrases like “intentional reinvention.” By this phrase I mean “to remake or redo by design.” In my business related travels, I have found that certain types of organizations, leaders and individual contributors chart a crisp, clear and realistic path to reinvention about every 2-3 years. No one tells them they need to do it ~ no one asks them to do it ~ they don’t ask permission to do it ~ they just do it! It’s who they are. But why do they do it, after all, reinvention takes work, we only have so many hours in the day, so why would precious time be carved out for reinvention? Back to my favorite type of performer, the Achiever, here is what I’ve observed and experienced when working with these highly influential, highly disciplined, highly accomplished athletes…

Full-fledged Achievers naturally know how to create their Reinvention Plans ~ they know the level of reinvention required (we’re talking about thoughtfully and systematically constructed, planned and sustained reinvention vs. careless, shooting-from-the-hip, disjointed, knee-jerk-reaction, chaotic, flavor-of-the-day reinvention), and they know how to identify and lay out the manageable steps required to reinvent themselves, their teams and their organizations. But…it doesn’t come quite as easy to the Aspiring Achiever. Until they get their legs underneath them, Aspiring Achievers can benefit by engaging an Achiever Coach and Advisor who is heavily experienced in developing and successfully executing Reinvention Plans (aka Transformation Plans) ~ and who has the evidence to back up their claim.

For organizations that don’t want to fall into the complacency trap because they recognize that that’s the beginning of the eventual death spiral, leverage your reinvention-experienced Achievers to help you define and execute your Reinvention or Transformation Plan. Word of caution ~ if your Achievers are already over-tapped and most are (refer to Courageously Protecting Your Personal Boundaries ~ Breaking Through Self-Imposed Barriers), then seek out a trusted third party with the same qualifications as noted above ~ seek out an Achiever Coach and Advisor who is heavily experienced in developing and successfully executing Reinvention/Transformation Plans ~ and who, once again, has the evidence to back up their claim.

Thought Provokers: Can any of us, our teams and our organizations afford to become irrelevant into today’s highly competitive, global market place AND what are you specifically doing to ensure that you, your team and your organization are maintaining their relevancy?

Want to catch up with us? View TechEdge’s Human Connectedness Presentation.pdf presented at NEO IT Think Tank’s 09/22/2010 event (http://www.linkedin.com/in/gwenwalsh) then follow along!

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OK, it’s been 2 weeks since we discussed the 8 compelling business reasons to “up” our Human Connectedness savvy, e.g., helping colleagues:

• Feel part of the team
• Feel respected & valued
• Feel that they’re learning and growing

The question is…how many of us are actually doing the work required to get the results desired?

Between NEO IT Think Tank’s & my statistics, over 180 of us have reviewed the Human Connectedness (HC) slide deck…over 25 of us have downloaded it…so most of us “get” HC’s importance. But be honest & ask yourself…are you taking the right next steps?

I know some are because you’ve reached out to me, we’ve talked, you’ve taken away “homework assignments” & now you’re sharing positive “evidence” with me ~ which tells me that you’re committed! Excellent! One person is applying HC techniques to day-to-day interactions with internal customers as she effectively sets expectations & constructively manages conflicts. Before HC, she would “fight” or “flee” when facing tough discussions, but today’s a different day! Several folks are applying HC techniques to enterprise-wide application & system implementations because they realize sweeping changes cause uncertainty & distress (best case scenarios) & oftentimes lead to destructive behaviors (apathy or passive aggression) plus poor business outcomes, relationships & results when we lose sight of Human Connectedness. These are just a few of several success stories that are already in the works! Keep it up!

Several of you have asked me if the Human Connectedness program can be presented to your organization to raise awareness & gain commitment across a broader audience (beyond just you). That answer is “yes”. It’s available in two flavors — a 2-hour event plus 1-day, in-depth workshop that includes an expanded agenda, more interactive exercises, table-top break-outs, role playing, tips & technique sheets & Action Plans that reinforce HC Key Learnings. You can also host the 2-hour event or workshop & invite your internal customers, business partners and suppliers to participate ~ so you are all on the same HC page & moving forward in the same HC direction. Details are posted to my LinkedIn profile along with additional human behavior & organizational change and transformation items that may be of interest.

Have more HC questions? Let me know! And once again, to those who are pushing themselves to become the “best versions” that they can be ~ stick with it ~ create a future that you can be proud of! Charles Kettering said it best…”My interest is in the future because I’m going to spend the rest of my life there!”

I was attracted to Marshall’s book because I subscribe to the “loving what you do and showing it” philosophy — or Mojo. Life is way too short and human energy is way too precious of a commodity to be spending it on endeavors that produce low to no ”quality of life” return. Another benefit — having Mojo or “being in the zone” is incredibly contagious, especially in my line of work. As a leadership coach and organizational dynamic and human behavior specialist, it’s my mission to encourage clients to reach their greatest potential. Being genuinely enthusiastic and passionate about my mission and my clients’ opportunties and possibilities, is a recipe for success — for them and for me!       

The book is a short and easy read. Goldsmith does a great job of defining what Mojo is and isn’t (Nojo). Next he explores the four key elements required to achieve great Mojo. Throughout he weaves in real-life stories and examples of how colleagues have struggled to find (and then have found) their Mojo. The last few chapters offer practical next steps and take-away tools that can be implemented immediately.

Mojo is also multiple purpose. Currently, as a part of my coaching engagements, I’m recommending Mojo to executive/senior leader clients who are reinventing themselves — to augment our work. Mojo also lends itself to those who are in job seeker/career transition mode. I’ve developed a pro bono adaptation entitled “In the Zone”, that has been positively received by job seeker audiences. (Please see our previous blog post, TechEdge Gives Back, for information about one of these presentations.)  I’ve also integrated select Mojo concepts into TechEdge’s flagship workshop and program, “Collaboration in Action” – which is all about optimizing people potential to achieve extraordinary results.

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