Focus, attention and time are all very scarce resources. We live in a world where change, complexity and an overwhelming amount of choice, information, data and opinion bombard us on a daily basis. It’s so easy to spin out in busyness and confusion, so it’s important to have something to anchor you.
That’s where the power of a theme, focus or “Big Word” comes in.
Where did the year go? How can it be that we’re getting ready to ring in a New Year when it seems like just a few months ago we were ringing in the last one?
The pace of life seems to get faster and faster. Change is truly the only constant. That may be unsettling to some, but facing the unknown and learning how to engage fully in life despite the pace of change is how we grow and step into the next great evolution of ourselves.
Truly, I love the holiday season. Celebrating, relaxing with family and friends, appreciating the year and happily making plans for the New Year. At least that’s the theory.
The reality is that this time of year can be so stressful and frenetic. I’ve been talking to a lot of folks recently and there’s a theme of “Uh oh, the year is almost over and I haven’t done everything I set out to do. Argh, I failed.”
Team engagement. Maximizing team performance. Building leadership capacity within your team.
Organizations, large and small, know how important it is to build the capacity and leadership skills of your team. It is essential to staying competitive, to building lasting and loyal customers, and to retaining and attracting top talent.
One of my greatest joys to be part of the Riverdale Players, a local community musical theatre groups that has performed together over the past 6 years in support of an international children’s charity. This rag-tag band of amateur theatre aficionados brought down the house in this year’s production of “Naughtyham”. Imagine a mash-up of Robin Hood and the Merry Men, meeting up with Monty Python’s Spamalot, with a dash of Saturday Night Fever and some of your favorite children’s fairy tale characters, like Rapunzel or Little Red Riding Hood, sprinkled in, and then you’ll be in the general vicinity of the plot of this year’s theatrical offering!
Client care is supposed to be what happens when a client needs support in resolving a problem, right? It’s not supposed to be an example of irony or sarcasm.
Whether your business had tens of thousands of customers or just ten, the customer care experience speaks volumes about whether you value the client relationship or just the sale. It’s part of your ongoing marketing strategy to keep your clients happy, resolve any areas of dissatisfaction, and hopefully even turn your customers into happy ambassadors for your products and services.
Gratitude is defined as “the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.” The practice of gratitude is something that is so helpful in getting in touch with the present moment. Taking stock and appreciating what is working is a quick way to step out the mental swirl of future catastrophizing or mourning the “good old days” when life was simpler.
But why should a busy leader want to add a gratitude practice to their already long list of responsibilities and challenges? Aren’t they already so busy just getting the work done and keeping the team motivated that we shouldn’t put one more expectation on them?
Have you ever been in a meeting where important issues were supposed to be discussed and decided, but you left the discussion with more questions and confusion than you had when you walked in? Or perhaps you’ve sat through meetings or retreats where a few outspoken people dominated the conversation to the point where you just gave up trying to have any input?
The pace of change is accelerating every day. The new norm for organizations, both private and public sector, is to be able to expect and adapt proactively and resiliently to that change.
Have you ever been to a meeting where you were so bored your greatest creative stretch was figuring out how to yawn without someone noticing? Perhaps you found yourself the victim of “death by PowerPoint” at a large event, where one speaker after the other barraged you with information and after the first 2 or 3 you started to tune it all ou
For many of us, the ability to lead others them to take action, even into places that are unknown or outside their traditional comfort zone, isn’t a talent that many of us are born with – but that doesn’t mean those skills of persuasion and vision can’t be learned.
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