Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Design The Environment to Support You in Your Game

Think of an environment that completely supports the achievement of your goals, like say, a gym. Most of us join a gym to firm up or lose weight, and have access to equipment or classes. From the moment you enter that environment, everything is designed to support you in those goals.

We walk in and are greeted by healthy, fit and friendly front desk folks. Upbeat music plays in the background. On the way to the weight machines, we notice through the glass window a spin class furiously burning calories. In the next window, we see Pilates equipment being put to good use. We are inspired by flat abs and chiseled biceps to get going so that we, too, might look so good.

This environment carries us along to our fitness goals, and within a few weeks of joining, sure enough, we are stronger, slimmer, and pleased about our progress.

Winning any game is easier when the environment supports us. If there are goals and initiatives that you have been striving toward for some time, take a look at the environment you have designed for yourself (even if you put no thought into it, it's still your design) and see whether that environment might be tweaked to make it easier to win the game you are up to.

Here are a couple of examples: You want to get a book written (or an article published) but never seem to get around to writing. Research shows that by pre-planning where and when you will do the writing, you are more likely to follow through and create a habit of writing at that time. Perhaps you get distracted by the ringing phone or the ding of your computer as new email arrives. By designing the environment to support distraction-free writing time, you are ahead of the game. Turn off the ringer on your phone, and silence the email notification on your computer. Whatever helps you get in the writing zone becomes part of the solution to playing the writing game well.

Let's say you want to get better at public presentations. There are a lot of ways to approach the realization of this goal. Here are some questions to help you identify an environment that will pull you along:

  • ask "Who do I need to become in order to accomplish this?" Maybe you need to become a person who prioritizes and plans better, or a person who calls upon their courage to try new things
  • ask "What will support me best in learning this skill?" Do you want a mentor? A class? To join an organization like Toastmasters?
  • ask "How do I want to build this into my weekly routine?" How much time are you willing to spend, and when and where?
  • ask "How will I know I have achieved my goal?" Will you measure success in terms of your comfort in presentations? By feedback from those on the receiving end? By how much you enjoy making presentations? What are the qualifiers that let you know you have succeeded?
It's easier to win any game when the environment supports us. Rather than beating ourselves up or feeling chided when we aren't getting the results we want, let us look at how we can tweak the environment to make it easier to win.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Playing to Win

For the last four weeks, I've been immersed in a course that is all about having the games we play in life be winnable. There have been a number of shifts in perspective throughout this process--and the first one is the idea that we can turn any aspect of our lives into a game that's fun to play and winnable. After all, each of gets to be the architect of our own life. We may as well design it to bring the outcomes we want.

What constitutes a "winnable game?" Here are a few ideas:
  • A winnable game challenges me to bring my best strengths and skills into play and stretch a little. Maybe even a lot.
  • A winnable game has clearly defined objectives and a way to keep score. Although it's challenging, I have skills that I can use to play a good game.
  • A winnable game has a beginning and end, which gives me excitement during play and a chance to rest and look at how I can improve between games. Too many of us set up unwinnable games that drag on for years.
  • A winnable game involves other players with great skill and love for the game who are fun to play with and inspire me.
There are forty coaches playing the game in this 6-week course. Today, I'm at the top of the scoreboard, but that changes hourly as people update their online scorecards. We are having fun, accomplishing big things, little things and learning a ton about ourselves, each other and human nature.

Stay tuned for more on how to lose the task list and turn your actions into a game worth playing.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Rewarding Key Employees When Cash is Tight

Finding ways to keep high-potential employees feeling good about your organization with a limited or non-existent budget for cash bonuses and incentives is a challenge many leaders are grappling with. In a recent study released by McKinsey, three ideas emerged as non-financial ways to help talented employees maintain enthusiasm for their position and feel valued and appreciated. They were:
  1. Praise from their supervisor. Genuine acknowledgment of a job well done is always a boost to those who are striving to do their best. This costs nothing and only requires a few minutes to deliver. The payoff in terms of employee satisfaction and retention is huge.
  2. Assignment to a task force or special project lead. This sends the message that your employee is valued for his or her abilities and creative problem solving. It gives them the opportunity to gain valuable experience and visibility, which can pay dividends in the longer term when money is not so tight.
  3. Time spent with senior leadership. When valued employees are sought out for their ideas and opinions by the senior leaders in a organization, they feel seen, heard, appreciated. This can be as simple as saying, "Leslie, I'd like to hear your ideas on how we might approach a new project in the works."
People do their best work when they are inspired. Part of what inspires us is feeling seen and heard, along with the invitation to use our creative problem-solving skills and feel like our ideas land in fertile soil and a welcoming environment. In any economy, people are our most valuable asset, and deserve to be treated that way. The potential return on investment makes the effort a no brainer.

Monday, May 3, 2010

Are You Having a Grand Adventure?

Conversations with clients, colleagues and friends lately have led me to an interesting conclusion about how each of us experiments with just the right ingredients for a satisfying life and career, relative to risk and adventure. Here is an analogy: have you ever been reading a book and it was so predictable it became boring and you set it aside, never to be picked up again? That same book might have just the right measure of description, action and adventure for someone else, but it wasn't stimulating enough for you. Life is like that too.

We think we want stability, guarantees, predictable outcomes for our businesses and careers, especially in light of the last eighteen months or so of financial uncertainty. But do we really? Isn't the uncertainty what makes life interesting? If we were guaranteed the outcome, there would be no surprises, and thus no adventure. Wasn't there a Twilight Zone with this same theme?

I'm noticing that the very uncertainty we have about the success or failure of any initiative is what gives it zest and excitement. Perhaps we might reframe that sense of uncertainty. Maybe we could look at it as the excitement of not knowing the end of the chapter. When we are engaged in a good book, part of the thrill is eagerly anticipating what might happen next. What if we saw our own lives in the same way? We don't know what will happen next, yet we are willing to take some action to bring about the results we want. We are willing, like the characters we love, to rise above our past and call upon our courage to go a little farther out on the edge than we have before.

If you were a character in a book, would you be interesting? Would you garner admiration for acting on your convictions? Would your choices be interesting or dull? We get an opportunity for a blank page every single day. What are you going to put on yours today?

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Join Me in The Fifty Minute Experiment

Enthusiasm for my business is up, ideas are flowing faster than ever and I have so much energy I can hardly sleep at night, all due to an experiment I'm currently running. I hope you will join me for a week at least, then report your findings back to see whether this idea has legs.

Here's the experiment: I've begun arranging my work day around 50-minute hours, rather than 60, so that the last ten minutes of each hour are devoted to getting in more physical activity. I walk every day, three miles first thing in the morning. It feels great, gets my day off to a good start, but that level of activity is not enough to keep the "muffin top" effect away. Plus, I noticed a lethargy creeping in mid afternoon, after two. Since I had a fairly full schedule already, there was motivation to get creative with my time.

I remembered that, early in my coaching practice I shared office space with 19 therapists, and their sessions were fifty minutes, which allowed a bathroom break, refreshments, stretching or notes before the next client session. I've kept that practice with my clients, even though we haven't been in the same building for several years now. However, I don't have client sessions eight hours a day every day, and for the most part was working straight through non-client hours on my computer, as most of us do. As a result, my neck and shoulders were stiff, and my energy was down.

Two weeks ago, I started The Fifty Minute Experiment. Here's how it works for me, and I invite you to tweak it any way you want to: at ten minutes before the top of the hour, I get up and get a half-glass of water, stretch and on alternate days work either my abs or arms. On arm days, I use free weights and do sets of 10 bicep curls, etc. in addition to some stretching. On ab days, I do Pilates or situps or boxing moves to work the oblique muscles. Once 3 sets of those exercises are complete, I might use the next session to take a walk around the pond across the street, which takes nine minutes. If you work at home, you might use that ten minutes to vacuum a room or tidy up in some way that is physical. If you are in an office, you could take a short walk, or find an empty conference room to stretch and/or exercise.

I believe we must become creative in the way we structure our days, time and activity because so much of what we do is now done sitting in front of a computer. We were not designed to sit all day. I have been amazed at how this one small change has energized me and made the working day so much more fun. Not only that, but I have access more often to clearer thinking and fresh ideas, which benefits me and my clients. Give it a try and let me know how it works for you.

Monday, April 12, 2010

The Art of Acknowledgment

In the last post, the subject was updating our self image as we grow and become more knowledgeable, capable, expansive in our abilities and awareness. For emerging leaders, this is an essential skill to develop in yourself and those you lead. To help make a habit of acknowledging yourself and others, begin to look for accomplishments to celebrate daily. They don't have to be monumental to be worthy of acknowledgment. For example, you see a team member going out of her way to be inclusive and mentoring a new hire. Let her know how much you appreciate her taking the initiative on this and point out that she is exhibiting a leadership skill that is valuable.

Then, mentally acknowledge yourself for noticing. The most effective leaders inspire us to be the best we can. By modeling strong leadership to your team leaders and giving them positive feedback at every opportunity, you begin to create an environment where people thrive, where they look for what their peers are doing well and they are confident enough in their own place, they can be generous with praise. This creates a ripple effect that creates a strengths-focused culture, which is self perpetuating.

When we are encouraged and acknowledged for our efforts, we are willing to take bigger risks and be more creative. That is the zone where our best work is done.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Is it Time to Update Your Self Image?

Quarterly Review

As an executive/business coach, I participate in a peer-coaching program that runs quarter to quarter, and as we approach the end of first quarter, 2010, I had the opportunity to review with my coach the progress we’ve made this past quarter. I was surprised at how much clarity was gained, how many step-by-step plans were laid out and how many actions were taken toward completing those plans in such a short period.

As we celebrated the realized goals and progress toward other objectives, it occurred to me that this was a powerful exercise in keeping my self image up to date. You see, I don’t always have a quarterly review with my coach because we often keep renewing our agreement quarter to quarter. This time, my coach was taking a break to complete a radio project and I’ll be starting with a new coach, so we set aside an hour to review and celebrate our accomplishments.

Pause for Reflection

Most of us are constantly on the move, crossing off the next line item on our perpetual to-do lists. It can be (and was) so valuable to pause and look at how much we have learned and grown over a three-month period. I invite you to take a look at your accomplishments over the quarter, looking for evidence of:

  • Clarity gained – where are you clearer on what your objectives are and what you stand for? There are likely areas that have become much more in focus for you than before. Take a moment to acknowledge those.
  • Acceptance – what or who might you have made peace with over the last few months. Is there an aspect of someone or something that used to torture you that you have come to appreciate and accept?
  • Roadmap – What plans have you laid out for yourself that will facilitate something important to your life, your work or relationships? Creating a step-by-step plan takes time but pays off exponentially in supporting your long-term goals.
  • Action Taken – What steps have you completed toward some of your closely held intentions? Be sure to acknowledge all the progress you make, not just the arrival, or the end result. It takes courage and discipline to keep moving steadily toward a goal. You deserve some kudos for that.
  • Learning – We learn every day. Imagine how much you have expanded your skills and awareness in the last three months. What classes have you taken or software have you learned more about? What subjects are you more informed about now?

In short, you have expanded and grown as a person this quarter. You are not the same person you were when the year began—you are more polished, aware and prepared that you were before. Allow that to sink into the image you hold of yourself, and remember to pause for this kind of acknowledgement at least quarterly. We’ll talk next time about how to course correct and mine the learning, but for now bask in appreciation for what you have become and accomplished.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

True Currency and How We Control It

Working with clients and with my own stewardship of resources over the last economically challenging year, I've seen so much attention being focused on money issues and frustration that I wanted to share an "aha!" awareness that came forward for me recently.

Thought is the real currency of life. Directed, deliberate thought is the stuff from which everything flows. We act as if it all comes from the dollars in our bank accounts, and later down the creation pipeline, it does show up there. But that isn't where it began. All abundance we consider to be good, whether money, love, health, friends--all of it began with thought. Stay with me, I know this will be as good a reminder to some of you as it was to me.

There are days when we feel great: smart, capable and believing that life is good. From that place, we agree to do something that is a bit of a stretch for us. As the day to deliver on that promise comes closer, let's say we are in a bit of a funk emotionally and we cannot imagine what persuaded us to make such a commitment. We literally don't have access to the perspective that gave birth to that idea. What?

I'll say it again: in every moment, we have a certain perspective on life, ourselves, our world. When we feel good and are thinking uplifting thoughts, like "life is good," and "I am capable and intelligent," we have access to a point of view that vanishes when we are plugged into less positive thoughts like, "Life sucks!" or "I'm a loser."

Every time we consciously direct our thoughts to looking for the best in ourselves, others and the world, we are in a creative mode, generating positive energy that eventually becomes and idea we act on and somewhere down the line generates the cash that lands in our bank account. But it all began with a single, deliberate thought.